Single-use download links Pro

A single-use link works for one download, then stops. It is for handing one document to one person — a contract, a report, a file you would rather not have forwarded around an organisation.

Creating one

Open the document, and in the FileDeck box on the right choose Create a single-use link.

The link is shown once. Copy it before you leave the screen — reopening the document will not show it again, because leaving a live one-shot link sitting on an edit screen defeats the point.

You can create as many as you like. Each is independent: issuing a second link does not affect the first.

How it behaves

• One download. The second attempt returns "this download link has already been used".
• No account needed. The link carries its own authorization, so the recipient does not need to log in.
• It expires anyway. If nobody uses it, it stops working after 7 days.
• It cannot be downgraded. The one-shot token is part of what the link is signed with, so stripping it from the URL breaks the link rather than turning it into an unlimited one.

When the use is actually spent

The download has to succeed. If the request is turned away first — by IP rules, a download quota, or the refusal of automated clients on a metered document — the link is not spent and the recipient can still use it.

Two simultaneous clicks cannot both win: the claim is atomic, so one download proceeds and the other is refused.

Single-use links vs transmittals

Both send a document to a named person.

• A single-use link is a URL you copy and send yourself, good for one download.
• A transmittal emails the recipient, keeps a numbered register of what was sent to whom and when, and its links last longer by design because the register is the point.

Use a single-use link for a quick one-off. Use a transmittal when you need the record.