WeTransfer link expired: what to do (and how to avoid it)

The message always lands at the wrong time: "your link doesn't work anymore, I can't download anything." The client waited a few days, came back, and the transfer expired in the meantime. First piece of good news: in the vast majority of cases, your files aren't lost. What disappeared is the temporary link, not your original export, which is still sitting on your drive or in your archive.

The immediate move: resend. Take your original export, create a fresh transfer, and share the new link with a one-line apology, no drama. Don't waste time trying to "reactivate" the old link: an expired transfer is gone for good, there's nothing to recover on the service's side.

Before you resend the exact same way, use the moment to check two things: that the client actually downloads this time, and that they save the files locally instead of relying on the link. A transfer link isn't storage, it's a passageway. Saying so plainly is what stops the second message two weeks later.

A WeTransfer link that dies isn't a failure, it's the intended behaviour. Free transfer services are built to be temporary: the link stays active for a limited window, then the files are wiped from their servers. The exact duration depends on the plan and changes over time, so check it at the source rather than trusting a number you heard somewhere.

That expiry isn't a bad thing in itself: it limits how long your files sit in storage and stay exposed. The problem isn't that a link expires, it's that it expires without you controlling when, often right before the client has grabbed their files. We unpack the reasons behind it in our dedicated piece on why delivery links expire.

Resending once is fine. But if you spend your time recreating transfers because the client "forgot" to download, the delivery format is the issue, not the client. An anonymous link that expires on its own, without warning, puts you on permanent after-sales duty for files you've already produced and delivered.

There's a brand cost too. A dead link at the moment the client is showing your work to a decision-maker is the opposite of the effect you want. Delivery is often the last touchpoint of a project: it's the worst place for an "it doesn't work anymore."

The fix isn't keeping a link open forever, it's taking back control. A delivery page in your name solves all three points at once: you set the expiry window yourself based on the project, you can see whether the client opened and downloaded, and you can re-deliver or extend in one move, without re-uploading anything.

In practice, if a client comes back after the date, you don't build a transfer from scratch: you reopen or extend the same page, and the link stays the same. That's exactly what xFer does: the delivery becomes a durable page you steer, not a temporary token deciding for you. If you're still weighing a plain transfer, our comparison of WeTransfer alternatives lays out what a real delivery page changes.

An expired WeTransfer link doesn't erase your work: resend your original export and ask the client to download right away. But if it keeps happening, change the format. A delivery page in your name, with an expiry you choose and one-click re-delivery, turns the dead link into a non-issue.