Stop download sharing on Shopify without annoying buyers

Sooner or later, one of your download links turns up somewhere it shouldn't: a group chat, a forum thread, a "free download" page. The tempting fix is to lock everything down. One download, one device, a short window. That stops some sharing. It also stops the customer who bought your course on a laptop and wants to finish it on their phone.

The honest version: no setting makes sharing impossible. Once a file is on someone's computer, no link rule can take it back. What you can do is make a forwarded link stop working, make a leaked PDF point back to its order, and, for video and audio, avoid handing over a file at all. ABC Digital Downloads has a control for each, and each one costs honest buyers something. Here's how to choose.

Two kinds of sharing

Sharing the link. A customer forwards their download email, or pastes the link somewhere public. Every download through that link counts against the order's limits, the same as the customer's own. This is the kind your settings can stop.

Sharing the file. A customer downloads the file once, then passes the file itself around: a shared drive, a forum, a message to a friend. Your options here are a stamp that shows whose copy a PDF is, or streaming, so there's no file to pass around in the first place.

Make a forwarded link stop working

These four rules live under Downloads in ABC's Settings, and they apply to every order you haven't overridden. An empty limit means no limit. Limit and restrict downloads has the steps.

Download limit. Available on the Essential, Professional and Plus plans. Download Limit sets how many times each file on an order can be downloaded. Each file counts separately: with a limit of 3, a customer can download every file on their order three times. Once a passed-around link uses that up, it opens a Download limit reached page instead of the file.

What it costs honest buyers: every download that starts counts, even one the customer cancels in their browser. A laptop, a phone and one false start add up to three downloads without any sharing. And a changed Download Limit in Settings also applies to orders placed before the change, so tightening it reaches past buyers too. Leave room for a second device.

IP limit. Available on the Professional and Plus plans. IP Limit sets how many different IP addresses can download each file. A forwarded link gets opened from other people's networks, so it reaches the limit, and the next person gets a Too many devices or locations page.

What it costs honest buyers: the page's name says it. One customer downloading at home, at work and on their phone can count as three devices or locations. Start at 3 or higher.

Billing country. Available on the Professional and Plus plans. Tick Restrict downloads to the billing country, and downloads only work from the country in the order's billing address. Anywhere else, the link opens a Not available in your location page.

What it costs honest buyers: it blocks your own customer too, whenever they download from outside their billing country, on a trip for example. It suits stores that sell mostly in one country.

Access limit. Available on the Essential, Professional and Plus plans. Access Limit (days) makes an order's download links stop working a set number of days after the download email is sent, or after the order date if no email went out. Forwarded copies of the link stop with it. See Limit how long customers can download.

What it costs honest buyers: with a 30-day limit, a customer who comes back in month three for a lost file finds a page saying their access has ended. If that happens, click Resend Download Email on their order in ABC (available on the same plans). It sends their links again and restarts the access period. It's the only button that does: the Shopify admin's ABC: Resend download email and Send updated download email don't restart it.

And one switch you already have: when you cancel or refund an order in Shopify, its download links are turned off too.

Make a leaked PDF traceable

PDF stamping covers what limits can't: the file itself. ABC adds a line of text to the PDF each time a customer downloads it, filled in with that order's details, such as the customer's name and the order number. Every copy shows who bought it. That discourages sharing, and if your stamp includes the order number, a copy that turns up anyway points straight to its order. PDF stamping is available on the Essential, Professional and Plus plans.

Stamping is the gentlest control here, because no honest buyer ever hits a wall. Its cost is on the page, so keep the stamp small and out of the way. Watermarking PDFs without ruining the read has the stamp text, size and position we recommend, and How to set up PDF stamping for your digital files has the steps.

Think twice about one template setting: Lock PDF (Prevent copying, printing, etc.). It's off by default, and for most products it should stay off. A customer who bought a printable planner, or wants to copy a passage into their notes, runs straight into it.

Stream instead of handing over a file

For video and audio, the strongest option is not to hand over a file at all. On the Plus plan, you can set an MP3, WAV or MP4 file to Stream on its page in ABC. Customers then open it in a player on your store's own domain, with play, volume and full-screen controls and no download option. Right-click and picture-in-picture are turned off in the player. Streams don't count toward the download limit, so rewatching a lesson doesn't use up the customer's downloads.

Streaming makes a file harder to save, not impossible. The app says so itself: "there's still a chance someone could save your file while it's being streamed."

What it costs honest buyers: there's no file to keep, so a customer can't save a lesson to watch offline. That's fine for most courses, and wrong for files customers need to keep, like a sample pack for their music software. How to set up streaming for video and audio files has the details.

A starting setup for each kind of product

These are starting points, not rules. Not on Plus? Deliver video as downloads with a download limit, and add an IP limit on Professional.

When you find a leak

Find the order. If a stamped PDF turns up, read the stamp. If you think an order's links are being shared, open it in ABC (Orders, then the order) and check File download activity. It lists each download with the file, the IP address, the country (not always filled in), the browser and the time. Downloads of one file from lots of different addresses or countries suggest the link has traveled. Blocked attempts don't appear there: the list only shows downloads that went through.

Choose how firmly to act. To tighten just that order, tick Override global download limitations for this order in its Download Limitations card and enter lower limits. The order's fields start empty, and an empty Download Limit means no limit for that order, even if Settings has one, so fill in every limit you want to keep. To stop the order completely, tick Disable all download links. Every link on the order stops working, and ABC's file list disappears from the customer's Order status page. Untick it to turn the links back on.

Neither step can reach a copy that's already been downloaded. For PDFs, that's where the stamp earns its keep.

Consider asking first. Sometimes a "leak" is a customer sharing with a colleague or a partner, and a friendly email settles it.

Keep honest buyers happy

Say the rules before they buy. If you use limits, put them in the product description, for example: "Download each file up to 5 times within 30 days of your download email." On the Professional and Plus plans, you can add the same line to the download email itself (see Customizing email templates).

Know what a blocked customer sees. Instead of the file, they get a page that names the reason, with the order number, the file, and buttons to contact you or go back to your store. To see each page with your store's name, go to Settings > Blocked download page and click Preview.

Fix it on the order, not in Settings. When a customer hits a limit, tick Override global download limitations for this order on their order and enter a higher Download Limit, or leave it empty for no limit. Their link works again. Viewing orders walks through the order page.

Start loose. It's easier to tighten a limit after one leak than to win back a customer who got locked out of something they paid for.

Pick the plan that fits your catalog

Download limits, the access limit and PDF stamping start on the Essential plan. The IP limit and the billing-country rule start on Professional, and streaming is on Plus. Every paid plan comes with a 10-day free trial. Compare the plans side by side.