These steps are for the web app.
Guests are people who are not members of the workspace. They open a file you have shared with them by email, and they can only view it. For how to share a file in general, see How do I share a file?
Who can invite a guest
In a shared workspace, only the person who created the file can invite people to it. Admins and the owner cannot do this for someone else's file. In a personal workspace, you can invite anyone by email.
Invite a guest
- In the File manager, open the file's menu and choose Share.
- Type the person's email address in Add people. In a personal workspace, the field is Add people by email.
- In a shared workspace, check the Role for the people you add menu. It applies only to members, not to guests.
- Select Invite.
If the address belongs to a member of your workspace, that person gets the role you chose (Editor or Viewer) instead of becoming a guest. Any other address becomes a guest.
A guest can only view. Their role is shown as Viewer, with the note Guests can only view, and you cannot give a guest the Editor role.
What the guest receives
Bluedeer emails the guest a link. The email says who shared the file, names it, and has an Open file button. It also says how to open the file: sign in to Bluedeer with that email address, or enter the code we send to that address.
The notice after inviting says "We emailed" the guest.
If you type the address of someone who is already a guest, the field says that they already have access as a guest. Bluedeer does not add them again, and nobody is emailed again.
When the email can't be sent
Sometimes the guest is added but the email can't be sent. The notice says they can view the file as a guest but that you need to send them their link. Copy it with Copy their link, described below, and send it to them yourself. The guest keeps their access.
Copy a guest's link
In People with access, open the guest's menu and choose Copy their link. The menu says: "They open it after signing in or entering a code we email them." Bluedeer confirms with "Link for [email] copied."
Remove a guest
To take a guest's access away, see How do I stop sharing a file or chat?, which covers removing a guest and what happens to the links they used.
Limits on guest invitations
To stop invitation emails being sent in bulk, each person can send 30 guest invitations an hour and 100 a day. Every new guest counts, including a guest whose email could not be sent. Inviting someone who is already a guest does not count.
If you go over the limit, the notice says "Couldn't give access to" that person, followed by "Too many people were invited by email recently. Try again later." Wait a while, then try again. Limits on invitations to join the workspace are a different thing: see Why an invitation expires or is refused.
Workspace settings that stop guests
In a team workspace, the owner and admins set these in Settings, on the Sharing panel of the General tab. In a personal workspace, you set them under Manage workspace, in the Sharing section. For what each one does, see Set workspace share link rules.
- Share links: when this is off, nobody can create share links. The Invite area says "Share links are turned off in this workspace. Only members can be added." Guests already listed show Can't open it now: share links are turned off.
- Links that stay up to date: guests open the file through a link that keeps up to date. When this is off, no new guests can be added. The Invite area says "Links that stay up to date are turned off in this workspace. Only members can be added." Guests already listed show Can't open it now: links that stay up to date are turned off.
- People outside the workspace (team workspaces only): when this is off, the Invite area says "This workspace doesn't allow sharing with people outside it. Only members can be added." An outside address is not added, and guests already listed show Can't open it now: sharing outside the workspace is turned off.
- Who can create share links: when the workspace is set to Only the owner and admins, the Invite area says "Only the owner and admins can create share links in this workspace. Only members can be added." Members can still be added with a role, but no guests can be invited.
While one of these is off, guests cannot open the file, even though they are still listed.
If you can't add an outside person to a file, read the note under the Invite area. It says which setting is the reason. If you can't see Share in the file's menu at all, you are not the person who created the file.