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Is it possible to rename a link to a file?

oweijf

Is it possible to get a link/url to a file that contains the files ID-number instead of the name of the file? The reasons is that I dont want the link to break if I change the file name?

(This does not have to be an external link shared to an external party)

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Walter

Hey there @oweijf - how are you today?

Shared links will not break when you rename a file now. They will only break if the file has been deleted from its Dropbox folder in which case, you'd be able to verify it (and restore it if needed) through your deleted files page.

Let me know if you need anything esle!

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Walter

Hey there @oweijf - how are you today?

Let me know if you need anything esle!

oweijf

Thanks for quick reply, you are of course correct. As the file name was included in the end of the generated link I assumed that it would break, I was obviously wrong.

However a follow up, for this to work I must generate a public link that anyone could access (if i not set the password). And for a lot of documents this could be a bit exhausting. Can I get a similar link that just the people the file is shared to can access? (No link to fold wont work as I specifically want the file).

Thanks again!

Walter

Why don't you share a link to the file in question directly then @oweijf?

Let me know if I'm missing something please!

oweijf

I was thinking insecure to share a link not requiering login/password, but that is maybe a very edge case that someone would guess the specific generated link

Walter

As you know you could set a password and/or an expiry date as well on shared links (assuming you're on the Professional plan or one of our Business ones) - even though I don't know if this would work that well as you mentioned that you wanted to have those links public.

In any case, please let me know if there's anything else you'd like to ask @oweijf; I'll be more than happy to help!

dcronin135

I have only found one way to maintain an existing link, when repurposing a filename for a website. There is a church video, where the media-team reuses the same filename for website streaming updates. However, I have found only one windows-command shell that maintains the file and the existing link when overlaying a new file over an existing shared-link file.

C:\Dropbox\Announcements>dir

Directory of C:\Dropbox\Announcements

01/18/2020 11:13 PM (456,211,222) morning news 1 18 20.mp4
01/04/2020 08:43 PM (237,487,207) morning news 1 5 20.mp4
01/18/2020 11:13 PM (237,487,207) news.mp4
3 File(s) 1,149,909,651 bytes
2 Dir(s) 420,034,039,808 bytes free

C:\Dropbox\Announcements>type "morning news 1 18 20.mp4" >news.mp4

Directory of C:\Dropbox\Announcements

01/18/2020 11:13 PM (456,211,222) morning news 1 18 20.mp4
01/04/2020 08:43 PM (237,487,207) morning news 1 5 20.mp4
01/19/2020 01:37 PM (456,211,222) news.mp4
3 File(s) 1,149,909,651 bytes
2 Dir(s) 418,930,028,544 bytes free

The type command using a redirect, seems to preserve the existing link, without destorying it, thus allowing the media team to repurpose the filename and existing link-share. I provided the code snippet using the html-video tag. Be sure the change the www to dl on the generated dropbox link reference.

<div style="text-align: center;">
<video autoplay="" controls="" disablepictureinpicture="" height="300" onended="videoEnded(this)" poster="https://some.url.toJPG" width="500">
<source src="https://dl.dropbox.com/s/y14mk4e4ls79hru/news.mp4?dl=0" type="video/mp4" />
</video>
</div>
<script type="text/javascript">
function videoEnded(video) {
video.autoplay=false;
video.load();
};
</script>

LubaMotos

Hi! I just wanted to thank dcronin135's answer. I was looking for a way to update files automatically by VBA code and keep the link and couldn't find any. I had to replace the file with the Dropbox link with a file from another folder. When I did it using the only Move/Copy file command that VBA has that I know ("FileSystemObject".CopyFile), after the destination got replaced it appeared to Dropbox as the original file was deleted and then a new one with the same name was added, so it deleted the Link. But this doesn't happen with the "type" cmd command that you discovered. GENIUS! That saved me LOTS OF HOURS and I think I would have never reached that solution. THANKS A LOT!!!