WeTransfer’s expiration dates are a big gripe for users – especially creatives. The problem is, if you don’t download the files immediately when you receive the link or email, you can easily forget about it before the link expires. Then you have to ask for it to be resent. This can be pretty annoying for both parties.
The company is aware of the problem and is now apparently trying to mitigate it by allowing recipients to change the expiration date of files in their mobile app – via a new “Save for Now” option. However, this is not a complete solution.
On Tuesday, WeTransfer made a confusing announcement on its X account. It said that users can extend the expiration date up to 30 days in the mobile app and that “WeTransfer links will no longer expire.” The company later clarified that the number of days the expiration date can be extended depends on your plan, however. If users don’t use the storage option, links can still expire.
Users were not impressed with WeTransfer’s news because it gave the impression that link expiration will be completely abolished, which is not the case. You still need to take steps to prevent the link from expiring.
To prevent links from expiring, users can now save links sent to them in a separate folder in WeTransfer’s mobile app using the “Save for Now” feature, which resembles a bookmark icon.
The feature can be useful if you don’t have time to download the files right away but want to access them later without having to search through your email inbox.
In our testing, we found that a free account allows you to extend the expiration date of a link in the app by up to seven days, with the default being just three days from link creation. We’ve asked WeTransfer to clarify the date extension limits on paid plans and will update the report if we receive a response.
Italy-based Bending Spoons acquired WeTransfer last month, expanding its app portfolio that also includes other long-standing products such as Evernote and Meetup. At the time of the announcement, WeTransfer CEO Alexandar Vassilev said the file transfer platform had amassed 600,000 subscribers and 80 million monthly active users over the past decade of its development.
