In Squarespace 5, you can upload, store, and share files in your file storage area, and then add those files to your pages. Files uploaded to file storage must be 20 MB or smaller.
Note: If you change the name of an existing file, you'll need to manually update the URL of any links to this source file. This includes images and videos.
Note: The file storage area is different from a File Storage page.
Watch a video
To learn how to upload, store, and organize files in your site's file storage area, watch this video:
File requirements
When uploading files to your site, follow these guidelines:
- There is a 20 MB limit for file uploads.
- We recommend using image files of less than 500 KB for best results. When it comes to image size, bigger isn't always better.
- Only use letters, numbers, underscores, and hyphens in file names. Other characters (like spaces, question marks, percent signs, and ampersands) may upload incorrectly or cause unexpected behavior.
- We recommend you embed videos directly on a page or post.
- Compressed .zip folders can contain up to 100 files. Each file must be 5 MB or smaller, and the total folder size should be 20 MB or less.
Upload files
- In the Website Management bar, click File Storage under Data & Media.
- Click Upload Files.
- Click Browse to find a file or files on your computer.
- Click Add Another File to add additional files.
- Click Upload.
Tip: To upload multiple files at once, add them to a compressed .zip folder.
- Check Decompress Zip Files After Unloading before uploading the folder.
- The compressed folder can contain up to 100 files.
- Each file must be 5 MB or smaller.
- The total folder size should be 20 MB or less.
Organize with folders
To organize the files in File Storage, click Create Directory to create a folder. To move a file into the folder, click Move and choose the folder.
Delete a file
To delete a file, click Remove. This will permanently remove the file.
Note: If you delete a folder, all the files within the folder will also be deleted.
Change a file name
To change the name of a file, click Modify. Once you change a file name, update the URL for any places on your site where you're using it.
Use the file on your site
To get the direct URL of the file, click URL.
Once you've copied the direct URL, you can link to it, or embed it on your site. Here's an example of how you'd do this for an image, but the process is similar for any file:
- Click URL and copy the direct URL.
- In Content mode, open the editor for to the page or post you want to add the image to.
- Choose the image icon.
- Click Direct URL.
- Paste the URL into the Image Location (URL) field.
- Click Save & Close.
Tip: You can also click Your Images within the image window to browse for the image in file storage.
Export images and files
To manually export a file from your file storage, right-click (or Option + click on a Mac) any on the file and download it.
In Squarespace 5, you can download files from file storage one at a time. To bulk-download files, use third-party software or browser extensions like Chrono Download Manager (Chrome) or DownloadThemAll (Firefox). Note that since these are third-party services, they fall outside of the scope of Squarespace support.
Sharing files
In Member Permissions, you can set the permissions for any audiences who have access to your site. Use the File Storage row to choose each audience's access settings.
Note: if you set The Public audience to Restricted or Storage Only, none of the images or files you've embedded on your site will display for visitors that aren't logged into your site. In general, we recommend leaving this setting as Visible.
For visitors who don't have login permissions for your site:
- To create a page where people can download files, add a File Storage page.
- To allow visitors to upload files, create a Drop Box page.
Form data storage
Submissions to a Form page or widget can save automatically as an Excel file in file storage. To set this up, choose Save Submissions to Excel Spreadsheet in the configuration window. The files will appear in the Captured Data folder in your file storage.
To learn more, visit Adding forms.
Tracking files
To track statistics for files in file storage, click Track. To learn more, visit Tracking site traffic statistics.
Image URLs
An image URL is a unique web address for a specific image. To copy the URL for any image in file storage:
- Add your image to file storage.
- Next to your image, click URL.
- The URL appears in a blue box at the top.
- Highlight this URL and copy it (on a PC, press Ctrl + C. On a Mac, press ⌘ + C).
You can then paste by pressing Ctrl + V on a PC, or ⌘ + V on a Mac.
FAQ
Can I access Squarespace 5 via FTP?
Squarespace 5 doesn't currently support FTP access.
The zip file I'm uploading doesn't appear in my file storage area
Ensure your compressed folder meets these guidelines:
- Contains 100 files or fewer.
- Each file is 5 MB or smaller.
- The total folder size is 20 MB or less.
My file is too large
If your file exceeds the 20 MB limit, we suggest hosting it with a third-party site. For example, you can stream a video from YouTube, or use a link to embed an image.