At HiView, one question we hear frequently is:
“When I’m in a Shared Drive, how can I share a folder with a user or group without giving them access to everything in the Shared Drive?”
Previously, the available workarounds required copying files to a different location and then sharing them separately. While this approach worked, it added extra steps and made collaboration more difficult because teams were working with separate copies of their files.
Fortunately, that’s no longer necessary!
Google has introduced the ability to share individual folders within Shared Drives, making it easier to control access while keeping files in one central location.
Sharing Folders Within Shared Drives
With this update, most G Suite (now Google Workspace) users can share individual folders within a Shared Drive with specific users or groups.
This means you can give someone access to a particular folder without automatically giving them access to all of the other content stored in the Shared Drive.
As a result, teams can maintain better control over their files while continuing to collaborate using the original documents.
The rollout for this feature began in September 2020, and Google expected it to be available to eligible users by October 21, 2020.
Note: At the time of this announcement, G Suite Basic users were excluded from this feature.
For more information, see Google’s announcement about sharing folders in Shared Drives.
Interested in Google Workspace?
If you have questions about Shared Drives or other Google Workspace features, contact the HiView team.
We can also help if your organization is looking for a Google Cloud Partner to support your Google Workspace environment.
