Attachments

You can attach files to messages in any direct message, group chat, or channel where you can send messages. Attached files appear as tiles above the message, with a thumbnail for images and video.

How to Attach Files

From Files: Click + in the message box, open Add, and choose Add a File. Your Pentos Files open so you can pick a file.
Drag and drop: Drag files from your computer onto the Collab page. Up to 10 files are taken from each drop. Wait for any file that is still uploading to finish first, or the new drop is ignored.
Paste long text: Paste text longer than 5,000 characters and Pentos turns it into a text file attachment, or a code file if the text looks like code, instead of pasting it into the message.

Files you add show as tiles in the message box. Click a tile to preview it, or click its X to remove it before you send.

A message can carry up to 10 files. Uploaded files follow the same rules as any upload to Pentos: see Uploading Files for supported types and size limits. Files you upload count toward your storage.

Attachments can be sent in the main conversation only. While the Replies panel is open, files you drag onto the page go to the reply box instead. They are not sent with the reply, though they are still saved to your Home folder in Files. A reply that has only files is sent as [1 file attached] with no file. Close the Replies panel before dragging files in.

If you send files without any text, the message reads [1 file attached] or [2 files attached], and so on.

Waiting for Uploads to Finish

Each new upload shows a spinner while it uploads and a small badge while Pentos scans it for security. The send button stays unavailable until every attachment is ready. If you try to send early, Pentos asks you to wait for your attachments to finish uploading.

If a file fails the scan, it is removed from the message box with “Sorry, that attachment could not be sent.” If a scan takes more than five minutes, the file is removed and Pentos asks you to try again.

If someone stops sharing a file with you before you send, it is removed from the message box and Pentos tells you that you don’t have access to it. Long text you paste while another file is still uploading goes into the message as text. If the message already has 10 files, pasting long text shows “Maximum of 10 files per message”.

Who Can Open Attachments

Anyone in the conversation or channel can open a file you attach, as long as you are allowed to share it, which means you own it or have the Admin role on it. Each member gets Viewer access, a File Shared With You notification, and the file appears in their Files under Shared. People who join later can open earlier attachments too. See Sharing & Permissions.

You can also attach a file someone shared with you as a Viewer or Editor. Because you can’t share it onward, members who don’t already have their own access see a locked User File tile, and clicking it shows “Sorry, you don’t have access to this file.”

What happens to access after the message is sent:

Deleting a message: People who were members when it was sent keep access to its files. People who joined later lose access to files they could only open through that message, and its files leave the Files sidebar. If the message has replies, its files stay on it and nothing changes. To stop sharing a file, change its access in Files.
Leaving: When you leave a direct message, group chat, or channel that still has other members, you lose access to the files shared in its messages. If you are the last member, it moves to the Recycle Bin and you keep access.
Permanently deleting: When a channel or conversation is permanently deleted from the Recycle Bin, members lose the access they got to its attached files.
Removing a member: When an admin removes someone from a channel, files already shared with that person through messages stay shared. Change the file’s access in Files if needed.

The Files sidebar lists the files attached to the current conversation or channel, so you don’t have to scroll to find them.

To open it, click the round + button (More) at the top left of the conversation, then click Files.

File count: The total number of files appears at the top.
Name: The file’s name.
Size: The file’s size.
Date added: When the file was added to Pentos, shown as Today, Yesterday, a number of days ago, or a date.

Files you can’t open appear as User File with No access. Archived, deleted, and public files don’t appear. The sidebar covers files from the most recent 500 messages with attachments. If nothing has been attached yet, it shows No files yet.

Previewing Files

Click a file in the sidebar, or an attachment tile in the conversation, to preview it. Collab uses the same viewers as Files: images, video, audio, code, text, documents, and spreadsheets open inside Pentos, and PDFs open in a new browser tab. See Previewing Files.

Where Uploaded Files Are Stored

Files you upload into a conversation or channel, by dragging them in or pasting long text, are saved in a folder for that conversation or channel. Files you pick from your library with Add a File stay where they are.

Created on first upload: The folder is made the first time anyone uploads a file into the conversation or channel.
Owner: The folder belongs to the person who created the conversation or channel. It sits inside the Channels or Conversations folder in their Files. See Folders Pentos Creates.
Name: A channel’s folder is named after the channel, such as marketing Files. A direct message’s folder is named Direct Message Files. Renaming the channel later does not rename the folder.
Everyone else: Other members see the folder in their Files under Shared, with Viewer access, and lose it when they leave.
Your uploads: You still own each file you upload, even inside someone else’s folder.