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View-only documents

Let visitors read a document in the browser while the download button, zips and the raw file URL are disabled. Honest deterrence — pairs with watermarking. AI tier.

Some documents should be read, not kept: a draft policy under consultation, a tender document, an embargoed report. Mark a document view-only and visitors read it in their browser — while downloading is switched off.

FileDeck AI tier — included in all AI plans. See pricing

Make a document view-only

  1. Edit the document (Documents → All Documents).
  2. In the Document file box, tick View-only (disable downloading).
  3. Update.

What changes:

  • The library button reads View and opens the document in a new browser tab.
  • The download route refuses with a clear message, and the document is left out of zip downloads.
  • The file moves into FileDeck’s deny-all protected vault, so its raw uploads URL stops working — otherwise "disabled" would be one guessed URL away.
  • The preview lightbox keeps working — it streams through the same access-checked route.

Access rules still apply on top: a view-only document in a role-restricted category is only viewable by those roles.

What still downloads (by design)

Signed share links you mint from the editor still download the file — a link you created deliberately carries its own authorisation and expiry, consistent with how signed links behave everywhere else in FileDeck.

Honest framing: deterrence, not DRM

A browser that can display a file has received its bytes; a determined visitor can still save them, and no plugin can truthfully promise otherwise. View-only removes the easy path — and paired with PDF watermarking, the copy on their screen already carries their name, so anything that leaks is attributable. If a document must not reach someone at all, that’s a job for access control, not view-only.

Notes

  • Works for any file type the browser can display; it’s most useful for PDFs and images. Types the browser can’t render will still end up saved by the browser — view-only is best combined with PDF-shaped content.
  • Views through the view route are recorded in the activity log as view events.
  • Lead capture, when enabled, applies to viewing too — flagging a document view-only never switches off the "leave your details" gate.

Related guides

Still stuck? Email [email protected].