We have just rolled out a new version of our download links: pCloud Premium and Premium Plus users will now be able to add expiration dates and/or password protection to the content they share publicly. Currently, these new functionalities are available through our web version only.

There has been demand for this functionality, and as usual we deliver all the features that you need. This is what we do – make awesome cloud storage and listen to our clients.

But I got sidetracked: download links, passwords, expiration dates, here’s what’s new.

Protect the content of your public download links with passwords

Sometimes you want to share something with just someone, not the entire world. The best way to do that is to protect it with a password, and share this password with the file recipient. You can share the password via text message, IM, whisper it over the phone or send a courier pigeon – you know, whichever way you see fit (keep security in mind, though).

Here’s how to set a password:

  1. Go to my.pcloud.com
  2. Locate the file or folder you wish to share
  3. Click on “Share” >> “Share Download Link”
  4. Click on the “Settings” tab in the pop-up window that appears
  5. Check the box next to “Password”
  6. Enter the password and hit “Save”

Your link is now ready for (cautious) sharing.

 

A few things to keep in mind about the passwords that you set: they need to be at least 6 characters long, 4 of these characters must be different, and the password can’t contain consecutive characters. In other words, passwords like “123456” or “88888” won’t do the trick.

Things suitable for sharing with password-protected links:

  • The plan for your friend’s surprise birthday party
  • The first three chapters of the novel you’ve been writing for the past 10 years
  • Naughty pictures for your girlfriend/boyfriend.

Even good things come to an end: Set expiration dates for your public links

The other new feature that our download links support is the expiration date. Set a day and time when you want a certain link to expire, and that’s that – the link will no longer be publicly available any more (the files will still be in your account, in case you were wondering).

To set an expiration date, follow these steps:

  1. Go to my.pcloud.com
  2. Locate the file or folder you wish to share
  3. Click on “Share” >> “Share Download Link”
  4. Click on the “Settings” tab in the pop-up window that appears
  5. Check the box next to “Expiration date”
  6. Set the date and time, and hit “Save”

 

List of things you can share with expiration date:

  • Homework assignments if you’re a professor (a bit evil to the students but hey)
  • Homework assignments if you’re a student trying to cheat a little and buy more time (“Sorry, Professor, I had it submitted on time but must have set the expiration wrong”)
  • Digital goods that can only be purchased for a limited time.

Detailed statistics for your download links are now available

To top all this up, we added one more functionality to our download links: detailed statistics. You can either check the stats for a particular link, or see what are your most popular download links.

For an individual link:

  1. Go to my.pcloud.com and find that file/folder
  2. Click on “Share” >> “Share Download Link”
  3. Click on the “Stats” tab in the pop-up window

For even more detailed statistics:

  1. Go to my.pcloud.com
  2. Click on “Download links” in the menu on the left
  3. Click on “Statistics”

If you don’t see the “Download links” item on the left-side menu, click on the little gear button next to your email address in the upper right corner of the page, then go to “Settings” >> “Download Links” and tick the checkbox to enable advanced download links.

 

Want to take advantage of these awesome features but you’re a Free plan user? Upgrade now:

Get pCloud Premium