Why links should die
Most shared links have a job that lasts a day: "here's the invoice", "grab this draft", "photos from Saturday". The link, though, lives forever — sitting in old email threads and group chats, still serving the file to anyone who stumbles on it or searches for it years later. You can't un-send a message, and you rarely remember to go back and delete a share.
An expiring link flips the default. Instead of "open until I remember to kill it", it's "open until Friday, then dead". The failure mode becomes someone asking you to re-share — mildly annoying — rather than a file quietly public for years.
The three controls, and where to find them
Every MoveMyWork share link supports three time-and-access controls, all on the free tier:
- Expiry — pick how long the link lives when you create it. After that, it simply stops resolving.
- View limit — cap how many times the link can be opened. Set it to a small number for a "download once and it's gone" share.
- Revoke — kill any link early, instantly, from Settings. Useful when you sent it to the wrong person, or the job's just done.
There's a fourth control — an optional passphrase — which deserves its own page: see password-protected share links. The short version: a passphrase protects against the link leaking; expiry protects against the link outliving you caring.
Walkthrough
- Pick the file or clip. Anything in your MoveMyWork history — an uploaded file, a pasted block of text — can be shared. Free accounts get 3 GB of storage with files up to 250 MB.
- Click Share. Every clip and file row has a Share action, on the dashboard and in Files.
- Set the expiry. Choose how long the link should live. Shorter is better: an hour for something sensitive, a day or a week for a colleague who'll get to it eventually.
- Optionally cap views. If one person needs one download, say so — the link dies after that many opens even if the clock hasn't run out.
- Send the URL. The recipient clicks and downloads. No account, no app — nothing for them to sign up for.
- Revoke early if you like. Settings → your active share links → Revoke. Immediate.
How the big tools compare
At the time of writing: WeTransfer's free links expire after around three days whether you like it or not, and custom expiry plus passwords are paid features. Google Drive links default to living forever, with expiry dates behind paid plans. We've written a fuller comparison in MoveMyWork vs WeTransfer — including when WeTransfer is genuinely the better pick for huge one-off sends.
Frequently asked
Is expiry free, or a paid feature?
Free. Expiry, view limits, passphrases and revocation are all on the MoveMyWork free tier. On several big-name tools, custom expiry and passwords are paid features.
What does the recipient see after a link expires?
A plain page saying the link is no longer available. The file itself stays in your account — only the link dies.
Can I extend a link instead of letting it expire?
Create a fresh link for the same file — it takes two clicks. Letting old links die and issuing new ones is the safer habit.