> Portal Navigation:
> 
> - Append `.md` to any URL under `https://dev.wix.com/docs/` to get its markdown version.
> - Pages are either content pages (article or reference text) or menu pages (a list of links to child pages).
> - To get a menu page, truncate any URL to a parent path and append `.md` (e.g. `https://dev.wix.com/docs/sdk.md`, `https://dev.wix.com/docs/sdk/core-modules.md`).
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## Resource: Files



## Article: Private Files

## Article Link: https://dev.wix.com/docs/velo/apis/wix-media-v2/files/private-files.md

## Article Content:

---
title: Private Files
---

# Private Files
Private files are protected against public access. This means you can't access them using their file descriptor's `url` property.

You may want to make a file private if it's for sale or contains personal information.

File descriptors for private files still include a top-level `thumbnailUrl` property. For images and videos this is based on the file's contents. For other media types, it contains an icon representing the file type.

## Make your file private
You can make a file private by setting its `private` property to `true` when you add it to a site using one of the following methods:
- [`importFile()`](/wix-media-v2/files/import-file)
- [`bulkImportFile()`](/wix-media-v2/files/bulk-import-file)
- [`generateFileUploadUrl()`](/wix-media-v2/files/generate-file-upload-url)
- [`generateFileResumableUploadUrl()`](/wix-media-v2/files/generate-file-resumable-upload-url)

> **Note:** Making a file private impacts the following file descriptor properties:
> - `yourFile.url`: Has a URL value, but it returns a 403 (unauthorized) response, meaning it won't work.
> - The file descriptor's `media` field contains stringified objects representing the file's media. These contain empty strings for their `url` values, depending on the type of file. The possible media fields are:
>    - Audio: `yourFile.media.audio.assets[x]`
>    - Video: `yourFile.media.video`
>    - Document: `yourFile.media.document`
>    - Archive: `yourFile.media.archive`

## Access a private file
Use the [`generateFileDownloadUrl()`](https://dev.wix.com/docs/velo/api-reference/wix-media-v2/files/generate-file-download-url.md) method to access a private file. Call the method with your private file's ID. This will return a new URL that you can use to download the file.