Send one WeTransfer link to a group and preserve folder paths

A WeTransfer link transfer gives you one URL to send through a group chat or email. Before uploading, put the files into a ZIP archive if their folder paths matter. Then choose a delivery channel that keeps the recipients’ email addresses private.

Those are separate decisions. The ZIP determines whether recipients can tell two files with the same name apart. The message determines who sees the address list and whether people know which version to use.

Zip the folder before uploading

WeTransfer warns that uploading a folder from a desktop can flatten its contents into a single ZIP. If your project has files with the same name in different folders, compress the project yourself first, then upload that ZIP as one file.

Consider a small example archive with these three entries:

• press/cover.txt says, “Press cover: blue background, revision 2.”
• social/cover.txt says, “Social cover: square crop, revision 3.”
• read-me.txt sits at the top level.

The two cover.txt files have different contents. Without press/ and social/ in their paths, the name alone cannot tell a recipient which is which. Download the example ZIP and its file manifest. These are synthetic text files, so you can open each cover in a text editor and compare the two sentences. The locally checked archive retains all three paths and contents.

On Windows, select the project folder and use the system’s option to compress it to a ZIP file; the menu wording varies by version. On a Mac, select the folder in Finder and choose Compress. Open the resulting ZIP before uploading it. Look for the full nested paths, such as press/cover.txt and social/cover.txt, and open the files if their contents also need checking. Uploading the finished ZIP lets recipients inspect the folder structure you packaged without depending on the service’s folder-upload behavior.

Decide what belongs in the group package before compressing it. For example, a launch ZIP might contain the press/ and social/ folders, while a budget intended for one person stays outside that shared folder and is delivered separately.

Create the link and choose its channel

In WeTransfer’s desktop send flow, use the ellipsis at the lower left to select Link transfer, add the ZIP, choose Transfer, and copy the URL the service returns. Wait for that URL: choosing the file in the file picker is not the same as completing the upload. WeTransfer says the original files stay on your device.

A link transfer has no recipient field. You distribute its URL through a channel you choose. If three project teammates already use the same chat, one message there can give all three the link, the package version, and their next action.

For community volunteers who should not see one another’s email addresses, consider how you send the message. Putting everyone in an ordinary email’s To or Cc field exposes the address list to the other recipients. Use Bcc or individual messages if you send the link from your email client. WeTransfer’s separate Email transfer option also sends individual emails without showing recipient addresses to one another. Address-list privacy does not prevent a recipient from forwarding a link, so treat that as a separate concern.

Name the package and the deadline

A URL alone does not tell a recipient whether they have the right revision. Give the ZIP a versioned name, identify what its folders contain, and copy the actual availability date and time shown when you send it. For a revision 3 launch package, the group message could read:

Subject: October launch files: revision 3

Download press-social-r03.zip: [your actual transfer link]
press/ contains the print cover; social/ contains the square cover. Please use revision 3 for the October 12 launch.
Download before [the displayed date, time, and time zone]. If you already saved r02, remove it from your working folder before using r03.

Fill in the link and deadline only after the transfer exists. Check the package before describing its contents; the synthetic ZIP above deliberately contains a revision 2 press file, so it is not the revision 3 package in this message.

If you correct the files and send an r04 package, tell the group that the r04 URL is the replacement. Include the new link and version in that message so nobody has to guess whether an earlier r03 link points to the corrected files.

Check the actual expiry time

WeTransfer says Free and Starter transfers can be available for up to three days, while Ultimate can be set to remain available as long as wanted. The duration runs from the exact send time. The sender’s selected availability and the displayed expiry are what matter for a particular transfer.

For a calendar example, suppose a sender selected the full three days and sent a transfer on Friday, October 9, at 4:20 p.m. in one fixed time zone. Three 24-hour periods would end on Monday, October 12, at 4:20 p.m. A Monday meeting at 6:00 p.m. would fall after that example window. This is arithmetic for planning, not an observed WeTransfer expiry. Copy the displayed expiry into the message, including its time zone.

Resolve the recipient’s specific problem

If the link opens but someone says they received the wrong cover, first ask which path they opened inside the ZIP. In the example, press/cover.txt and social/cover.txt are different files. If the correct path contains the wrong material, fix the source package, verify the new ZIP, and send a clearly named replacement link.

If the link has expired, the sender should check the transfer’s actual availability. WeTransfer describes recovery for expired transfers only when the feature was enabled at creation and the transfer is eligible under Ultimate, Teams, or Enterprise. Recipients should not assume every expired transfer can be recovered; they may need the sender to provide a new link.

Source note: This article uses WeTransfer’s send-a-transfer instructions and transfer-availability guidance, checked October 7, 2026, plus a local readback of the synthetic three-file ZIP described above. No WeTransfer upload or recipient download was tested.