Want advanced Google Workspace features for your business?
Here's what people can do with a folder after you share it with them:
- Can organise, add and edit: If they're signed in to a Google Account, people can open, edit, delete or move any files within the folder. People can also add files to the folder.
- Can view only: People can see the folder and they can open all the files within the folder.
More about folder sharing:
- When you share or change permissions for a folder, the files and subfolders inside are updated with the new sharing settings. Files added to a folder at a later date will inherit permissions from the folder in addition to any permissions directly added to the files.
- Note: If you share or unshare folders with a lot of files or subfolders, it might take time before all permissions change. If you change a lot of edit or view permissions at once, it might take time before you see the changes.
Tip: In the meantime, to provide folder access for new collaborators, use the sharing URL of a file nested deeply inside the folder.
- Storage is counted against the person who uploaded the file, not the owner of the folder.
- When you manage large folder structures, child and parent folder permissions can be different. You can override inherited permissions of child folders to be different from the parent folder. You can also remove parent permissions from a child folder.
How to share folders
Share with specific people- On your iPhone or iPad, open the Google Drive app.
- Select the folder that you want to share.
- Select share
.
- Enter the email address or Google Group that you want to share with.
- To decide what role people will have with your folder, select Viewer, Commenter or Editor.
- Choose to notify people.
- If you want to notify people that you have shared an item with them, tick the box next to 'Notify people'. If you notify people, each email address that you enter is included in the email. If you don't want to notify people, untick the box.
- Tap Send
.
.
.Tip: When updating permissions for an item that you're sharing from My Drive, if the person that you're sharing with does not already have permissions for the folder containing that item, you can choose to:
- Update permissions for the folder that contains that item
- Update permissions for only the item itself
Most users choose to update the folder that contains that item to make sharing and folder management easier.
Share with a Google Group
In Google Drive, you can share folders with Google Groups instead of specific people. When you:
- Add a member to a group: That person gains permission to access the files and folders that the group has.
- Remove a member from a group: That person loses permission to access the files and folders that the group has.
To share a folder with your Google Group:
- Create a Google Group.
- Add members to your group.
- Share the folder with your group.
Tip: Before a folder appears in your 'Shared with me' folder, you must open that folder from an invitation or a link.
Decide if your folder will be generally available or restricted to only the people with access. If you allow access to anyone with the link, anyone can open the folder.
- On your iPhone or iPad, open the Google Drive app.
- Next to the folder's name, tap more
.
- Tap Manage access.
- Under 'General access', tap the right arrow.
- 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.
- Decide what role people will have with your folder by selecting an option.
- Select whether or not people can find the folder in search results.
- Tap Back.
.Change sharing permissions for shared folders
Edit, comment or view shared filesWhen you share a folder, the files and subfolders inside will have the same status as the folder that you share:
- Editor: People can open, edit, delete or move any files within the folder. People can also add files to the folder.
- Commenter: People can make comments and suggestions on files in the folder but can't change or share items in the folder with others.
- Viewer: People can see the folder and they can open all files within the folder.
If you want to change how specific files are shared, you can do so after you've shared the folder.
To transfer ownership of a folder, go to drive.google.com on a computer.
When someone deletes a file from a shared folder, everyone except the owner of the file will lose access.
