Share files and folders to external users through email

You can share files and folders with external users, outside your team, through email and assign the appropriate access to collaborate securely. With flexible permission levels, private messages, and expiration settings, your files and folders are shared only with the intended recipients.

Share a file or folder through email to external users

Select the file or folder you want to share.
Click Share from the top action bar.The Share dialog box opens.
Alternatively, right-click the file or folder and select Share > Add Members.
Enter the email addresses you want to share the file or folder with.
From the Access level dropdown, assign the role you want them to have.
When you assign a role, all members added at once will receive the same access. If you want to assign different roles, add members separately and assign roles accordingly.

After adding members, click Add a private message to include a short note or instruction along with the share notification.
Enable Set Expiration if you want to limit access to a specific period, and choose the expiration date and time.
Click Share. Added members can access the shared files and folders through received mail, or in their Shared with me section if they are WorkDrive users.

When you share a file by entering the email address of a non-Zoho user, they can view the file. However, non-Zoho users can edit native Zoho files such as Writer, Sheet, and Show.

Manage shared access

Select the file or folder and click Share from the top action bar. All members and groups the file or folder is shared with are listed in the Share dialog box.
Click the Access dropdown next to a member’s name.
From here, you can update permissions, remove access, or change the expiration date at any time.

Access permissions for files

Share - Collaborators can share, edit, and add comments to the file (Not supported for external users, only WorkDrive team users can share a file)
Edit - Collaborators can edit and add comments to the file.
View and comment - Collaborators can view and add comments to the file, but not edit them.
Edit field values (Only for Zoho Writer files) - Collaborators can read the file and fill the fields assigned to them.
View - Collaborators can only view the shared file.

Access permissions for folders

Organize - Collaborators can create, edit, organize, and share files inside the folder and add comments to them. (Not supported for external users, only WorkDrive team users can organize a folder)
Edit - Collaborators can create and edit files inside the folder and add comments to them.
View and comment - Collaborators can view and add comments to the file, but not edit them.
View - Collaborators can view files inside the folder and add comments to them.

Limitations

How sharing works for different external users

WorkDrive users

When you share with external users who have a WorkDrive account, they must sign in to their WorkDrive account to access any shared files and folders in their Shared with Me section.

Zoho users without WorkDrive account

When you share with external users who have a Zoho account but don't have a WorkDrive account, they must sign in to their Zoho account to access any shared files and folders.

Non-Zoho users

When you share with external users who don't have a Zoho account, they can only access the shared files and folders after verifying their email address via OTP authentication. This ensures secured access for any external users.

They can access the shared files or folders from the access link sent to their email, but cannot access them using permalink.

Limitations for external users

Actions	WorkDrive users	Zoho users without WorkDrive account	Non-Zoho users
Create office suite files (Writer, Sheet, Show)	Yes	No	No
Edit office suite files	Yes	Yes	Yes
Open non-native documents, spreadsheets, and presentations with Writer, Sheet, and Show respectively	Yes	No	No
Add comments inside office suite files	Yes	Yes	Yes
@mention external users inside office suite files	Yes	No	No

Share Limitations to external users

With a paid WorkDrive plan, each team member can share directly to a maximum of 500 unique email addresses.
During the trial period, each team member can share directly to a maximum of 50 unique email addresses.
WorkDrive individual (free) edition users can share directly to a maximum of 50 unique email addresses.