Notification

Duet AI is now Gemini for Google Workspace. Learn more

Link-sharing security update to Drive

To make file sharing more secure, a security update changed the URLs for some Google Drive files and folders to include a resource key. This security measure, which appears in a file’s URL, helps protect your file from unintended access. To see if a file URL has a resource key, look for resourcekey=.

About the update

  • If you took no action, the security update impacted certain files and folders in My Drive and shared drives, but not Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides files. 
  • Access to affected files doesn’t change for people who’ve already viewed those files or who have direct access. 
  • By default, most users can remove the update from files that they own or manage. The exception is users in a Google Workspace for Education organization. 
  • Even if you currently have no affected content, impacted files can come to your organization through shared drives or a change in file ownership.

Files and folders used internally 

For any internal sites or documentation that has links, make sure to update those links to new ones that include resource keys. Get the new link from the item’s owner. 

Timeline

First, Drive notified impacted users of the update and any affected items that they owned or managed. If you let them, your users could decide to remove the update from those items. The update was finished at the end of September 2021.

Apply or remove the security update

  1. Sign in to your Google Admin console.

    Sign in using your administrator account (does not end in @gmail.com).

  2. In the Admin console, go to Menu and then Appsand thenGoogle Workspaceand thenDrive and Docs.
  3. Click Sharing settingsSecurity update for files.
  4. Choose how to apply the update:
    • Apply the security update to all impacted files
    • Remove security update from all impacted files (not recommended)
  5. (Optional if applying the update) To let users remove or apply the update to files that they own or manage, check the allow box.
  6. If you made any changes, click Save.

Was this helpful?

How can we improve it?
true
Start your free 14-day trial today

Professional email, online storage, shared calendars, video meetings and more. Start your free Google Workspace trial today.

Search
Clear search
Close search
Google apps
Main menu
10318090563806212909
true
Search Help Center
true
true
true
true
true
73010
false
false