Google Drive is one of the most popular file-sharing platforms online; the platform offers a complimentary 15 GBs of online storage to everyone who has signed up on Gmail and works flawlessly. You can create and share folders on Google Drive, but there are quite a lot of features in the platform that you need to know. In this article, we have brought you a complete guide to share folders in Google Drive. Make sure you read this article till the end to understand better.
Complete Guide To Share Folders In Google Drive
You might need to share a folder for a couple of reasons. Sharing Google Drive folders comes in handy when you are in an office and want to share important files.
The user can share a folder, but he needs to pay attention to whether he granted the required permission or not. For example, if you are working with the team, you should give editing access to your team members. You can grant view, edit or comment permission depending on the requirements. Below is a complete guide on sharing folders in Google Drive.
Creating A Folder In Google Drive
Follow these steps to create a folder in Google Drive:
- Go to Google Drive and sign in to your account.
- On the left side, click on New > Folder.
- Choose the name of your folder.
- Then click create.
Sharing A Folder In Google Drive
You can follow these steps to share your Google Drive folder:
- Go to Google Drive and sign in to your account.
- Open a folder that you want to share. Click on the Folder title that should be at the top of the screen. Click on the dropdown menu and select Share.
- A pop-up will appear under the Share with group’s option. You can type the email address of the receiver.
- If you don’t want to share a folder on email or don’t have an email address, you can copy the URL address of the folder. Click on Get Link, which should be under the Share with people option. Here you can grant permission to edit, view or comment that we have discussed before.
- Grant permissions and copy the link.
Now you can share your folder via Message, Whatsapp, Facebook, or email.
Setting Permissions For A Google Drive Folder
There are two ways to set sharing permissions in Google Drive:
Permission Through Direct Invitation
Once you share your document, a dialogue box will appear. It will show two options. One is shared with people and groups, and the other is to share it via a link. The permission setting is different in both options. Share with people and group sets specified person to access the document.
- Enter the email address of the person.
- After entering an email address, you can set permission. On the right dropdown menu, you can set edit, view, or commenter permission.
- A viewer can only view the folder
- The editor can make changes
- Commenters can edit comments to the folder.
Grant the desired permission to the folder. And you are done.
Grant Permissions To A Shared Link
The other option is to grant permission via a link. It is more suitable to share the link with non-Google users. You can send the link in private and public messages. However, it also has some security risks. Luckily, you can also set permission to the link as well.
- A dropdown menu will appear under the link. You can select restricted or anyone with the link.
- You can modify the restricted permissions. To begin, click the word restricted to expand this option. Then select anyone with this link from the dropdown menu. It enables recipients of the link to open the file in a viewer.
- In the Right dropdown menu, you can select Viewer, Editor, or commenter permission.
Changing Folder Owners
By default, you can change files and folders and edit every document. But you can also share ownership of the file with anyone so that the next person can perform the same tasks you are performing. Here’s how you can change the owner for your folder or file:
- Go to your Google
- Choose the file for which you want to change ownership.
- Click on the share icon.
- Enter the email address of the new owner
- Click Share and Save.
- There should be a dropdown menu at the new owner’s name. Click is owner.
- Save the changes
Now you have transferred ownership, and you can edit the document.
Things To Consider Before Transferring Ownership
As you are the owner of your Google Docs. So you have all access to your files and folder. If you change ownership, then you will not be able to have all control over your documents.
Here we have listed some tasks that you can’t perform after changing ownership.
- You can’t delete collaborators
- You can’t share folders with other people
- Can’t change visibility option
- Can’t grant permission to other users
- You cannot permanently delete anything so that no one can have access to it.
Sharing A Folder With Non-Google Drive Users
You can also share your folder with the non-Google user. Your user doesn’t need to have a Google account. You can send the folder via a link.
The receiver who is not on Google can use your folder according to the permission you have granted them.
Please keep in mind that don’t share sensitive documents via a public link. Because through a public link, everyone can have access to your folder. So always share your sensitive documents via email or private messages. Please don’t share it on public groups or social media apps.
How to Download A Shared Google Drive Folder
Google Drive also provides the facility to download the entire folder. The structure of the folder and its sub-folder will remain the same. It is downloaded in Zip format and will help the user to keep a backup of the folder.
To download the folder,
- Open Google Drive
- go to Shared with me.
- Press right-click, and an option to download the folder will appear
Another trick to downloading the folder is to click on three dots in the toolbar and download the folder.
Downloading a Google Doc or Sheet will result in the document being downloaded as an Office document. All of the other files will be downloaded in their original format as well.
Can I Access My Google Drive Files When I am Offline?
With the help of Google Drive for desktop applications, Items in Google drive are available offline. It would help if you turned the available offline option before accessing files offline.
What Is The Maximum Number Of Files I can Store In A Folder?
Google Drive limits a maximum of 500,000 items that a folder can contain and share. However, it is not never a good idea to keep so many files in one folder and should be categorized into different folders.
Conclusion
A shared folder can contain data in the form of Docs, sheets, and slides. Everyone can access the data. The data is shared in a centralized location so that other users can access data, and you can set permissions to access the data.
