You want the files in your Google Drive. The people sending them do not have Google accounts, or do not want to sign in, or are guests at a wedding who will not create an account for one upload. Google Drive itself has no way to do this: there is no file request feature, and a folder shared as "Anyone with the link can edit" still asks every uploader to sign in - and lets them see each other's files.
Since September 2026, 500files.com does this without the workaround. You create an upload page, connect your Google Drive once, and every file anyone uploads is copied into a folder in your Drive as it arrives. The people uploading open a link and drop files. That is all they see.
How it works
- Create an upload page at 500files.com - a title is enough; it takes a few seconds and no account.
- Open the page's dashboard and click Connect Google Drive. You sign in with Google (this is the one moment an account is needed, and it is yours, not the uploaders') and approve a single permission.
- Share the link - by message, email or the QR code on the dashboard.
- Files appear in your Drive. Each upload is copied into a folder named after the page, inside a
500filesfolder in the root of your Drive, right after the virus scan. Nothing to download, nothing to unpack.
The dashboard shows the state of every file: In Google Drive, Sending to Drive..., or - rarely - Drive delivery failed with the reason.
What lands where
- A folder called 500files is created once, in the root of your Drive.
- Inside it, one folder per upload page, named
<page title> (<page code>). The code keeps two pages with the same title apart. - Files keep their original names. Two uploads with the same name both arrive; Drive allows that.
- If you move or rename the folders, that is fine - they are tracked by id, not by name. If you delete one, the next upload recreates it.
What the people uploading see
An upload page, in their language, with a drop zone. No mention of Google, no sign-in, no app. They cannot see your Drive or the folder, and not each other's files either - unless you turned the photo gallery on, in which case approved photos are shown on the upload page itself, never from Drive.
What the app can and cannot see in your Drive
The permission you approve is Google's narrowest Drive scope, drive.file. It lets an app create files and folders and read back only the ones it created. 500files cannot list, read or change anything else in your Drive - not your documents, not your photos, not folders made by other apps. This is also why the app never asks for Google's full-Drive access, and why Google shows no "Google hasn't verified this app" screen for it: the scope is one Google does not review, because it exposes nothing beyond the app's own files.
You can revoke it at any time from the dashboard (Disconnect Google Drive) or from your Google account under Security, "Third-party apps & services". Either way, nothing already in your Drive is touched.
Quota, copies and what stays where
- The copies in your Drive count against your Google storage. That is where they live from then on.
- The originals also stay on the upload page, downloadable one by one or as a single ZIP, until the page expires (7 days by default, 14 at most, then 3 more days to download). Drive delivery is a copy, not a move, so a hiccup in the sync never loses a file.
- Deleting the upload page, or letting it expire, removes nothing from your Drive, and deleting a file in Drive does not remove it from the page. The two are independent once the copy is made.
- Files that fail the virus scan are deleted and never sent to Drive. Files larger than the scanner can read are delivered and marked as not scanned.
Pause, resume, disconnect
Each upload page has its own switch. Pause stops new uploads from going to Drive for that page (files already delivered stay). Resume turns it back on and sends anything that arrived in the meantime. Disconnect removes the connection from your account entirely, for every page at once, and tells Google to revoke the permission.
When this is the wrong tool
- You need OneDrive, SharePoint or Dropbox. 500files delivers to Google Drive only. A Dropbox file request puts files in Dropbox by definition; for OneDrive and SharePoint, File Request Pro is the paid answer.
- You need a folder per client, built from form fields. It is one folder per upload page here. Make a page per client and you get the same effect, with a link per client.
- You are building a permanent, growing archive. The upload page is temporary by design. Your Drive copy is permanent, but the page is where collection happens, not where files live.
Compared with the usual Google Drive workarounds
| Drive folder shared with a link | Google Forms upload | 500files + Drive delivery | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Uploader needs a Google account | Yes | Yes | No |
| Uploaders can see each other's files | Yes | No | No |
| Files land in your Drive | Yes | Yes | Yes, in a folder per page |
| Checklist of required files | No | No | Yes |
| Password on the upload page | No | No | Yes |
| Large files resume after a dropped connection | Partial | No | Yes |
| Your branding on the page | No | No | Yes |
| Price | Free | Free | Free |
Create an upload page at 500files.com, connect your Drive from its dashboard, and send the link - free, no account for the people uploading.
Related
- File request link: Google Drive vs dedicated upload tools - why Drive has no file request and what people do instead
- Dropbox vs Google Drive vs upload link - the three mechanisms side by side
- Free file request tools compared - what each free plan runs out of