# How to upload an image (or document) to an external collection (on Xano)

**URL:** <https://forum.adalo.com/t/how-to-upload-an-image-or-document-to-an-external-collection-on-xano/12152>\
**Category:** External Collections, Custom Actions & Collections\
**Created:** [May 3, 2021, 2:03pm UTC](https://forum.adalo.com/t/how-to-upload-an-image-or-document-to-an-external-collection-on-xano/12152 "2021-05-03T14:03:10Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![coachRED.net](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8edcca/32.png) [@coachRED.net](https://forum.adalo.com/u/coachRED.net)\
**Post date:** [May 3, 2021, 2:03pm UTC](https://forum.adalo.com/t/how-to-upload-an-image-or-document-to-an-external-collection-on-xano/12152/1 "2021-05-03T14:03:10Z")

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Hi there,

how can you use the output of a file picker to upload the document to an external collection? More specifically, how do you even access the contents/output of a file picker?

Thank you and best regards,

Joerg

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**Author:** ![theadaloguy](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/forum.adalo.com/theadaloguy/32/8023_2.png) [@theadaloguy](https://forum.adalo.com/u/theadaloguy)\
**Post date:** [May 3, 2021, 2:47pm UTC](https://forum.adalo.com/t/how-to-upload-an-image-or-document-to-an-external-collection-on-xano/12152/2 "2021-05-03T14:47:41Z")

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You use the URL of the file.

 ![Screenshot 2021-05-03 at 21.45.52](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/uploads/adalo/original/2X/5/5a1e9b79cabbbc99d301ce54682ceead7baf89d1.jpeg)

If you want to download the actual file and do something with it after, I think this can be done via Integromat and then you can host the file elsewhere

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**Author:** ![coachRED.net](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8edcca/32.png) [@coachRED.net](https://forum.adalo.com/u/coachRED.net)\
**Post date:** [May 3, 2021, 4:09pm UTC](https://forum.adalo.com/t/how-to-upload-an-image-or-document-to-an-external-collection-on-xano/12152/3 "2021-05-03T16:09:00Z")

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Thanks for your answer, I also use Xano for the user authentication. So I only have the Auth Code and User Id available for the user.

My question was more regarding the file/image picker. How can I access the file/image which was picked?

Together with a few text inputs the image picker is on the page. I get the contents in the text inputs to upload but I haven’t discovered a way to get to the file/image in the picker.

Any suggestion how to access and use it?

Thank you and best regards

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**Author:** ![samdelong](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/7feea3/32.png) [@samdelong](https://forum.adalo.com/u/samdelong)\
**Post date:** [March 16, 2022, 3:56pm UTC](https://forum.adalo.com/t/how-to-upload-an-image-or-document-to-an-external-collection-on-xano/12152/4 "2022-03-16T15:56:32Z")

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I too would like to know. I’m trying to access the contents of a file from file picker without uploading it to the adalo database as it contains sensitive information.

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**Author:** ![theadaloguy](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/forum.adalo.com/theadaloguy/32/8023_2.png) [@theadaloguy](https://forum.adalo.com/u/theadaloguy)\
**Post date:** [March 17, 2022, 12:15pm UTC](https://forum.adalo.com/t/how-to-upload-an-image-or-document-to-an-external-collection-on-xano/12152/5 "2022-03-17T12:15:28Z")

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@samdelong File picker always goes to Adalo database as far as I know. You could use [www.adalify.com](http://www.adalify.com) file uploader - that can upload to your own Amazon​ S3 account where you can completely customise your security settings. The file gets passed directly from front end to S3 and Adalify does not store your files.