Questions, answered

Send Shed is a file-sharing tool with two tiers: Quick Share, which needs no account and gets you a direct download link in seconds, and Encrypted Share, which encrypts a file in your browser before it ever reaches the server, so we can't read its contents even if we wanted to.

Only for Encrypted Share. Quick Share works with no sign-up at all — pick a file, get a link. A free account adds Encrypted Share's zero-knowledge encryption, a larger file size limit, 10 GB of storage, and a dashboard to manage and revoke your links. See the full comparison if you're not sure which one you need.

Yes. Quick Share is free with no account required. A free Encrypted Share account includes 10 GB of storage at no cost.

Quick Share stores your file as uploaded (plain, unencrypted) so it can be automatically screened before the link goes live, and needs no account — good for sending something once, fast. Encrypted Share encrypts the file and its filename in your browser with AES-256-GCM before upload; the decryption key lives only in the share link itself, after the # character, which browsers never send to a server. We never see the plaintext file, its name, or the key. Use Quick Share for speed, Encrypted Share for anything sensitive.

Up to 500 MB per file on Quick Share, and up to 5 GB per file on Encrypted Share by default (an individual instance's operator can raise or lower this).

You choose an expiry when you upload. Quick Share offers 1 hour, 24 hours, or 7 days, with 7 days as the maximum. Encrypted Share offers the same short options plus up to 30 days. Whichever limit is hit first — the time window or the download limit — takes the link down.

Yes, on both tiers. Set a download limit when you upload, or leave it unlimited. Once the limit is reached, the link stops working even if it hasn't expired yet.

10 GB total across all your Encrypted Share uploads. Quick Share doesn't count against this, since it doesn't require an account.

It means encryption and decryption happen entirely in your browser using the Web Crypto API, with AES-256-GCM. The key is generated on your device and never sent to the server — it only ever travels inside the URL fragment, the part after #, which browsers deliberately never transmit. The server stores only ciphertext, so even someone with full access to the database and storage can't read an Encrypted Share file without the link's full fragment.

Quick Share uploads — the tier where we can technically see file content — are checked against Project Arachnid's hash list of known child sexual abuse material before the link is published; a match is deleted immediately and never served. This isn't possible on Encrypted Share, since those files are encrypted before the server ever sees them — a deliberate trade-off of true zero-knowledge encryption.

Not in a form that identifies you directly. Anonymous-tier uploads are logged as a one-way cryptographic hash of the uploader's IP, not the address itself — enough to spot repeat abuse from the same source and block it, but not enough to recover the original address.

Yes, on either tier. Add a password at upload time, and whoever has the link still needs it before they can see the filename, size, or download the file — a locked file reveals nothing else about itself.

It's removed from storage and the link stops resolving. There's no recovery window once a file's expiry or download limit is reached, or the uploader deletes it manually.

Yes. Select more than one file and each still gets its own individual link, plus one combined bundle link. Whoever you send that bundle link to can download every file at once as a single .zip — assembled on the server for Quick Share, or in the recipient's browser after decrypting each file for Encrypted Share, since the server never holds a decrypted copy to zip itself.

Yes. Enter an email when uploading on Quick Share, or your account email is used automatically on Encrypted Share, and you'll get a notification each time the file is downloaded. Encrypted Share notifications never include the filename, since the server never knows it.

Yes. Quick Share gives you a delete link at upload time that removes the file immediately. Encrypted Share files can be deleted anytime from your account dashboard.

Anything you don't have the right to share, and anything illegal to distribute — including child sexual abuse material (all Quick Share uploads are checked against a known-CSAM hash list before publishing, see above), malware, and content that infringes someone else's copyright.

Email abuse@sendshed.com with the file's share link (or its ID from the link) and what's wrong. Reports of child sexual abuse material can also be filed directly at cybertip.ca.