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Sharing files without login, preview files in Trello

Martin Purmensky

I have been using Trello for some time now, but a recent update makes this tool less usable than just a month ago.

First, sharing files via a link now requires login. That us a huge problem for us, as we are no longer able to send a file for approval. We cannot force clients to create an account.

Second: we no longer can preview Excel files, and I just read that PDF preview will be also disabled. That seriously complicates our workflow as we need to review Excel files and PDF files on a regular basis multiple times daily.

Is this a problem for other users and if so, how did you solve it? I am considering migrating to another app that could accommodate my needs similar to Trello a month ago. Did you find such tool if the above "upgrades" make Trello less useful.

Any advice appreciated.

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Brittany Joiner

@Martin Purmensky could you make your boards public? You don't have to login to view attachment links if they're hosted on a public board (which I assume is the reason behind making them public vs private - in a private board, truly everything should be private).

Daniel Eads

Hey @Martin Purmensky , in addition to @Brittany Joiner 's suggestion of making the board Public, I'd like to add a bit more context around why this suddenly changed on you.

From the help article about attachments :

For boards created prior to July 2021, the URLs for the attachments are cryptographically unguessable, meaning that no one is going to be able to guess your attachment URL. However, if you share the URL for a Trello attachment, anyone with the URL will be able to see the attachment.

Beginning in July 2021, attachments uploaded to newly created Trello boards will check for user authorization in order to display the file. This means you won't be able to share an attachment link to another person who doesn't also have access to the board in Trello where that attachment was uploaded. If you try to load a Trello attachment when not logged in, you'll be prompted to first log in before being able to view the attachment.

Attachments and previews on public boards will remain fully accessible without an account. Deleting the attachment in Trello permanently removes the file from Amazon S3. Deleting a card will also delete any files attached to that card.

I hope that helps clarify the change!

Cheers,
Daniel | Atlassian Support

Martin Purmensky

I cannot make my board private, because it contains estimates and pricing details.

But, in the past a link like this

https://trello-attachments.s3.amazonaws.com/602fc25255d9f711ece5763b/609b12226d22de569a50c276/8140c190091af26ce26c408bb6ba4e46/%EF%BC%887.16%EF%BC%89Proof-filesample.pdf

was complicated enough to send out without fear that somebody would guess it. My print shop uploaded the proof file and we simply send it to the client - no login required. That has changed and now we will have to download it and put it on Dropbox and send the link. That is a big step back for us.

The decision to also disable preview of various files is another headache for us. Mainly we can't preview Excel files and apparently soon we will not be able to preview PDF.

Martin Purmensky

I can see the usability here. Still, I assume for many of us to be able to share a file without letting somebody accessing the entire board was a good thing. If there would be an add-on for this function to continue, or some kind of modification in setup, that would be great and would accommodate both - the needs for sharing and, with some users disabling it, the needs for extra privacy.

Together with the disabled previews of other files (Excel) that is a big problem for us that makes us look for alternatives.

Daniel Eads

Hi Martin,

You've mentioned you have Dropbox - potentially the Dropbox power-up might help publicly share files from your private board without severely impacting your workflow. With a couple additional clicks, you can upload attachments to Dropbox from Trello cards. This is a bonus powerup, so it does not count against the power-up limit for Free / Gold boards.

Martin Purmensky

Hi Daniel,
That would work, but I work with Chinese suppliers that have no access to the typical cloud storage services like Dropbox. Actually, many of my suppliers adopted Trello for project management with other clients. For my set of circumstances the upgrade is a downgrade that will be difficult to solve.

Adam Cao

👋 Hi @Martin Purmensky @mia @Brittany Joiner!

I just updated the External Share Power-Up to support sharing individual attachments.

Screen Recording 2021-08-25 at 12.03.42 AM.gif

Here's the example share link from the above demo: https://files.trell.ooo/W-g-f03rcmzDR4VT

I hope it helps! Let me know if you have any other requests or questions! ❤️

Adam Cao

🎉 Kudos to @Daniel Eads for reaching out to me and letting me know about this thread!

Stampede Support

@Adam Cao - appreciate you trying to help with this but given the access that External Share gets by enabling that power up is not a possibility - that would never be approved by any of our clients' security teams. What every studio in Hollywood has approved in terms of security is the way we were able to share links in Trello until last week.

@Daniel Eads @Brittany Joiner @Martin Purmensky

Screen Shot 2021-08-25 at 10.47.27 AM.png

Adam Cao

Unfortunately, that's not something I can control since the Trello OAuth API has very limited support for scoping. @Michael Pryor and @bentley any chance you guys could push for better API scoping?