How to Send Huge Files without Clogging Email

Ever have issues trying to send huge files as an email attachment? You are not alone! The only other thing that can be as frustrating is receiving a gigantic 20MB file in you inbox! I figured this would definitely be applicable to you photographers and videographers out there as well as everyone else who wants to send pictures and video to friends and family. One minute of video on your iPhone can take up 70-80 MB so it’s not hard to overwhelm the standard email limits on the most popular email services.

• Gmail – 25MB
• AOL Mail – 25MB
• Yahoo – 25MB
• Windows Live Hotmail – 10MB

Here’s a free way that I have personally used several times to bypass these problems. It’s an online service called File Relay. It acts similar to a dropbox where the file you want to send is uploaded to a server and the people you want to have it only get a link sent to them via email. When they click on the link the file is downloaded to their computer. This saves your and everyone else’s email from getting bogged down if you send huge files. The other nice feature is you are able to see if your recipient actually downloaded the file. I think you will find that it is very simple to use, your recipients don’t need to have an account to use it and it’s totally free!

Here’s how it works:

Before you can use the service you have to set up an account, which only takes a few seconds (only the sender of the file needs to do this, recipients don’t need an account).

1. You browse for the file on your hard drive
2. Set a date for the file to expire (after this date it is no longer available to the recipient)
3. Type in the emails of the people you want to access the file
4. Include a message to them if you want.

When you click “Send Email” the file is securely uploaded to the File Relay server and an email with the link to the file is sent to each of the recipients with a unique code for each person so you can see who actually downloads the file.
You also have the option to send a package of multiple files and you can always delete the files off of the File Relay server any time if you sent the wrong file or if the contents of the file are outdated.

It’s a pretty good application and it’s free! Here’s links to File Relay and the File Relay Facebook Page. Let us know what you think!