Files & streaming

Uploading and connecting files to products

Updated

Upload your files to ABC Digital Downloads once, then connect each one to the products it belongs to. When a customer buys a connected product, ABC delivers the file automatically.

Step 1: Upload your files

  1. In your Shopify admin, open ABC Digital Downloads and click Files.
  2. Click Upload files and choose one or more files from your computer. You can also drag files onto the list.
  3. ABC shows the progress of each upload. Each file appears in the list when it's done.

You can upload any type of file. Each upload counts toward your plan's storage, shown under the Files title (see How to manage files).

💡 Tip: Customers see each file's name in their download links, so use clear names, such as social-growth-playbook.pdf.

Upload a file from a URL

To add a file from a web address instead:

  1. Open the menu next to Upload files and choose Upload from URL.
  2. In Add file from URL, enter the File URL and a Filename, then click Add file.

Upload files button in ABC with its menu open, showing the Upload from URL option

ABC doesn't copy the file: it keeps the link. When customers download the file, ABC sends them to its original address, so the file must stay online there. A linked file doesn't use your ABC storage, and ABC doesn't show its size: the Size column in Files shows "-", and download emails list the file without a size.

ABC keeps the Filename exactly as you type it and doesn't add an extension, so type the full name, such as workbook.pdf.

Step 2: Connect the file to products

  1. In Files, click the file.
  2. Under Connected Products, click Connect new products.
  3. In Shopify's Add products window, tick the products and click Add.

The products appear under Connected Products, with the date each was linked. The connection is saved straight away; there's no Save step.

💡 Tip: Connecting a file to a product doesn't add it to orders placed before. To give earlier customers the file, attach it to their orders with Manually connect files, then click Send updated download email. See How to send updated files to specific customers.

Shopify's Add products picker searched for Social Growth, with the Social Growth Playbook ticked

Connected Products on a file page in ABC, listing the Social Growth Playbook product and the date it was linked

💡 Tip: A file can be connected to several products, and a product can have several files, so you never need to upload the same file twice.

Connect several files at once

In the Files list, tick the files, choose Connect to products, and pick the products.

Connect from a product instead

You can also open a product in Products and add its files there, including a different file for each variant. See How to connect files to products.

Remove a connection

On the file's page, tick the products under Connected Products, click Remove products, and confirm. The file itself stays in Files.