DropYourFiles

Blog · October 26, 2026

How to send large video files.

“It says the file is too big to send.” Your client, forwarding the bounce at 11 p.m.

Video gets big fast. Gmail and Outlook.com stop attachments at 25 MB, which is seconds of good footage, and a ProRes master can be several gigabytes a minute. You’re sending a link either way, so pick the kind that fits what your client has to do with the file.

By Vitaly Kibenko

Where email gives up.

Gmail and Outlook.com both cap attachments at 25 MB. Gmail swaps anything bigger for a Google Drive link on its own, and Outlook.com points you to OneDrive. Apple’s Mail Drop, on a Mac or an iPhone, takes attachments up to 5 GB and keeps them for 30 days. There’s more on each in how to email large video files.

A woman at a laptop on a desk set out on the salt flats at sunrise. The headline reads “One link from anywhere, to anyone.” and the line at the foot, “Sent from the salt flats.”
Large files go straight from your browser to storage, so the link works wherever you send it from.

Three kinds of link.

  • A cloud folder

    Google Drive, Dropbox or OneDrive. Good for files you keep working on. Your client gets a folder, downloads from it, and has to know which file is the latest.

  • A transfer

    WeTransfer and services like it. Good for handing over finished files once. WeTransfer’s free plan is for personal use, sends 3 GB a month, and each transfer lasts up to three days.

  • A review link

    Your client watches it in the browser first, with nothing to download. On DropYourFiles the film plays on your client’s phone, notes land on the exact second, and the full-size file downloads from the same link once your client approves.

A film open on a client’s page in the browser, with an Approve button under it, a strip of the project’s other films below, and a notes column beside it waiting for the first note.
A large film on a review link: it plays in the browser, the notes column waits beside it, and nothing has downloaded yet. A sample project with invented names.

Send a review copy, keep the master.

Nobody needs the master to give notes. On DropYourFiles you upload the master once. Your client plays a smaller copy made for streaming, with a watermark across it, and the full file waits for approval.

When your client needs the file today.

Turn on Download before approval for that project and the full file is there straight away. A download link is made when your client clicks and stays good for 12 hours, which is plenty for a big file on a slow connection.

Questions.

What’s the best way to send a large video file?

For a one-off handover, a transfer service or a cloud link. For client work that still needs notes or sign-off, a link your client can watch first, so nobody downloads a file that might change.

Why can’t I email a large video?

Gmail and Outlook.com stop attachments at 25 MB. Gmail replaces a bigger file with a Google Drive link.

How big a file can I put on DropYourFiles?

Your plan’s room is the limit: 5 GB with 1 hour of video on Free, 1 TB with 15 hours on Solo.

Can my client watch the video without downloading it?

Yes. It plays in the browser on a phone or a computer, and downloading is a separate step after approval.

Keep reading.

New here? See what DropYourFiles does, or compare the plans.

Sources

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