[Solved] would appreciate suggestions for emailing large files

[Marty Feldman]

Desktop computer running LM19.1, Tessa, 4.15.0-20 generic xB6_64

My routine emailing is with Mozilla Thunderbird. Very occasionally, I have a large file (e.g., a 194MB movie on my camera's memory card) that I would like to email to a friend. Thunderbird has a filesize limit that will not let this be transmitted as a regular email attachment. Thunderbird suggests "FileLink" but I am uncertain what to do with this. I know that there exist cloud-based file hosts like DropBox, but I have no experience with them. Would appreciate recommendations for emailing large files, with emphasis on simple/basic routines, free if possible. Many thanks, as always.

-Marty-

[Neil Edmond]

If you're email service limits file size, your simplest option is to store files you want to share on a cloud storage service like Dropbox, Google Drive, or OneDrive. You can then share the file with someone and inform them via email that you have done so. They can then click a link and download the file directly to their computer.

[wallyUSA]

Neil +1

[Qapla]

The only problem with using offsite storage is the file has to be transferred twice, up then down. A 194MB file will take a long long time. Rather than offsite, for something like this I prefer to use a private torrent. Install Qbittorrent (free and open source) on the sending and receiving machines. On the sending machine, use Tools > Torrent creator. That will create a torrent file between 20kb-50kb which can easily be mailed to the receiver. Open that file in Qbittorrent on the receiving machine and poof - you have a private pipe as fast as either machine can go.

Torrenting is not illegal. Even Linux Mint is available by torrent! What you send may or may not be legally sharable. That's on you.

[AndyMH]

Use a third party provider like wetransfer. You upload the file to them, they send an email to your intended recipient with a download link. Works well.

[wilbobob]

+1 for Wetransfer works well and is easy

[AZgl1800]

+1 for Wetransfer works well and is easy

+2 on WeTransfer

it is safe and secure, and the files disappear after 10 days

[Flemur]

Thunderbird has a filesize limit that will not let this be transmitted as a regular email attachment.

You can break the file into multiple smaller files by archiving it into a mult-part .rar file (and now .zip files, too? Check on it...) But much to my disgust I found that gmail won't mail archive files, like rar or zip, regardless of size and even if you try to fool it by naming them .txt. That might not be a problem with thunderbird.

In linux there's also split, to split a file into smaller files, and cat, to put it back together. Pretty easy to use.

[ivar]

Email is not well suited (or even intended)for transfering large files. At work I think we've set the limit at 30 MB or so.

But much to my disgust I found that gmail won't mail archive files, like rar or zip,

If you already have gmail, have you tried sharing files using Google drive?

[dave0808]

Email is simply not designed for transfer of large files. Particularly large "binary" files (like your video), because the email system only deals with printable text characters, so your 194MB file has to be converted to text, which is done with Base64 encoding and would increase your file size to around 260MB. Even if you split the file up into chunks that your email provider would allow, that's still a huge amount of data to push through the mail queue.

Compressing won't help, because video files are already compressed. Though you could re-encode, so for example, taking an file that's originally in FullHD at 30fps, and converting it to standard definition with a good encoder, could drastically reduce the size if that would be acceptable to the recipient.

Otherwise, as others have mentioned, a "cloud" sharing provider is your best bet. For your recipient, this is no different than if you uploaded it directly to their system - the bandwidth to their computer will be the same. It's the provider that's doubling up.

[Marty Feldman]

Sollid, excellent advice from all - thanks. WeTransfer appears to be simple and good and I am exploring it now. Just signed up and sent out my first large AVI file. Will let you know if all goes well and if so I will mark this thread Solved.

-Marty-

[axrusar]

Keep in mind you have NO PRIVACY WHATSOEVER with any of the cloud services previously suggested here. If you need to send anything private, your best option can be the torrents like a previous user mentioned, or setting up your own cloud server which will be super advanced stuff looking at the original question.
Just an extra layer of information in case privacy is a concern to you.

[Marty Feldman]

Thanks for the privacy caution axrusar. Not a concern here - if I had something private, I would never consider a public cloud server.

-Marty-

[Marty Feldman]

After testing, I have found that for my use, WeTransfer [1] is easy to register for, [2] is cleanly and smartly designed, [3] works without fuss, and [4] is an efficient and straightforward way to transmit large files by email.
Again, thanks to all.

-Marty-