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Turn Docs creation on or off

Most Google Workspace subscriptions include both Drive and Google Docs editors, such as Docs, Sheets, and Slides.

Depending on the needs of your organization, as a Google Workspace administrator you can make the following changes for all users or only users in certain organizational units:

  • If you don't want users to use Docs, Sheets, Slides, Drawings, Forms, and email layouts, but to still use Drive for file management, leave Drive turned on and turn off Docs creation.
  • If your organization uses a third-party storage provider instead of Drive and you turn off Docs creation, users can still create Docs, Sheets, and Slides that are hosted by the other storage provider as long as Drive and Docs is turned on.
  • If you don't want users to create, upload, or organize any files in Drive, turn off Drive and Docs.

Turn off the option to create new Docs, Sheets, Slides, Forms, or Drawings

  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 Docsand thenFeatures and Applications.

  3. To apply the setting to everyone, leave the top organizational unit selected. Otherwise, select a child organizational unit.
  4. Click Creating new files in Google Drive and uncheck the Allow users to create new Docs, Sheets, Slides, Drawings, Forms, and email layouts box.
  5. Click Save. If you configured a child organizational unit, you might be able to Inherit or Override a parent organizational unit's settings.

The next time users reload each Google Workspace application, the options to create or copy new Docs, Sheets, Slides, Forms, or Drawings will disappear.

Turn off the option to create and upload any files in Drive

If you turn off the option to allow users to create and upload all types of files on Drive, users won't be able to:

  • create or copy Docs, Sheets, Slides, Forms, Drawings, or email layouts
  • upload non-Google files such as PDF, JPG, and Microsoft Office.
  • create new Jams or Google Sites.
  • record meetings in Google Meet.

Important: This is turned off by default for users who have Box for Google Workspace Essentials. If you turn this option on, it might increase the monthly price of your Google Workspace subscription.

This setting affects only new files. Users are able to move and organize existing files in Drive as well as edit and share existing files.

To turn this option off:

  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 Docsand thenFeatures and Applications.

  3. To apply the setting to everyone, leave the top organizational unit selected. Otherwise, select a child organizational unit.
  4. Click Creating new files in Google Drive and uncheck the Allow users to create and upload any files on Drive box.
  5. Click Save. If you configured a child organizational unit, you might be able to Inherit or Override a parent organizational unit's settings.

Turn Google Sites on or off

You can turn Sites on or off using a separate control. This option determines whether users can create or edit sites in Sites.

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