To be mystified by WeTransfer - what’s it FOR??

[BernardBlacksBreakfastWine]

I am obviously missing something as there must be a reason for its existence?

I was recently required to send a short video to a company. They requested I use WeTransfer. Fine - I did it. But why couldn’t I just attach the file to my own email? It was less than 60 seconds of video.

My kids dance school use it to transfer music files to multiple students. Makes sense and makes the emails smaller

Some files are much to big to send by normal email and WeTransfer allows you to do this - I have used this frequently for lectures and presentations that I send ahead of a conference in case I have any IT issues with my laptop on the day.

Even if it's a short video, they sometimes exceed the size limit available for sending by some email accounts. My gmail is 20mb max attachment and if I need to send anything bigger, I'll do it by wetransfer. Very straightforward, free (unless you're sending loads all the time) and doesn't fill up the email storage

Possibly the company is receiving many "small" videos and other media files from different people and do this to make sure they don't use up their storage and lose business via bouncebacks.

It's easier to just have a single way of working for all customers than rely on them accurately reporting the size of their file.

My email won't allow me to send more than three or four photos, so I might have a look at this. Never heard of it before

its for transferring large files. A 60 second video is a large file she may have exceeded the recipient’s size limit.

Also keeps the quality better.

Email only allows 20mb which is extremely tiny by today's standards. That's barely 6-8 seconds of poor quality video. Some image files can easily exceed 20mb as well. WeTransfer enables you to send 2GB or 2000mb.

To be honest this is an answer that is easily found by reading the actual website of Wetransfer (their tagline is " Send large files fast"), Google or ChatGPT instead of starting a faux-naive, slightly sarcastic MN thread about.

WeTransfer is fab for larger files. Use it regularly.

What's your issue with it OP? Or is this just subtle marketing!

The size is the main factor, but also the files are encrypted so far more secure than email.

WeTransfer is great! I use it almost daily for work.

AIBU to be mystified that you actually need to question what it's for?

My company firewalls won't let anything larger than 25MB in or out. Larger files are a risk because they can hide confidential data.
We are also not allowed to use WeTransfer.

As others have said - file size is often a problem, even if it's just a short video clip. I use WeTransfer at work to exchange video, design and photography files for that reason.

It’s for file transfer! Brilliant for large files, videos etc and international, so I recently had someone freelancer in India editing a video for me and We used Wetransfer
to send the video back and forth.

Woah! There’s always one! I had actually discussed it with others who didn’t quite get it either. I could easily have emailed my file - never had any trouble.

We use it at work to send files/videos that are too large to send by email.
Sometimes the issue is our email system being unable to send the file that large, sometimes its the receivers issue with their system being designed to reject any emails over a specific size.

😂No! Don’t think I’d be very good at marketing something I clearly don’t fully understand!

I guess my issue with it is the expiry date. If I email someone a file, they’ve got it. With WeTransfer, there’s this danger they’re going to miss the not-very-generous 3 day window.

It depends on the file size, their system may not be able to receive a large video file. Also large files sent in email can block the email server so its much better practice to attach a link instead. Basic IT.

Fair enough. Basic to you…

No harm in asking, and I can see why you might think it's a bit unnecessary.

It's also a tiny little bit greener, as the files can be automatically deleted from the wetransfer server, unlike sending it via email, as a copy will remain on the senders and recipients server, which require power etc, unless of course they delete them.

Thank you! It also makes me twitchy… The file is quite important so I don’t like the idea of a middle man! It says the recipient has downloaded the file - but why then does it then feel the need to keep reminding me that the transfer is due to expire? Doesn’t matter, surely? It makes me feel very insecure.

Many companies have a maximum attachment size that they can receive, and also if a video file is sent to one person, very often they will forward it to their colleague, and copy in a manager because they want to be in the loop, and copy in the team mailbox in case they are off sick tomorrow, copy their team assistant and ask them to save it onto the SharePoint etc, and each time the file is being passed around it is using up storage. Via a web transfer platform people are only likely to go and access it if they need to.

WeTransfer is made for big files. Contrary to emails, the file is on one server (+ backup of course) and is uploaded once. Then, people with the url download the same instance of a file.

In emails, the attachment is duplicated and stored each time the email is sent, and received. Thats neither storage, bandwidth nor energy efficient at all.

Big files don't do well by email for some people.

Wetransfer has a time limit on it too - although that peed me off recently as I'd sent a file (at their request) and then reminded them to download it and then after it had expired they had a look and came back saying they thought it was 5 days not 3.
sighs