Recover your expired image transfer link
Sharing photos is easy until the link stops working. When an image transfer expires on WeTransfer, the download link goes dark, but that doesn't mean the files are gone. WeTransfer Ultimate keeps expired transfers in a recoverable state, so your photos, illustrations, and design files can be restored from your Transfers panel without re-uploading anything.
Get your expired files back
Finding an expired link where your image transfer used to be is frustrating, particularly when those photos represent hours of shooting or editing work you cannot easily recreate. WeTransfer keeps recoverable transfers in a restorable state after expiry, so the images you sent are not necessarily gone the moment the link stops working. Senders on Ultimate can bring transfers back directly from their Transfers panel, and someone who still has the expired link can also trigger a restore from the expired download experience when logged in with an eligible plan. Recovery works retroactively too, meaning image transfers you sent while on a Free or Starter account may already be waiting to be restored as soon as you upgrade to Ultimate. Free and Starter subscribers cannot self-restore after a link expires, but files may still exist on WeTransfer servers for a retention window before any permanent deletion takes place.
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FAQs
All your questions answered.
Possibly, yes. When a transfer expires, files are not always immediately and permanently removed from WeTransfer's servers. There is a retention window after expiry, and upgrading to Ultimate during that window may let you restore transfers you sent while on Free or Starter, including image transfers sent long before you ever considered upgrading. The retention window is roughly up to one year for files under 256 MB and up to 90 days for files over 256 MB, so acting sooner gives you a better chance.
If you received a link to someone's photos and it has since expired, you may be able to restore access directly from the expired download page. When you open the expired link and are logged in with a WeTransfer plan that includes recovery (Ultimate and above), you can trigger a restore from that screen, which brings the download window back without the sender needing to re-upload anything. This means recovery is not only for senders: recipients with an eligible plan can also use it.
Head to your Transfers panel and find the expired transfer in your sent list. If the transfer is still within its recovery window and the recoverable option was left enabled when you sent it (which is the default), you will see a restore option next to the transfer. Clicking it brings the transfer back and the download link becomes active again, so you can share it with your recipient or download the images yourself without starting from scratch.
Yes. WeTransfer never re-encodes or compresses files during transfer or recovery, so your images are restored exactly as you originally sent them, whether that means full-resolution JPEGs, RAW files from a camera, layered PSDs, or any other format. Nothing is altered, downsampled, or re-saved in the process.
Yes. Ultimate lets you set a custom expiry when sending, including an option to keep a transfer active indefinitely so the download link never stops working on its own. That means clients, collaborators, or anyone you share photos with can return to the link weeks or months later without hitting an expiry wall. You can also change the expiry date of an active transfer at any time from your Transfers panel if you want to extend access after the fact.