Share files from Google Drive

You can share the files and folders that you store in Google Drive with anyone.

When you share from Google Drive, you can control whether people can edit, comment on, or only open the file. When you share content from Google Drive, the Google Drive program policies apply.

In this article, you can learn about:

• Sharing basics
• Share with specific audiences
• Learn about advanced sharing options
• Learn about public sharing & collaboration
• Manage shared files

Understand share permissions

Important: The roles below apply to files in My Drive.

Permission Level	Can View?	Can comment?	Can edit?	Can download?	Can share?	Can change permissions?
Viewer	Yes	No	No	Yes, by default. The owner can control it.	No	No
Commenter	Yes	Yes	No	Yes, by default. The owner can control it.	No	No
Editor	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes, but an editor can’t change the owner.	No, unless the owner explicitly allows it.
Owner	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes

Tips when sharing a file with someone:

• To give viewers and commenters the option to download, print, and copy a file:
  1. Owners must access advanced settings on their device.
  2. Click Share Settings .
• To give editors the option to change permissions and share a file:
  1. Owners must access advanced settings on their device.
  2. Click Share Settings .
• Editors can’t change permissions for owners.
• For information on Shared Drives and permissions, visit:
  • Get started with shared drives
  • How file access works in shared drives

Sharing basics

Share a single file

Choose how you want to share a file:

1. On your Android device, open the app for Google Drive, Docs, Sheets, or Slides.
2. Next to the file’s name, tap More .
3. Tap Share.
4. Enter a recipient.
5. Tap Send .

Share multiple files

• To share multiple files from your Android phone or tablet, add files to a folder and share the entire folder.
• You can also share multiple files from drive.google.com on your computer.
• Learn how to publish and share your form with responders.
• Learn how to share your form with collaborators.

Share with specific audiences

Important:

• At any time, a Google Docs, Sheets, Slides or Vids file can only be edited on up to 100 open tabs or devices. If there are more than 100 instances of the file open, only the owner and some users with edit permissions can edit the file.
• You can share a single file with up to 600 individual email addresses.

Share with specific people

Important: If you use a Google Account through work or school, you might not be able to share files outside of your organization.

1. On your Android device, open the Google Drive app.
2. Select the file you want to share Share .
3. Enter the email address or Google Group you want to share with.
4. Decide how people can use your file. Select one:
   • Viewer
   • Commenter
   • Editor
5. If you use an eligible work or school account, tap on the user's role to add an expiration date.
6. When you share your file, each email address gets an email.
   • Optional: Add a message to your notification email.
   • If you don’t want to notify people, uncheck the box next to “Notify people.”
7. Tap Send .

Learn more about how others view, comment, or edit files.

Tip: When updating permissions for an item you're sharing from My Drive, if the person you're sharing with does not already have permissions for the folder that contains that item, you can choose to:

• Update permissions for the folder that contains that item.
• Update permissions only for the item itself.

To make it easier to manage folders and share, most users choose to update the folder that contains the item.

Share with a specific group of people

Share with a Chat space

You can share a file or a link to a file with a chat message or a space in Google Chat. Learn more about sending and managing Drive files in Google Chat.

To share a file with a Chat space in Google Chat:

1. On your Android device, open the Google Chat app.
2. At the bottom, tap Spaces .
3. Open the Chat space you want to share the file with.
4. At the bottom left, tap Action menu Drive .
5. Select the file you want to share with a Chat space.
6. Tap Select.
7. Tap Send .

To share a file from a link in the Drive app:

1. On your mobile device, open the Drive app.
2. Select the file you want to share with a Chat space.
3. On the right, tap More options .
4. Tap Copy link.
5. Open the Google Chat app.
6. At the bottom, tap Spaces .
7. Select the Chat space you want to share the file with.
8. In the message field, paste the link you copied.
9. Tap Send .

Tips:

• When you share a Drive file to a Chat space, a prompt to grant access displays.
  • When you grant access to that Chat space, people who join the space in the future also gain access to the shared files in that space.
• When people leave a Chat space, they lose access to the Drive files in that space if they don’t have sharing access:
  • As an individual
  • As a member of another group
• To grant a Drive file access, you must have edit permission on the file you want to share.

Allow general access to the file

You can decide if your file is available generally or restricted to only the people with access. When you allow access to anyone with the link, anyone can open your file.

1. Open the file you want to edit.
2. Tap Manage access.
3. Under “General access," tap Change.
4. Choose who can access the file.
   • Tip: If you use your Google Account for work or school, you can choose to only share files and folders with a specific audience, like your department.
5. To decide what role people will have with your file, select an option.
   • Learn more about how others open, comment, or edit files.
6. Select whether or not people can find the file in search results.
7. Tap Back.

Share a file or folder publicly

1. Select the file you want to share.
2. Tap Share or Share .
3. Under “General access,” tap Change.
4. Select Anyone with the link.
5. To decide what role people will have with your file, select an option.
   • Learn more about how others open, comment, or edit files.
6. Tap Copy link.
7. Tap Back.
8. Paste the link in an email or any place you want to share it.

People who aren't signed in to a Google Account show up as anonymous animals in your file. Learn more about anonymous animals.

Add an expiration date

The expiration date feature is only available for eligible work or school accounts.

You're currently not signed in.

Sign in to your work or school account

Learn about advanced sharing options

Add an expiration date

The expiration date feature is only available for eligible work or school accounts.

You're currently not signed in.

Sign in to your work or school account

Share a Vids file as an MP4

In Google Vids, you can save your video to Google Drive as an MP4, then share from Google Drive. To share a video as an MP4:

1. On your computer, go to Google Vids.
2. Open the file you want to share.
3. Click Share .
4. Next to “Share,” click Quick sharing actions Export to Drive .

Learn about Google Vids availability.

Learn about public sharing & collaboration

Allow general access to the file

You can choose if your file should be available to anyone or restricted to only the people with access. If you allow access to anyone with the link, your folder won't restrict who can access it.

1. Select the file you want to share.
2. Click Share or Share .
3. Under “General access”, click the Down arrow .
4. Choose who can access the file.

5. To decide what role people will have with your file, select Viewer, Commenter, or Editor.
   • Learn more about how others view, comment, or edit files.
6. Click Done.

Share a file or folder publicly

1. Select the file you want to share.
2. Click Share or Share .
3. Under “General access,” click the Down arrow .
4. Choose Anyone with the link.
5. To decide what role people will have, select Viewer, Commenter, or Editor.
6. Click Copy link.
7. Click Done.
8. Paste the link in an email or any place you want to share it.

People who aren't signed in to a Google Account show up as anonymous animals in your file. Learn more about anonymous animals.

Collaborate on your file

You can send an email directly from the Sharing dialog to:

• Inform collaborators about major revisions.
• Discuss a question that’s too long for the document's comment thread.

You can send the email to all the collaborators or just a group of them, which includes Editors, Commenters, and Viewers.

To send an email from the Sharing dialog of a file:

1. On your computer, go to Google Drive.
2. Next to the file you want to send an email about, click More actions Share Share .
   • You can also go to the Sharing dialog in the file itself:
     1. Open the file.
     2. At the top right, click Share.
3. In the Sharing dialog, next to “People with access,” click Email people on this file .
4. In the “Email collaborators” screen, select the groups you want to send the email to.
5. In the “Message” field, add your message.
6. Click Send.

Tip: You can’t add new collaborators in the “Email collaborators” screen.

Publish the file

Important: Google Vids doesn’t have a publish option. Instead, you can download the file to your computer as an MP4. Learn to create, view, or download a file.

• If you need multiple people to open a file: publish the file, then create a link to share it with people who have access. You can give edit access to people who need to edit or comment on the file. Learn how to publish a file.
• Depending on your account’s settings, publishing a file makes it visible to everyone on the web, everyone in your organization, or a group of people in your organization. Be careful when publishing private or sensitive info.
  • Important: If you have an account through work or school, your administrator can limit who can access a published file. If you're an administrator, learn how to control who can publish documents to the web.
• To remove a file from the web, you must stop publishing it. Learn how to stop publishing a file.
• To stop sharing a file with collaborators, learn how to change sharing permissions.

Create a Google Site

• Create a Google Site to share information with many people. You can embed documents, spreadsheets, and presentations on the site, which a large amount of users can access. Learn how to embed documents on a site.
• If you anticipate high traffic to your site, first publish your document in Google Docs, Sheets or Slides, then embed the published URL into Google Sites. Learn how to publish a file.

Collect feedback with Google Forms

• If you need to gather a lot of information, create a Google Form. Responses will be recorded in a Google Sheet. Give edit access only to people who need to work with the responses. To let over 100 people open the responses, publish the spreadsheet to the web, then create a link to share it with those who have access. Learn how to publish a file.

Manage shared files

Fix problems with shared documents shared with many people

If your document is shared with many people and it’s crashing or not updating quickly, try these troubleshooting tips:

• Instead of allowing people to comment on a document or spreadsheet, create a Google Form to collect feedback. Learn how to create a Google Form.
• If you’re making a copy of a document, don’t include resolved comments and suggestions. Learn how to make a copy.
• Delete older information or move data into a new document.
• Ask people with access to close the document when they aren’t using it.
• Include only the most important information in a published document. Shorter documents load faster.
• Reduce the amount of people with edit access to a document.
• If collecting information from multiple documents, create a new, access-only document to share with a large number of people.

Change the general access for your file

You can allow broad access to your file. These options depend on if your Google Account is through work, school, or Gmail.

• Public: Anyone can search on Google and get access to your file, without signing in to their Google Account.
• Anyone with the link: Anyone who has the link can use your file, without signing in to their Google Account.

• Restricted: Only people with access can open the file.

Advanced sharing settings

Through advanced sharing settings, owners can prevent:

• Editors from changing permissions or sharing files.
• Viewers and commenters from downloading, printing, or copying files.

Related resources

• Make Google Docs, Sheets, Slides & Forms public
• Stop or change how a file is shared
• Transfer file ownership
• Share folders in Google Drive
• Find files shared with you