How File Sharing Works in KeepCloud

Sharing a file from Google Drive and sharing a file from Dropbox are two completely different experiences — different share dialogs, different link formats, different permission settings, different preview behaviors. KeepCloud unifies all of this into a single, consistent sharing experience, regardless of which cloud holds the original file.

Creating a share link

To share a file in KeepCloud, you select the file from your unified file browser and choose "Share". KeepCloud generates a unique, opaque share token — a short, random string that maps to your file but reveals nothing about its location, provider, or internal identifiers. The resulting share URL is clean, short, and provider-agnostic.

Two types of share links are available:

Public links work for anyone who has the URL. The recipient clicks the link and immediately sees the file preview or is prompted to download. No account, no sign-in, no friction.

Password-protected links present a password gate before the preview is shown. You set the password when creating the link. The recipient must enter it correctly to see the file. KeepCloud stores only a secure hash of the password — never the plaintext — so even if KeepCloud's data were ever accessed by an unauthorized party, your share passwords would be unreadable.

What recipients see

When someone opens a KeepCloud share link, they see a clean, branded preview page — not a raw download prompt. The preview automatically adapts to the file type:

Images (JPG, PNG, WEBP, GIF, and others) render directly in the browser as a full-size photo viewer.

Videos (MP4, MOV, and common formats) play inline with the browser's native video player — no plugin required.

Audio files (MP3, WAV, FLAC, and others) play through an embedded audio player.

PDFs open in an embedded PDF viewer directly in the share page.

Documents, spreadsheets, and presentations display a download prompt with file details (name, size, type), making it clear what the recipient is about to download before they click.

"A share link from KeepCloud looks the same whether the file is from Google Drive, OneDrive, or Dropbox. The recipient never knows — or needs to know — which cloud holds the original."

The proxy layer

One of the more interesting technical decisions behind KeepCloud's sharing is that shared files are never served directly from the original provider's URL. All file content is routed through KeepCloud's secure proxy layer.

This solves a real problem: direct links to files on Google Drive, OneDrive, and Dropbox often embed authentication tokens that expire, region-specific CDN endpoints that may not be accessible to all recipients, and provider-specific behaviors that differ across browsers. By routing through a proxy, KeepCloud ensures a consistent, reliable preview and download experience for every recipient on every device.

The proxy validates the share token on every request. If the link is password-protected, the proxy also checks that the session holds a valid unlock credential before serving any content. Expired tokens and invalid passwords are rejected immediately.

What happens to the original file

Nothing. Creating a share link in KeepCloud does not modify the original file in any way. It does not change its permissions in Google Drive, OneDrive, or Dropbox. It does not move, copy, or duplicate the file on KeepCloud's servers. The file stays exactly where it is in your cloud storage. The share link is purely a KeepCloud-managed pointer — and you can revoke it at any time from your KeepCloud share management panel, without affecting the original file.

Revoking a share

Every share link can be revoked instantly. When you revoke a link, the share token is invalidated. Any subsequent attempt to open that link — from any device anywhere — immediately shows a "link expired" page. Recipients who already have the URL can no longer access the file through it, even if they bookmarked it. The original file in your cloud is completely unaffected.