Let anyone upload files to your Google Drive, no account needed

Why uploading to someone else's Google Drive is hard

Google gives you two built-in ways to collect files, and both need the sender to sign in:

• Sharing a folder with edit access. The sender must sign in to Google, and once they can edit the folder they can also see, rename or delete everything else in it.
• A Google Forms file upload question. Respondents must be signed in to a Google account before they can attach a file, and all files land in one shared folder.

That's fine inside a company that runs on Google Workspace. It's a problem when you're collecting photos from wedding guests, documents from clients, or assignments from students who use Outlook, iCloud or no email at all on their phone.

The simple fix: an upload form connected to your Drive

An upload form sits between the sender and your Drive. The sender opens a normal web page, types their name and email, adds files and presses send. The files are written to your Google Drive by an app you've authorized, so the sender never needs a Google account and never gets access to your folders.

FileUploadForm works this way, with one difference that matters for privacy: files go straight from the sender's browser to your Drive. They don't pass through or sit on our servers.

How to set it up

1. Sign in with Google and allow FileUploadForm to create files in your Drive. It only gets access to the folders it creates, not the rest of your Drive.
2. Create a form and give it a name, for example "Client documents". A folder with that name is created inside a FileUploadForm folder in your Drive.
3. Choose what to accept. Name, email and files are always included, and you can limit uploads to images, PDFs or other file types. On Pro, add your own fields too.
4. Share the link by email or chat, or on Pro embed the form on your website with one line of code.

What you get in Drive

Each submission gets its own subfolder named with the date and the sender's name, so files from different people never get mixed up. Inside you'll find the uploaded files and a details.txt with everything the sender typed into the form. On Pro you also get an email for each new upload, and replying to it goes straight to the sender.

Good uses

• Photographers and event organizers collecting guest photos and videos
• Accountants, lawyers and agencies receiving client documents
• Teachers collecting assignments from students without school accounts
• Print shops and designers receiving large artwork files
• Recruiters collecting CVs and portfolios