Request that someone sends a file to me
I (and my users) often need to request large files from a contact outside my organization, but Office 365 and OneDrive do not provide this functionality in a simple way. Microsoft support tells me to “either create a shared Sharepoint site or ask the other party to upload files to their own OneDrive and share the file”. Both of these “solutions” require the other party to have a Microsoft ID and force me into the awkward position of being a Microsoft evangelist (as I tell them how to get a Microsoft ID, upload the file, and then share it with me).
It would be so much better if I could request files with a true “drop box” link; a reverse-sharing link that allows outsiders to drop files into my OneDrive storage similar to the key drop box at vehicle repair shops. I believe this would require Write-Only permissions for an external user.
For example, an auto insurance agent needs pictures of an accident from a customer using a secure method. They can email a ‘file request link’ to the customer, who can easily upload files to a folder in the insurance companies OneDrive storage.
I apologize in advance if posting a link to competitor’s functionality is considered bad etiquette, but I have experience with other file sharing services who have provided this functionality for a while. This video by ShareFile explains the functionality in better detail: http://support.citrixonline.com/ShareFile/help_files/SF040027
Thank you!
Abiel
shared this idea
We are rolling out Request Files to OneDrive for Business this month (November 2019). Anyone with the file request link will be able to upload files without having to sign in, no OneDrive account required. Best of all, uploaders will only be able to upload files. They can’t view, edit, or even see who else may have uploaded to the request.
There are multiple use cases where this feature can be extremely valuable – consider “Request for Proposal” (RFP) scenario where you need to collect bids from others, or a marketing professional accumulating quotes from various vendors for a campaign, a teacher collecting assignments , a manager reaching out for feedback from his team members or a financial rep or recruiter gathering documents from their clients- just to name a few.
166 comments
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Anonymous
commented
BIG need for this feature.
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Bruce Herman
commented
Regarding patent, AnyTask has this feature also. Unfortunate that MS has been SO slow to adapt to cloud computing. More missed opportunities.
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Kyle Hannan
commented
Seriously? No 'file request' feature? How can OneDrive put itself out there as a competitive service without this? Dropbox? Check. Box? Check. Google Drive? Check. OneDrive? Hello? OneDrive?
How can this NOT be part of your service?
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Anonymous
commented
What ? This feature does not exist with OneDrive ?
I dont believe you guys !
Common MS. This is file sharing 101 ! -
Anonymous
commented
NEEDED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Laura
commented
As a teacher, this would be a huge lifesaver! My students could just click the Hand-In link in our Class OneNote, and I know all of their assignments are going into one place that I can access from anywhere. Having them just add their assignments to their OneNote sections has been a nightmare (plus it does not work if I need specific file tpyes). Thank you.
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Laura
commented
As a teacher using Office 365, this would be a LIFE SAVER. Having my students upload their assignments to OneNote only works if they all hand it in on time (if they hand it in late, I need to be manually checking their sections since there is no notification). I have used Dropbox's File Requests in the past, and it works very well, but I have far more space in Office 365 than DB. Would love to see this feature added. Thank you.
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Davy
commented
When is this gonna happen?
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Christian B.
commented
Please, please, please do this! ShareFile does this. Dropbox does this. Microsoft needs to do this.
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Katrina Currie
commented
Any update on this feature? We really need it!
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Zach
commented
I am an extensive OneDrive user. Unfortunately, it has not been able to keep up with my demand. As a result, before giving up on it, I reset everything and turned on Files On-Demand. Other than the fact that it has been processing this request now for over 24 hours, my very serious issue is that the files which I selected to "Always keep on this device" still aren't there. Can you please modify your algorithm to push these files to the top of the queue? As a distant second request, if it's going to take multiple days to synchronize a few GB, can you give a more detailed status? When I check, all I see is a random number of changes being processed. Thank you
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E Cobb
commented
Please ensure that this file upload is encrypted!
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Conrad
commented
We are using FileRequestPro.com to receive files from customers in our OneDrive folder. We create a file request links, no need for our customers to create an account in OneDrive.
Very similar to how dropbox works.
Would be great to have this bundle into OneDrive
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Conrad
commented
This feature is needed on OneDrive. Currently, we are using filerequestpro.com which integrate with OneDrive but would be great to have this feature in One Drive by default.
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Jeff Goddard
commented
Rohde, I'm curious why companies like sharefile seem to be able to do this. Maybe they are paying for the right to use the dropbox patent?
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Anonymous
commented
This would be really useful but please allow admins control over which users are able to do this. Please don’t just make it a domain wide on/off. Control it through groups. At least have the option to.
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Gilles
commented
This feature sometimes called "File Deposit Link" is very usefull.
They are disposable links, which expires in a short time.
We intend to buy NetExplorer to do this.
We cannot manage shared folder for thousands of clients with in each different departments.
Each department is related to a different departement in our organization.
It will be a full time job to manage users access rights. -
Alejandro Morcate
commented
I would like to join the call for this feature. It fragments the user experience, not to mention the compliance headache that exists when people resort to personal accounts for this. Our company uses sharefile only for this purpose, having plenty of cloud storage already available in OneDrive for Business.
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Anonymous
commented
@Eugene Lin - any timeline?
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Jason Jentzsch
commented
Dropbox has had this function for a longtime and used to use it all the time. Hope that this can be added to OneDrive.
