5 Reasons NOT to upload to ClickUp (ClickUp isn't best for file storage!)

The next time you're about to upload a file directly to ClickUp, stop. Think about this video here, because I'm going to break down some reasons why that might not be the best option for every workflow. I'm Layla at ProcessDriven, and on this channel we talk about process, ClickUp and everything in between. So if you enjoy that stuff like and subscribe while you're down there. But without further ado, let's dive in when it comes to adding your files into your ClickUp account, you have three major options. You could just take a file that you have to drag it into the task and upload it directly to ClickUp. You could use a link and hyperlink out to your Dropbox file or Google Drive file. You could use that as just a plain hyperlink. Or depending on what you're using, you could even embed it directly in ClickUp like you can see here. Or as a classy alternative to hyperlinking, you could use one of ClickUp's built in file storage integrations to select your file and attach it to ClickUp that way. Now I should note for this third option to have this be available to your users, you're going to need to set it up in your settings right here and connect your accounts here that way. Those alternative options do show up when someone's on a task and trying to attach a file. Once this is enabled, you'll see the options to connect certain accounts in the attachment area on a particular task, as well as in an Attachments custom field or a File custom field where you can also see these same options. Now, all three of these methods for attaching or linking or integrating, they're all valid options. But one that I see used far more often than it should be is the first option of actually uploading files directly to ClickUp. I just want to go on the record here and put it out there for all of you that in general, in most circumstances this is not the best choice for you and your team. Now I get it. If you're someone who has been uploading everything to ClickUp, you might be kind of taken aback by this, because ClickUp's marketing and the pricing plans they have on their site do promote this kind of usage. While there's likely many reasons why ClickUp would promote this feature, mainly because, you know, people like you feel it's really valuable. There's also a side effect of this. When you are uploading your files into a tool and you're using it as your host, as your storage system, you get Stuck in that tool, you're sticky. It would be very hard for you to switch to a different tool if you're uploading everything to ClickUp, which may not be their intention, but I want to let you know, is something to be aware of. So that brings me to the first reason why uploading directly to ClickUp probably isn't advisable in most situations. If you ever are going to use a different tool, whether it's a different project manager or just a different place to put your files, going to be very hard to get them out of ClickUp. There's no way at this point in time to search all attachments and download them all at once. It is a manual, task by task, document by document process. So if the data you're putting into ClickUp is something you might eventually need to put somewhere else, I would push back a bit on uploading directly to ClickUp. Reason number two to not upload directly to ClickUp is that backups become challenging. So while ClickUp is reliable and they're, you know, they're doing their own backups on their end, things do happen. And, you know, we've all lived in this digital age long enough to know that things can go wrong. And there may be times where you need to access a file that has gone missing for some reason, maybe someone deleted it, which we'll talk more about in a second, but you want to have multiple copies of important information backed up in multiple areas. When you upload your files to ClickUp and you're using ClickUp as your primary storage device, that's not very easy to do. There are tools out there that allow you to back up and sync your ClickUp account, but they are quite expensive and many of them don't even include attachments that you upload. Now, backing up things is a pretty good segue to reason number three, not to upload files directly to ClickUp. And this is one I really want you to pay attention to. At the time of recording this video, when an attachment in your ClickUp account is deleted, right, you click the X like you see here, and we delete that attachment, your file's gone. So at the time of recording this video, attachments do not go into the normal trash can. So if you were to, say, delete a task or archive a task, you can recover that task or recover that document. In fact, the same goes for things like custom fields or dashboards. But when it comes to attachments, when you click that X, which is very small and very close to other options, you might want to do that attachment is gone and unrecoverable, at least at the time of recording this video. I do hope that this will change and when it does, I hope ClickUp will comment here and let us know. But at the time of recording, this is a verified issue and is kind of scary for folks that are relying on those attachments for historical purposes. All of this kind of leads me to almost a summary point in point number four for why to not upload your items directly into ClickUp, and that's that ClickUp isn't made for that. Okay, so the app to replace them all thing you guys have heard me harp on this on the channel. That motto has been kind of retired for the most part for ClickUp, ClickUp is not the app to replace them all. It is an app that can help with it all. It could maybe manage it all if they continue to build out more integrations. But at this point in time, ClickUp is a tool with a team of people developing a specific set of features for for a specific avatar or specific group of people who would be using the software of those teams and of those core features. File management is not their specialty. And this is not just a ClickUp thing. This is pretty much all software, right? When it becomes more and more general, it adds more and more features. It's not the best at any of them. It has a lot of features, but it's not the best. So when it comes to file storage and having those advanced features that you would expect when it comes to file storage, like advanced permissions, revision history, heck, not accidentally deleting your file if you accidentally click an X, kind of a big one. Those kinds of things are not supported in ClickUp because ClickUp is not built for specifically file storage. Not to say they won't get better, but when you compare the features of ClickUp's file storage to something like Dropbox or Google Drive, it is night and day because these tools specialize in that area where whereas for ClickUp, this file storage is kind of a nice to have, but it's not a core element and it's not an area where they've to date at least spent a lot of time developing features. Now last but not least on these reasons to not upload things to ClickUp is because it is one of the silliest reasons to give ClickUp more money. Now, I'm not saying we don't want to pay ClickUp, right? You're getting value out of the software. Pay for it, of course, get onto those paid plans. But so often I see folks, you know, students, people just starting off with their their businesses. They're in a position where cash is really tight and they're on the free plan of ClickUp. And the reason the feature that they upgrade to the unlimited plan, which is the first paid plan at the time of recording, is because they want unlimited file storage, which is so silly if you are trying to scrimp and save. If you're someone who wants to try to spend as little as possible on software, I get you. This is one of the silliest reasons to do so. Now, of course, this all sounds so definitive, right? Don't upload to ClickUp. But you guys know me by now. I can usually argue I both sides of pretty much any position on anything. And when it comes to uploading files to ClickUp, the same is true. There are four moments or four instances where uploading to ClickUp can really make sense, especially if you're already on a paid plan and this isn't a make or break feature for you to upgrade from a free plan. Reason number one when it's a good idea to go ahead and just have things upload directly to ClickUp is when you're using forms. So I'm partial to having my form questions say things like, hey, please provide a link to to a file. And my users, the people who are booking sessions with me, they are savvy enough with technology that generally they understand how to give me a link to a Google Doc or a link to a hosted file rather than uploading. But if you are creating forms for your business, for your intake forms for your sales process, and you're dealing with a user who isn't comfortable with that idea of hosting somewhere else and putting the link in your form, having that attachment area to reduce that friction could be nice. So for example, if you were using a form in your intake process for new leads, and you wanted people to upload a pict of their current house project that you're going to be evaluating, that might be a time where it would make sense to have things be just a regular attachment because people will be used to it and you won't add more friction to the process. The second circumstance where having things attached directly to ClickUp can be worth it is if you need those features that are built into ClickUp's file management system. Those main features come down to cover images and proofing, so cover images look something like this. It's the ability to take an attachment to click the little pin so it's stuck to the top, and then in say a board view or even in list view, you can then see that featured image on the task as kind of a highlighted image. If you like to have a more visual workflow and you are using this pinned image feature, you need to upload to ClickUp to get that. One example of where we use this is actually for my YouTube content production flow. I really like to see the thumbnail of the image. So I just go ahead and put a second copy of the thumbnail into ClickUp just so I can see that visual review similar to the COVID feature. If you need the proofing feature in ClickUp which looks like this, this is where you can select any attachment that you've attached in ClickUp and add comments onto it with these little hot tip looking areas if you need this feature. If you want to be able to prove Things directly in ClickUp, you're going to need to upload directly to ClickUp. But keep in mind you could also do this proofing in say, Google Drive or Dropbox. They all pretty much have this feature, but ClickUp has a pretty nice finish on it. So if you want to use ClickUp's version, you're going to need to upload. The third instance where I think it makes sense to upload files directly to ClickUp is when you are on a paid plan already and you just need to transmit a quick idea. So for example, I might be on the website, I notice a link is broken. I'll take a screenshot of the website and post it in ClickUp for my team. For those instances, I'm not going to take the extra time to upload that image to drive and then link it in. That's just too much work. I'm going to take a screenshot, copy and paste it into ClickUp because I'm on a paid plan already and I do not need this image to reference it on long term. Now the fourth reason to use the built in file storage and ClickUp would probably be for me at least, email attachments. So if you are using the email to ClickUp feature to forward your emails into ClickUp or to create tasks out of emails or websites using the Chrome extension, these are already going to attach images or HTML files into the actual task you're creating. So in that way it will force you kind of to store your files inside ClickUp. And if you're relying heavily on these features, usually the benefits of using that Chrome extension or to use that email forwarding which I talk about here, if you're not sure what I'm talking about, there. Usually the benefits of those features outweighs the friction of having things stored in ClickUp as long as you don't need to reference those files in the long term. So, in summary, do not upload files to ClickUp unless you're in a situation where you should upload files to ClickUp. Very decisive video, Layla. Now I hope you have confidence in figuring out your file attachment method for yourself or for your team. If you have any questions, leave them in the comments below. And of course, course, if you enjoy videos about Process, ClickUp and everything in between, be sure to subscribe and like while you're down there. I would really appreciate it, especially as it helps this video show up to more people in the YouTube algorithm. Till next time, enjoy the process.