Managing permissions in G Suite

This guide explains the different permissions you can set in G Suite.

Permissions control what people can do with a file. Shared Drives and My Drive give you different choices for managing permissions. Do not give others permission to do more than they need.

This guide is in beta. This means that we are still working to improve it, so your feedback will help us make sure that they are easy to understand and useful. Please let us know your suggestions.

This guide covers

• Permissions in Shared Drives
• Permissions in My Drive
• View permissions
• Comment permissions
• Edit permissions
• Restricting permissions
• Requesting access to a file or folder

Permissions in Shared Drives

Shared Drives help people work together - for example, on a project. In a Shared Drive, you set access for the whole Drive. If you give a Shared Drive member Viewer access, they can view all files in the Drive, but cannot edit them.

You can also share access to individual files with people who do not have access to the whole Shared Drive. This only gives access to that file, not the rest of the Shared Drive.

Read Share files with Shared Drives for more information on permissions in Shared Drives.

Permissions in My Drive

In your My Drive, you can set permissions at either Document or Folder level. For example, if you share a folder with colleagues, you can give each of them different permissions. You can let only a few of them see a document in that folder. This is different from Shared Drives. If someone is a Shared Drive Member, you cannot remove their permissions from a specific file.

Read Stop, limit, or change sharing to find out how to view and change permissions.

View permissions

Someone with View permissions can:

• view the current version of the file
• download, copy or print the file by default - you can change this to stop others downloading or printing the file

Someone with View permissions cannot:

• edit the file, or comment on it
• change the access - for example, share the file with someone else
• see earlier versions once you make changes to the file

You might not want someone to see changes you make after you share a file with them. If this is the case, send them a fixed version of the file. This is a version at a particular point in time.

Comment permissions

Someone with Comment permissions can:

• make and view comments, or suggest edits
• download, copy or print the file by default - you can change this if you want

Someone with Comment permissions cannot:

• edit the file
• change the access - for example, share the file with someone else
• see earlier versions once you make changes to the file

Edit permissions

Someone with Edit permissions has full access to the live file. They can:

• edit the file
• make and view comments, or suggest edits
• see earlier versions once you make changes to the file
• change or remove someone’s access to the file
• publish the file, or share it ‘Anyone with the Link’

Restricting permissions

You can view, remove or restrict permissions at any time. Always give colleagues the lowest access level needed for their job.

You can add further controls to these permissions. For example, you can:

• prevent people with View or Comment permissions downloading, copying or printing a file
• prevent people with Edit permissions from changing access and adding new people
• give someone access to a file in your My Drive for a limited time - you cannot do this in Shared Drives

Request access to a file or folder

If you need access to a Drive, or are unable to access a Drive link, you can contact the file or folder owner to ask for access. Collaborators with edit access can give you access but they should check with the Owner first. If someone sends a link to a file or folder that you do not have access to, you can request access by clicking the link.

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