How To Share Files on Google Drive, The Ultimate Guide

How to Share Files on Google Drive The following pre-requisites will be required:

A Google account for access to Google Drive
Internet Browser or Mobile app to access files on Google Drive

After signing up for Google Drive, each user gets 15GB free storage space which is expandable via paid plans. Also, Google Docs files are not counted against a user’s total storage space.

Different Access Level for Files

Before sharing files, it’s important to know the different access levels available on Google Drive. When a user is the owner of a file, he can give editing, viewing, or commenting access to other users.

Edit Access

When edit access is given to a user, he can:

Edit documents
Share/unshare with other users
Suggest edits
Comment on files
Save file copies to a personal Google Drive account
Download files

Comment Access

When comment access is given to a user, he can:

Suggest edits
Comment on files
Save copies to his own Google Drive account
Download files

View Access

When view access is given to a user, he can:

Save a copy of files to his own Google Drive account
Download files

One thing common between all these three access levels – users can copy content to their own Google Drive, or download the file, which means even with the lowest access levels, data isn’t fully protected from being copied.

Pro Tip – All files shared with a user can be accessed by going to the ‘Shared with Me’ tab

Sharing Via Emails or Links

Files on Google Drive can be shared by inviting users with their email addresses, or sending links to everyone. Links work when the same file is shared with a large number of users, so, instead of inviting individuals the same link can be sent to multiple users.
But, at the same time, inviting users through their email address is a more secure option, since other users can share a link and outsiders could access the file.
As soon as you hit Share, there will be an option to enter email addresses.
There is also an option to add a description of shared files, when a file is shared with a user, an email is immediately sent to them — with the description in the body of that email.

Clicking on the “Shareable link” option, present on top of the Share box will generate a link for the file, and access can be user set.

Users can also choose to share files via both emails and links, with different access levels.

Change Ownership

Ownership of a file remains with the creator until he gives it to someone else. A file’s owner is the central admin, who decides which member gets what level of access.
Also, when the owner deletes a file, other users lose access to it as well. Only the central admin can retrieve deleted files from the trash folder.
To change the ownership of a file, go to the “Share” option and select Advanced settings present at the bottom.
Firstly, invite a user and give him access to a file.

Then, go back to the Advanced sharing option, from the shared members list, any user can be given the ownership. And of course, there can only be one file owner at a time.

Disable Printing and Downloading Options

As I mentioned above, none of the three file access levels protect files from being copied.
But Google Drive provides another way to stop copy attempts. Going back yet again to the Advanced option in Sharing settings, an option to disable printing and downloads are available there.
A user can give View access to a file and then disable printing and download, to make the file read-only for all shared users.

This option is ideal for public files that only need to be shared, and not altered.

Pro tip – the option ‘Prevent editors from changing access and adding new people’ can be used to make sure only the owner decides who gets access to a file.

Unrecognized Users in Shared Files

If you are a file’s owner, and there are unrecognized users in that file, then chances are – someone with sharing and editing access has shared with their contacts.
This problem can also occur if a file is first shared via links and then changed to a user’s email addresses.
So, the final list of shared users could take some time to update, since existing sessions would have to time out for that.

Only Share With Specific Domains

If a company is using Google Drive for their work, then they can beef up security by restricting documents from being shared with anyone outside the company’s custom domain.
So, even if an employee has Edit-level access to files, he can’t share it with an outsider.
The restriction feature is only available for users with custom domains, who have signed up with Google Apps for work.

Share Files on Social Media

Files links can be directly shared from Google Drive to:

Google+
Facebook
Twitter

For social media file sharing, go back to Share settings and choose Advanced. Click on the social media platform where you want to share the file’s link.

In case link sharing gets deactivated, Google Drive will prompt a user to give a minimum of View access to anyone with a link.
And then the file can be shared.

Stop File Sharing

To stop sharing a file via links, go to Advanced Sharing, and then to the ‘Who has access’ section.
By choosing ‘Off-Specific people can access’, all file links get immediately deactivated, and any user accessing them at that moment will be notified.

Pro Tip – Choosing ‘On-Public on the Web’ will make a file discoverable through Google search, and anyone can access it. If a file is shared via email, sharing could be deactivated by crossing off the member’s name from the list.

Delete a Shared File

When the owner of a shared file deletes it, it gets permanently deleted, and all other users also lose access to it. After deletion, a file can only be restored from the owner’s trash folder.
On the other hand, when shared users delete a file, it only removes their access to, the file isn’t truly deleted.
Shared users can delete a shared file to empty up their Google Drive storage.

Managing File Versions

When files get shared with a lot of users, it can be difficult to track which user made what changes to a file.
Luckily, Google Drive provides a very smooth way to manage file versions.
For Google Docs — to see changes made to a file, users can click on the option right next to Help on top.
Which could be, ‘All changes saved in Drive’ if a user has made the last change, or it could be ‘Last edit made by XX’, if another user made the last edit.

Clicking on this option will take a user to the revision history window, where all edits made on a file can be seen according to date, time and user (s).

For Other Files — like images or PDF, right-click on a file and select ‘Manage versions’ to see other versions of that file.

In Summary…

Being able to share files easily, and work on them in real-time is one of the reasons why Google Drive is so powerful, and why a majority of people use it.
Other great sharing options are available on Dropbox, or you can try OneDrive sharing for Microsoft Eco-systems.