News
Super Happy Hours for Premium users
July 3, 2009
To test parts of our new infrastructure, we have just disabled any traffic limits for premium users. This means unlimited downloading for all our premium customers. Have fun! Please notice that we may revoke this feature at any time without prior notice.New remote upload queuing system
July 2, 2009
We have improved the way remote uploads are handled. There was a limit of 30 remote uploads you can enqueue, and they used to be started all at the same time. This has been changed so that you can now enqueue up to 300 links, but only 5 copy jobs will be started at the same time. This will avoid remote server problems, which are unable to handle so many download tasks at the same time. As soon as these jobs finish, the next copy jobs will be started automatically.Changes in the handling of RapidPoints
July 1, 2009
As you know we are constantly trying to improve your experience with RapidShare. This includes simplifying our system, fighting fraud attempts and, of course, improving your benefits. In order to accommodate those needs, we have modified the way we count the RapidPoints generated by Premium Users. There is no 255 points limit per day anymore. This means, you can get an unlimited number of PU RapidPoints per day. The PU RapidPoints will not be stored separately, but added directly to your RapidPoints total, so they can also be used immediately. Every Premium User can generate 1 RapidPoint per 20 minutes for other users by downloading their files. Those changes take effect immediately. If you would like to see how many RapidPoints and PU RapidPoints you have received each day, please let us know. We consider adding this information as an evaluation feature in the future.Earn up to 20 Euro for gaining us a new customer!
June 15, 2009
RapidShare now offers you an affiliate program through which you can earn hard cash. Our affiliate program is not to be confused with other affiliate programs though. We will continue not to bother our customers with annoying pop up ads. It's also possible without that: a new one year account that is acquired today can earn you 20 Euro! Any owner of a Premium or Collector's account can participate. There is no need for a complicated setup process either. Just have a look at your Premium or Collector's Zone - you might already have earned some Euros. As soon as someone buys a Premium Account from the download page of a file you have uploaded, ReferrerPoints will be credited to your account. You can cash out the ReferrerPoints at an exchange rate which also is shown in the Premium and Collector's Zone. More information can be found in our FAQ.Congratulations!
June 08, 2009
Srishti A. from India is the lucky winner of our RapidShare Lottery. COO Bobby Chang will personally congratulate the 19-year-old and present her with the 50.000 EUR at the beginning of July. Pictures and more information will be published here.Due to the big interest in our lottery, we have decided to additionally raffle 1000 x 10.000 RapidPoints among all participants. The winners will be notified by e-mail and the RapidPoints will automatically be given to the accounts that contained the winning tickets.
RapidShare customers from more than 60 countries have participated in the lottery. Until May 31 everybody had the possibility to exchange 50 RapidPoints for a lottery ticket to join in our big lottery. We want to thank all our users from all over the world for the enormous participation.
Privacy Policy online
June 06, 2009
RapidShare is fast, easy and secure. You can experience "Fast" and "Easy" on our website every day. But how about "Secure"? What is happening to your data behind the scenes? Especially in today's world, which suffers from a "surveillance hype" in many places, that question becomes more and more important. Our support team also receives a lot of questions about data privacy, and quite a number of rumours are circulating on the internet. Therefore, we have set ourselves the goal of handling this topic as transparently as possible. After all, it is your right to know straight from the source what information we store and how we treat it. From now on, the navigation bar on top of each RapidShare page will show the link "Privacy Policy", under which the questions our customers ask about data privacy are answered in an easily understandable, yet legally binding way.File migrator can no longer be used for free
June 06, 2009
Our file migrator really is a useful tool. You can move one, several or even all your files from one account to another, even amongst different account types, within seconds. Unfortunately, that tool has been abused often in the past. That is why we now have to charge a fee for using it. From now on, using the file migrator will cost 500 RapidPoints, 250 of which will be subtracted from the source account and 250 from the destination account. Thus, we hope to contain improper usage of the file migrator. It is possible that we will have to restrict it further so it can be used only once per day. We would like to point out that the original purpose of that tool was to enable you of moving your files from a collector's account to a Premium account if you decide to become a Premium customer (or the other way around) - not for moving lots of files several times a day between several accounts.RapidShare Lottery deadline
June 01, 2009
What would you do or buy if you were the winner of 50.000 EUR in cash? A new car, new stereo equipment with high-tech speakers, the holiday of your dreams - the winner of the RapidShare Lottery will be happy about a suitcase full of money.Until May 31, everybody had the possibility to exchange 50 RapidPoints for a lottery ticket to join in our big lottery. Now all the tickets that participate in the lottery are collected in a big lottery wheel, ready for the drawing. The winner will be drawn one of the next days and will be informed via e-mail, and another news message will be published here. Good luck!
RapidShare is now even faster!
May 27, 2009
Several optimizations on the RapidShare network code have taken place. It is now possible to download a single file with over 100 MBit/s (where available) if you are a premium user. Furthermore the general speed feeling when browsing our page should have rised significantly. However, to make all this possible, the maximum speed of free users downloading files has been limited to a maximum of one Megabit per second.Check out the new Premium Zone and collect more RapidPoints!
May 20, 2009
We have spent the last couple of weeks developing an improved design of our premium zone and added new features, e.g. the possibility to create a folder structure. To try out and test you will be able to use both zones in parallel for next two weeks. If you experience a bug regarding the navigation or programming, tell us about it! The sender of the first mail we receive reporting a particular bug will be rewarded with 1.000 RapidPoints, accredited to his or her account. Don't forget to include the Premium or Collector's account ID in your e-mail. You can also donate your points to somebody else's account. Please send your report to: bugreport@rapidshare.com.RapidShare API goes public
May 19, 2009
If you want to write your own programs for using RapidShare, you no longer have to search for possible function calls and their replies in our website's HTML source. Our API now offers all important functions in a programmer-friendly way. You can find the technical documentation online here. Have fun!More traffic for our Premium customers
April 29, 2009
In addition to the Premium HappyHours, RapidShare is glad to announce another good news for Premium customers.Our latest upgrade enables us to permanently raise the traffic credit to 5 GB per day. Up to 25 GB of traffic can be collected.
RapidShare is giving away 50.000 Euro in cash
April 09, 2009
Are you looking forward to your next well-deserved holiday? Wouldn't it be great if you won the lottery and had lots of money to spend additionally?We are holding a drawing for 50.000 Euro in cash, and the best part of it is: you can participate for free!
You simply exchange 50 RapidPoints for one lottery ticket in the Premium Zone, and your ticket will automatically participate in the drawing. You can even get more than one ticket if you want to increase your winning chance. If you don't have a Premium Account, you can of course participate using a free Collector's Account.
Our FAQ describe how to collect RapidPoints,. The Premium or Collector's Zone always shows your current amount of RapidPoints and lottery tickets.
On June 1st, 2009 we will draw the winner out of all lottery tickets.
The winner will be notified by e-mail, so if you want to participate in the drawing, please check if the E-mail address associated with your account is correct.
HappyHours for Premium customers
March 19, 2009
We will now implement HappyHours for our Premium customers, so you can use our infrastructure in the best possible way. Currently, the HappyHours will be active from 2 a.m. until 10 a.m. Central European Time since that is the only time during which there is unused bandwidth left. During that time, only 10% of the data volume you download will be charged to your traffic balance. So if you download 300 Megabytes during HappyHours, only 30 Megabytes will be accounted. This applies also if you use RapidPoints or TrafficShare for your downloads.The amount of unused traffic that can be accumulated has been raised from 12 Gigabytes to 15 Gigabytes.
Please note that this has to be regarded as a test, and we can reverse the modifications or change the time and percentage rate of the HappyHours at any time if neccessary.
RapidShare expands capacities
March 10, 2009
As promised, we have raised our capacities again in order to adapt to RapidShare's increasing popularity. We have connected several hundreds of new high-performance servers to the existing system. Additionally, we have raised the available bandwidth by amazing 120.000 Megabits, so we can continue offering high-speed downloads for our customers.The increment in collectable traffic that we introduced in February will now remain permanently. We will monitor our system load, and if there is even just a bit of unused bandwidth, experimentally raise the download traffic contingents so we make the best out of our improved infrastructure.
T-Shirt Contest Winner Announcement
March 03, 2009
RapidShare presents itself in your Outfit! Our users voted for the order of ranking. Many thanks for your efforts. Many thanks for all the participants. And the winner is ... (Check out on the T-Shirt Contest Page) RapidShare T-Shirt Contest Voting.T-Shirt Gallery
February 23, 2009
We have received many hundreds of T-shirt designs, and we think this deserves more than just a "thank you". Regrettably, we cannot award prizes to the designers whose T-shirts were not chosen for the Top 10. However, we do not want those many hours of work to be lost unappreciated. Although the jury of more than 40 RapidShare staff members has made a choice now, there's no accounting for taste. Every one of us would have loved to make an own Top 10 selection and to give out prizes. Therefore, we have spontaneously decided to publish most of the designs on our website, except for designs that did not comply with the submission rules. If you suspect your design was lost (e.g. because it was not sent as a RapidShare link to a JPEG image) but you would like to see it in the gallery anyway, you can still send it again until February 25, 2009.However, the designs we receive now can not be inserted into the Top 10 selection retroactively. RapidShare T-Shirt Contest Voting.
RapidShare T-Shirt Contest 2009 Voting Top10
February 23, 2009
The time has come. We have determined the top 10 designs. We want to thank all participants! It was not an easy choice and we now offer the 10 chosen designs for placement through our users. Every Premium- and Collector's user has one vote. RapidShare T-Shirt Contest Voting.RapidShare API completed
February 22, 2009
The RapidShare API is completed and has just entered the external Beta testing state. We hope to release the whole documentation, thus opening the API to the public within a few weeks. We encourage programmers to use the API then and help us avoid situations as mentioned below. This API makes it possible for programmers to utilize internal RapidShare functions in a very handy format in order to make own programs even more comfortable and powerful.RapidShare blocked malicious third party programs
February 22, 2009
Today our system was flooded by activities that turned out to be the result of a third-party program which has not been identified yet. Of course we are glad to see that our service inspires programmers to write software especially for other RapidShare customers. However, in some cases such software can cause unintended problems to our servers. This especially likes to happen with software used by thousands of users. In this case we have been forced to ban IP addresses that appear to be using the program in question. So if you have been unable to connect to the RapidShare homepage today, you probably have used that program. The IP ban will be removed after 30 minutes, but will be applied again instantly if the harmful activities continue. Please do not use the program again.At this point we would like to underline our warnings about third-party software that asks you to enter your RapidShare login information. Although most such programs might be safe and useful tools for uploading, downloading or managing your files comfortably, they can also easily steal your password and send it to the program's developer. Please be aware of this risk whenever you are asked to provide your RapidShare account information. RapidShare will not compensate for damages in any way caused to you by using such programs.
RapidShare T-shirt Contest 2009
February 04, 2009
Who designs the coolest T-shirt? Design the new RapidShare limited edition T-shirt and win a huge awesome RapidShare package! RapidShare presents itself in your outfit! Here it goes straight to RapidShare T-Shirt Contest.Happy New Year!
December 31, 2008
As every year, we have prepared our RapidPoints special for attentive readers of our news page. During the first hour of 2009 (Central European Time), you can convert 3333 RapidPoints into a new 30 days Premium account or a 30 days account extension.What else will 2009 bring? Of course, our quest for the Holy Grail of complete customer satisfaction will continue. Being the biggest online storage provider, we see it as an interesting and important challenge to understand and implement our customers' wishes - without rushing it or losing sight of the consequences.
We are confident that we will approach our goal step by step during next year. Firstly, more and more people use RapidShare, which is why we will upgrade our infrastructure again soon. As early as in the first quarter, our internet connection will exceed 500 Gigabit. Furthermore, the Premium zone will be redesigned. Administrating your files will be much easier and more comfortable, and you will be able to arrange your files in different folders just as on your local hard drive.
Additionally, many processes are switched to a new fully documented API - which you will not notice if you just use RapidShare as it is, but if you happen to be a programmer, it might be highly interesting for you. In any case it means that in the future, there can be upload/download and management tools with many more functions than before. We eagerly anticipate a great year, in which we hope to present you the best RapidShare of all times.
Additional 20% bonus on traffic savings
December 20, 2008
Good new to our premium customers: we are able to increase the collectable traffic amount up to 20% to 12GB. We are going to check in February if a permanent increase will be possible.Better control your ressources with the PlusTraffic modes
December 10, 2008
Until yesterday, the system automatically used your TrafficShare credits to generate additional download traffic. For some customers this caused some unwanted situations. From now on you have more control over the way the conversion works and you can also use your RapidPoints to convert them into download traffic automatically. Please log into your premium zone and click "settings". Under the heading "Download Traffic Management" you will find check boxes. Indicate which way of generating additional download traffic you prefer and click the save button. Please be aware that this setting will be reverted to the default setting if your account balance neither has RapidPoints nor TrafficShare.RapidShare-Security Lock
November 13, 2008
Various functions of the Premium- and Collector's Accounts can now be carried out and in this way be protected against unauthorized access. When the RapidShare-Security Lock is activated, the menu items "Settings" and "Convert RapidPoints" are locked and files can no longer be moved or deleted. All other functions remain available.With the locking of the Account you avoid unauthorized modifications of your files and account settings. This is how it works: From within your Premium- or Collector's Zone, click on the red lock, located at the top left. You will receive a notification asking, if you want to secure the Account. When completing the steps, the system automatically sends an email to the email address provided by you, containing the access code. Please keep this access code save. You will need this code again when accessing the above mentioned feature the next time. Please also ensure that before activating the security lock, you provide a valid email address. You can easily notice if your Account is locked or not, by the colour of the Security Lock: Green denotes "locked", red denotes "open".
RapidShare will not control Uploads
October 26, 2008
160 million files have already been uploaded to RapidShare. A number that proves, that the world depends on moving important data from A to B. A number that also proves, that RapidShare with its fast and easy services also addresses users that are no computer nerds.RapidShare is the first technology worldwide that made sending big files so easy, so fast and so secure. The files can be stored as long as needed and can be recalled from anywhere in the world, they are strictly confidential and can only be accessed by the user that originally loaded them up, or alternatively can be distributed among thousands of people quickly and easily. With a couple of billion page impressions per day we know, that we as a leader will have to pave the way for this new technology. We are aware of the fact that we therefore have big responsibility. If, for example, it had been regulated by law to control all copies before the first photo copier was invented, it is very likely that these machines would have never hit the market. That's why we are doing everything to enable this new technology - which is still very young, but already inspires millions of people every day - to be part of our future and make life more comfortable.
The security of personal data is very important to us, especially in these times. That's the reason why we will not spy out the files that our clients faithfully upload onto RapidShare, not now nor in future. We are against upload control and guarantee you that your files are safe with us and will not be opened by anyone else than yourself, unless you distribute the download link. RapidShare, of course, is against the distribution of illegal files and as soon as we are informed about illegal distribution, we delete these files and put them on a filter. But the general control of uploads is out of the question for us, because we think that especially in these times data privacy comes first.
50 Gigabytes for Free
October 23, 2008
To give every premium user the chance to try out the new side of traffic share right away, we have granted everyone 50 gigabytes extra. Go and see yourself how easy it is to expand your download limit with TrafficShare. You can check out your account status by logging into your premium zone.Fit for the future
October 23, 2008
Really it should state here that we increase the prices. A few weeks ago, we have extended our capacities by 50 Percent, enabling you to download files at highest speed. Your satisfaction is our number one priority. While other webhosting services literally leave you stuck in congested networks, we don’t shy away from any cost and effort, providing fastest servers and connections.It is not just "RAPID" that is important to us, "EASY" is of the same significance for us. For weeks have been contemplating and discussing, how we can balance pricing for our frequent- and less regular users, without getting into a profuse and complex pricing structure. At the same time we want to avoid that our less regular users are financing our frequent users, which would be the case with a general price increase. Though it is us that has to compensate for hardware and internet access. For this reason we have chosen a solution that is fair for all: In the future, the download volumes included in a Premium Account is going to be reduced from 10 Gigabyte a day to 80 Gigabyte a month, at continuous exact daily pro rata billing. The sum of accumulated download-traffic is going to be reduced from 50 Gigabyte to 10 Gigabyte. Personal web storage space is going to continue to be set to 500 Gigabyte. The changes only apply to new Premium Account and extension.
Existing Accounts are not affected, aside that due to the change of 10 Gigabyte maximum accumulated traffic, no download volume can be transferred from one day to another. As it is technically not possible to work with various procedures, we have compensated all existing Premium users 50 Gigabyte of traffic volume to their TrafficShare quota. This balance does not expire, as long as you own the Premium Account. You can flexibly apply this quota for your own downloads, should your download balance have run out. The system then automatically allocated traffic in 1 Gigabyte packages from the TrafficShare quota.
In the course of the improvements, we have immensely reduced the prices for the TrafficShare packages. By this means, users that require additional download volume, can flexibly make additional purchases at any time, without increasing the cost for less frequent users. The advantage for frequent users is that by any desired increase in TrafficShare balance, maximum download volume is no longer dictated. The advantage for less regular users is that the prices are not going to be increased. By this we also hope to increase the interest in our TrafficShare model. For all existing Premium Accounts the old conditions are in place (10 Gigabyte download per day), however, you can already make use and profit of the new TrafficShare model.
It is not the price model only that we have shaped up for the future. A further change is going to effect a small number of users that neither upload their files through a Premium- or Collector’s Account. Files that are stored completely anonymous can now only be downloaded 10 times. Thereafter an error message will appear. However, the file can be moved into a Collector’s- or Premium Account afterwards so that downloading is possible again.
Lastly we have a thorough positive announcement: With immediate effect the FileMigrator has been made available, enabling you to move any files between Accounts, namely with the following combinations: From Collector's to Collector's, from Collector's to Premium, from Premium to Collector's, from Premium to Premium. LinkLists can be transferred from Premium- to Premium Account. More information is available in the Collector's-Zone, and respectively in the Premium Zone.
Activating more lanes on the data highway
September 30, 2008
Less than one month ago we upgraded our infrastructure due to the enormous increase in our popularity. The result: more bandwith, more servers. And tonight, this is happening all over again: We will increase our internet connectivity once more to enable you to send big files fast and easily. Celebrate with us and invite friends to join RapidShare - we are delighted to welcome new users!Urgent maintenance and upgrades
September 09, 2008
RapidShare was not available due to a hardware error in our network segment. The issue on our network element is solved. At the same time we extended our capacities and bandwidth. We apologize for any inconvenience caused.Top Speed: RapidShare Upgrade completed
September 02, 2008
This week we have completed the infrastructure upgrade with the result, that premium users can now enjoy full speed again. Also, we are able to allocate bandwidth to free users dynamically: Depending on the overall traffic you can up- and download with up to 2,0 megabit per second. If it is crowded though, you might experience only 0,2 megabit per second, since we always put our premium users first.Thus, we have raised the daily premium download traffic from 5 gigabyte to 10 gigabyte. Please keep in mind that it is still necessary to limit the maximum download speed for free users to protect RapidShare from congestion caused by automated downloading. To compensate for that, we already eliminated the waiting period before starting a succeeding download.
We wish you a pleasant time using rapidshare.com and apologize for any inconvenience you might have experienced during the transition period.
RapidGames: The new look
August 18, 2008
After we have redesigned the RapidShare website, we have now given RapidGames a new look as well. You can find the latest demos, trailers, patches and clients for video games all neatly arranged on RapidGames. We hope you enjoy the new site!New RapidPoints Reward Program Launched
August 14, 2008
If you are already collecting RapidPoints, it´s even more rewarding from now on! Besides the options of swapping them for a premium account, renewing your existing account or receiving more traffic, you can now enjoy many fun products for free from our new RapidPoints Reward Program. There is the Star Wars R2-D2 pepper mill, the Dalek helmet that deforms your voice and the mini 3-channel helicopter, for example. If you cannot find the right reward for your points, you can also get a voucher for the amazon or iTunes shops. Start collecting RapidPoints today - it pays off!Premium accounts: Convert RapidPoints for traffic
July 31, 2008
Whenever you have reached the maximum download volume of your premium account, you can now convert your RapidPoints to additional download traffic. Every point is worth 15 megabyte. The maximum amount of traffic which can be added to your account is displayed in your premium zone.RapidShare upgrading in progress
July 30, 2008
The upgrading of the RapidShare infrastructure is in full progress. Due to the extent of the upgrade we are calculating to finish the job at the beginning of September. Thus, we have raised the daily premium download traffic from 4 gigabyte to 5 gigabyte.Download-Improvement for Premium-Users
July 21, 2008
Due to the significant number of new users who subscribed to Rapidshare during the last two weeks, we decided to extend our internal ressources. In order to maintain the best possible performance for all Premium users, we decided to limit the download capacity to 4 GB for each user during this transotional phase. Premium users will be able to save up to 30 GB of download capacity, if the daily 4 GB volume has not been used.Summer special "Buy 2, get 3": 3-day premium account for only 4.50 Euro
July 03, 2008
If you buy a 2-day premium account, we give you a full day extra. Secure your 3-day account now for only 4.50 Euro!RapidPoints for Premium Downloads
July 02, 2008
In the past, Premium and Collector's Accounts were only credited a RapidPoint when a file was downloaded by a Free User.From now on, Premium Downloads can generate up to 255 additional RapidPoints per day. Those extra points will be displayed in the account overview in the Premium or Collector's Zone.
Once a day, the extra points will be added to the Premium or Collector's Account's RapidPoints balance and the extra points counter will be reset to zero.
No more captchas - higher flexibility for premium-users
July 02, 2008
By eliminating the captchas we simplified the use of RapidShare's free services significantly. In addition, free-users can now upload and download bigger files (up to 200 megabyte). Anyhow, to protect RapidShare from congestion caused by automated downloading, we limited the maximum download speed for free‐users to 500 kilobit per second. To compensate for that, they do not have to wait anymore until starting a succeeding download.Premium-users now profit from more flexibility regarding the download volume: It used to be limited to 10 gigabyte per day and can be "saved" now to a maximum of 50 Gigabyte. As a consequence, the volume that was not used is transferred to the following day automatically, up to a maximum of 50 gigabyte. If the complete download capacity is used up during one day, the premium-user is able to save another 10 gigabyte the following day.
Simplified Rules: Download 10 Gigabyte per Day
June 26, 2008
Celebrating the European soccer championship we have simplified the rules regarding the maximum download volume: all premium users get 10 gigabyte per day now and can save the hassle to check how much traffic they have used already during the last five days.Bug reporting has ended
June 06, 2008
We thank all Users for there efforts in finding errors on our new layout.It will take some time to work through all reports. The RapidPoints winners will be contacted directly.
New website
June 3, 2008
We have launched our newly designed website. We hope you will enjoy the improved usability and better layout! We have also developed a new logo.To enable you to check out the site in-depth, we have doubled the download volume for premium users: Instead of 25 gigabytes you can now download 50 gigabytes within 5 days.
A big project like this always involves errors slipping in. That's why we need your help! Did we miss something? Did you experience a bug regarding user guidance or programming? Tell us about it! The sender of the first mail we receive reporting a particular bug will be rewarded with 1.000 RapidPoints, accredited to his or her account. If you do not have an account yet, we will create one for you using the RapidPoints you won. You can also donate your points to somebody's account.
Mail your report to bugreport@rapidshare.com. Please send only one bug with each report.
What is more, after all this hard work we are curious to know what you think about the new design, and we are looking forward to your feedback. Please send a message to supportrapidshare.com and give us your personal opinion.
Naturally, we will not rest now and have already developed more new features to be launched over the next months. Visit our news section regularly and get the latest news first - from the original source!
New website is coming
June 02, 2008
We are going to launch our new website soon. We have changed our design and improved the usability.
Happy Hours | Captcha Code
April 17, 2008
Some users of our free service might have noticed already that we are currently experimenting with our Captcha system. We are doing this to improve its security. Unfortunately some users have always been able to outmaneuver this Free user tool, which has a negative effect on Premium members. Of course we are trying to avoid this. Thanks for understanding.As a sign of our appreciation we are going to offer more Happy Hours at which no Captcha Codes are required and even Free users are able to download instantly!
Release | RapidShare Manager
January 21, 2008
With the RapidShare Manager (RSM) an especially for RapidShare designed up- and downloading program has become available. It offers:- Comfortable downloading for Premium users.
- Upload Resume (Resuming of broken downloads)
- Premium users can upload files of up to 2 GByte.