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RustMapCDN

Can you host a Rust map on Dropbox or Google Drive?

Updated 19 September 2026

Dropbox can work if you change the end of the link from dl=0 to dl=1, but free accounts only allow 20 GB of downloads a day, which a busy wipe uses up. Google Drive usually does not work: share links open a web page, and files over 100 MB show a virus-scan warning instead of the file.

Dropbox

A Dropbox share link ends in dl=0, which opens a preview page. Rust needs the file, so change the last character:

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/…/your-map.map?rlkey=…&dl=0   opens a page
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/…/your-map.map?rlkey=…&dl=1   downloads the file

With dl=1 the download starts on its own, and Rust can use the link. Two things still bite:

  • Daily bandwidth. Dropbox's free accounts allow 20 GB of shared-link traffic a day. A 40 MB map runs out after about 500 downloads, and Dropbox then suspends the link for up to 24 hours. That happens on wipe day, exactly when you cannot afford it.
  • The file must stay put. Moving, renaming or re-uploading it in Dropbox changes the link, and your server keeps pointing at the old one.

Google Drive

Drive is harder to make work and rarely worth it for maps.

  • A normal share link (/file/d/…/view) is a web page, not the file.
  • Files over 100 MB cannot be virus-scanned, so Google shows a warning page with a confirmation button first. Your server reads that page instead of a map, and gives up.
  • Popular files can hit Drive's download quota and stop serving for the rest of the day.

A small map can work through a direct download link, but it is a fragile setup that breaks as your server grows.

What to use instead

A map link needs three things: it serves the file itself, it does not expire, and it copes with everyone downloading at once. Your own web server does all three. So does RustMapCDN, which is free, takes maps up to 200 MB, and serves them from Cloudflare's network. In the last 30 days it answered every map download without a single failure, and you can see that on the home page.

When you move, upload the file, copy the new link, change server.levelurl and restart:the full steps.

Whatever you pick, test it the same way. Open the link in a private browser window. If the download does not start on its own, Rust cannot use it either. More causes in the troubleshooting guide.

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