How to send big files via email?

Question

Gmail maximum attchment size is 25MB, how to send files bigger than that?

Answer 1

Upload it to a website like Dropbox or drop.io (suggested by Henri Watson) in a public folder and send them a link.

If you choose Dropbox and it's important that it's kept confidential have them sign-up and put it in a shared folder, or encrypt it with 7-Zip.

With drop.io you can just set a password.

Answer 2

since you have an google account already, there is no need to add another hoster for your data: upload the file to docs.google.com as described here and share it.

Answer 3

I've experienced this problem very many times. Thankfully, there are a few good solutions. They all involve using file-sharing services.

_{Some of the ones I'm about to list have already been mentioned, but I want to compare them in detail.}

• drop.io - very easy to set up (a Flash uploader); up to 100MB; easy to share; lots of privacy controls (passwords, permissions); you can control when your Drop expires; paid plans available
• YouSendIt - upload via the website; up to 100MB; not a lot of control in the free plan; paid plans available
• Dropbox - somewhat hard to set up (you have to install it once; afterwards, you can just upload via their site); up to 2GB; very private (to view, you have to give someone a username and password)

Personally, I prefer drop.io for quick and easy sharing of files < 100mb.

Answer 4

7-Zip also has the ability to save an archive into multiple chunks, and you can specify the size of the chunks.

Answer 5

You can try Ipswitch Sendable. There's a free trial that allows you to send up to 250 MB, and paid services with limits of 5GB and 15GB per file / month.

Answer 6

You can send files up to 2GB at Sprend and it'll also send an email-address notifying where to download the file.

Answer 7

Upload the file to Rapidshare and send the link (generated by Rapidshare) to the recipient.

Answer 8

I like DropSend.

Answer 9

Lots of players in this space but http://wetransfer.com offers 2GB of space in exchange for your email address.

Its currently flash based only.

Answer 10

JustAttach was what we went with. We could install it on our own servers. Uses Java for reliable uploads, easy to include links in email. There is also a product called Repliweb.

Answer 11

If you're on a mac I really like CloudApp. Drag the file to the menu bar icon and the URL is automatically copied to your clipboard. Paste it in the email and send.

http://www.getcloudapp.com/

Answer 12

Sendbigfiles.com Simple and Free!

Answer 13

You can split the file using tools like GSplit. But, we still have the pain of uploading. To avoid that trouble, the only way is to host your local PC as a server using tools like HFS. (Google it. I am a new user and unable to add more than a link in a post. Sigh).

Anyway, running server requires some level of configuration and your Internet connection must be quite good to yield proper transfer rate.

Answer 14

Another favorite option is File Apartment at http://www.fileapartment.com. Easy to use, fast, no software to download or registration, up to 1 GB, free option, safe, and secure.

Answer 15

I use http://www.filesharehq.com - free account for sending and storing 500MB and I can use ftp to load files.

Answer 16

"Microsoft is also leveraging SkyDrive to make it easier to share photos. Users frequently encounter problems with attachment limits either on the sending or receiving side, Mehta said.

Microsoft is skirting around that problem by automatically creating a SkyDrive folder with photos as someone sends an e-mail with photo attachments. Rather than attaching multimegabyte photos with the message, Hotmail will instead send a thumbnail of the photos while the full-size photos are sent to SkyDrive"

Microsoft Rolls out Hotmail Enhancements --> www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/196490/microsoft_rolls_out_hotmail_enhancements.html

"Send virtually all the photos you want to without having to worry about attachment limits or clogged inboxes, either at your end or on the recipient's end. Hotmail works with Windows Live SkyDrive, your free online storage space from Windows Live, so you can send up to 200 photos of up to 50 MB each (10 GB total) in a single message. It's as easy as sending regular attachments, but we give you the option of uploading them to SkyDrive. This means the people you're sending photos to get an email containing a preview of the photos, along with links to launch a slide show or download the photos to their hard drives — all in a single .zip file instead of painstakingly downloading them individually. Or they can even import them straight into Windows Live Photo Gallery. Sharing lots of large photo attachments has never been more easy or painless."

What's new in Hotmail

Answer 17

There's a few services out there that let you upload a file, and then give you credentials that you can send to people, and then they delete the file after a couple of days.

I used to know most of the players in the space, but it's been too many years -- the only one that I can remember is the one that the company I worked for did (WhaleMail, now owned by Semantic, it looks like)

I have no idea what the current terms / limits / etc are.

Answer 18

Try wuala.com. You can share 1G+- off the bat and if you share space in your system 24/7 you can get a proportional amount of space on their cloud for free up to 100G !

Answer 19

Winrar also has the ability to save an archive into multiple chunks, and you can specify the size of the chunks.

Answer 20

I prefer YouSendIt.

Answer 21

Don't do it.

It is:

• Inefficient (MIME encoding bloats the files like 30%)
• Insecure
• Likely to cause problems for people (ie. you're going to hose your friend's work account who is on Exchange 2003 with a 200MB mailbox that's almost full).

There's just no good reason for file attachments larger than 25MB.