Try the 2 workarounds to share a link to a network drive if you cannot find the direct way to reach your goal! Moreover, you can learn how to create a shareable link to a network folder here.
When you want to learn how to create a link to a shared network drive, you may have these considerations:
Generally speaking, we often create a link to a network folder, not the entire drive, because sharing the entire drive would often grant broad access, which might not be ideal for security reasons. It is easy to create a sharable link to a network folder:
1. Open File Explorer and go to the folder you want to share.
2. Right-click on the folder and select Give access to > Specific people.
3. Click the downward arrow to choose who you want to share with and tap the Share button.
4. Choose to email the link to others or copy the link and tap Done to finish the sharing.
However, it is not impossible to share a link to a network drive. You can take advantage of the built-in sharing feature on your NAS device if you are using it as the network drive. You can create a shared link via the NAS's web interface or management tools. The shared drive would then appear as a network location for users to access.
Moreover, you can use a cloud drive as an alternative. You can transfer all your files from the network drive to a folder in a cloud drive like OneDrive, Google Drive, or Dropbox, and then share this folder with a link. It is easy to create a shared link to a folder on a cloud drive. What’s better, if the cloud storage service gives a feature like File Request, you can let others, who share the folder, upload files to this folder even without an account.
If you decide to use a cloud drive as a workaround, you will need to transfer files from your network drive to a cloud drive. To migrate files in the most effective way, you can use MultCloud, a free cloud file transfer service, as long as you utilize NAS for the network drive. Since MultCloud supports 30+ cloud drives, such as Google Drive, OneDrive, Dropbox, OneDrive for Business, Amazon S3, MEGA, Icedrive, etc., you can choose any one you link as the transfer destination. After adding the source and destination clouds to MultCloud, you can create a direct transfer task and it can also proceed offline.
Step 1. Enter MultCloud and sign up for an account.
Step 2. Add NAS to MultCloud by clicking Add Cloud and the NAS icon. Then, fill in the blanks with your credentials to connect NAS to MultCloud.
Step 3. Add OneDrive (for example) to MultCloud by clicking Add Cloud and the OneDrive icon. Then, log in to your account in the pop-up window and grant access permission to MultCloud.
Step 4. Select the Cloud Transfer function and choose NAS as the transfer source and OneDrive as the transfer target. Then, tap Transfer Now to initiate the task.
Note: If you want to seamlessly integrate this network drive with the cloud drive, you can real-time sync files between them with another MultCloud function – Cloud Sync.
After migrating files to the cloud drive, you are going to create a share link to the folder. This can also be achieved on MultCloud.
Step 1. Open OneDrive (also an example) on MultCloud and select the folder saving the network drive files.
Step 2. Click Share in the upper bar and choose Share with MultCloud. Then, you can choose a preferred share mode. If you want to share more securely, Private Share is the best choice since it can add a password to your shared folder.
Step 3. Copy the shared link and send it to others who you want to share with.
Besides, if you want to request files from others, you can go to the Shares page, find the task, and switch on the button next to it. Then, people with the shared link can upload files to the folder even without a cloud account.
Although there is no direct solution on how to share a link to a network drive, you can try the 2 workarounds to share an entire by the NAS feature or a cloud link. Or, you can choose to share a link to a network folder instead.
When you want to transfer files from the network drive to a cloud drive and share with a link, MultCloud is your top 1 choice. You can transfer files from NAS to a cloud drive with an automatic transfer task without manually downloading. Besides, you can create a share link to the folder containing the network drive files and request files from people you share the folder with.