Previewing Files
You don’t always need to download a file just to see what’s in it. GolemDrive lets you preview most file types right in your browser.
How to preview
Section titled “How to preview”Click on any file to open its preview. GolemDrive decrypts the file temporarily in your browser and shows you the contents. When you close the preview, the decrypted data is discarded — nothing unencrypted is ever stored on our servers.
What you can preview
Section titled “What you can preview”GolemDrive supports previews for a wide range of file types:
Documents
Section titled “Documents”- PDF files — Scroll through pages, zoom in and out, just like a PDF reader.
- Word documents (.docx) — View the formatted content of your Word files.
- Spreadsheets (.xlsx) — See your Excel data laid out in rows and columns.
- Presentations (.pptx) — Flip through your PowerPoint slides.
- Photos and images — View in a gallery with zoom support. Flip through multiple images easily.
- Videos — Play videos right in your browser with full playback controls (play, pause, skip, volume).
- Music and audio — Listen to audio files with a built-in player (play, pause, skip, volume controls).
Other files
Section titled “Other files”- Archives (.zip and similar) — Browse the contents of compressed files without extracting them.
- Code and text files — Read source code and plain text with syntax highlighting that makes code easier to read.
Security during previews
Section titled “Security during previews”When you preview a file, here’s what happens:
- The encrypted file is fetched from the server
- It’s decrypted in your browser using your encryption key
- The preview is displayed
- When you close the preview, the decrypted content is cleared from memory
At no point is your file stored unencrypted on GolemDrive’s servers. The decryption and display happen entirely on your device.
- Quick look before sharing. Previewing is a great way to double-check a file before you share it with someone.
- Not every format is supported. If a file type doesn’t have a preview, you’ll see a prompt to download it instead. This is pretty rare though — most common formats are covered.
- Large files may take a moment. Since the file needs to be fetched and decrypted before the preview appears, very large files (like long videos) might take a few seconds to load.