Can someone else access my Google Drive?

Google Drive offers many great features to help you work smarter, quicker and more efficiently with your colleagues. For example, sharing a Google Drive file with someone bypasses the need to send it as an email attachment. You can share files up to 10 GB in size from Google Drive; however, you can only attach files up to 25 MB in Gmail. Sharing Google Docs, Sheets or Slides with your colleagues makes it easy to ensure that each person has access to the same and most up-to-date version.

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After the Update
Prior to the Update
Google Apps Admin control
Related Posts

It has not been so easy, on the other hand, to share Google Drive files outside your organization with customers or clients who do not use Google Apps, or with someone who does not have a Google Account. Its going to become much easier moving forward, according to Googles recent announcement that Docs, Slides and Drawings will not require sign in for recipients to view the file. The update is rolling out slowly to Rapid Release domains.

In this post we will review the following topics regarding sharing with non-Google accounts in Google Drive:

After the Update
Prior to the Update
Google Apps Admin control

After the Update

Docs, Slides and Drawings can be shared outside your domain to users who do not have a Google account, therefore they will not be required to sign in to view the file. This means that when the document visibility is set to Private for Docs, Slides and Drawings, a non-Google user can receive the invitation and click on the sharing link to view the file without the need to create a Google account and sign in. This functionality is only possible if Google Apps administrators allow sharing outside the domain to users who do not have a Google account associated with their email address.

When Google Docs, Slides or Drawings are shared explicitly with a recipient who does not have a Google account, the user is listed in the sharing settings window with an envelope next to their email address. An envelope next to the email address can be interpreted as a sharing invitation that you have provided to a non-Google user. The user is being invited to view the file without the need to sign in, which means that anyone else who is provided the sharing link will also have permission to view the file without signing in to a Google account. This will be the case until the person you have explicitly shared the Doc with creates a Google account and accepts/uses the invitation.