Google Drive Access Levels Simplified for End Users and Admins

Google Drive has three main access levels: Editor, Commenter, and Viewer. These levels determine what users can do with files and folders in your Google Drive.

Each access level has specific permissions, making it easy to control who can edit, comment, or view your files. As an admin, you can assign these levels to users or groups to manage access.

For end users, understanding access levels is crucial for collaborating effectively with others. By knowing their access level, users can avoid accidentally overwriting others' work or not being able to contribute to a file.

Setting up access levels in Google Drive requires careful planning to ensure that the right people have the right level of access to sensitive information. There are three choices for sharing a file for organizations: restricted, only within the group, and anyone with the link.

To configure groups to provide granular access, start by setting access to individual subfolders first, and then work your way up to setting access for the whole Shared folder. This approach ensures that access flows down the hierarchy of folders, making it safer to begin with the lowest subfolders individually.

Here are the steps to configure access levels for a closed system in Google Drive:

Secure Configurations are key to setting up access levels effectively. To configure a closed system, you'll want to remove the All Users group and instead create separate groups for each customer or company.

Looker's Closed System option makes user folders private by default, and users can only see other members of their groups unless they share content. This means that if a user is a member of the Company C group, they'll only see other members of Company C.

To configure a closed system, follow these steps: Ask for the Closed System option, plan out your structure, configure groups to provide granular access, enable the closed system in the Admin panel, give each company group View access for the Shared folder, and configure access levels for each subfolder of the Shared folders.

Here are the steps to configure a closed system in more detail:

Note that if you have content for multitenant users housed in the Shared folders, you'll need to move it out before configuring the closed system.

Setting up the Content Manager permission is a great way to give someone control over specific areas of your content. This permission level allows the assigned user to add, edit, remove, and delete files, but they won't be able to change the members who have access to the drive.

The Content Manager permission is ideal for managers or team leaders who need to oversee specific areas of your business. For example, if you have a manager in place for a particular department, you can give them the Content Manager permission to control who gets added or removed from their department's folders.

To assign the Content Manager permission, you'll need to grant the user Manage Access, Edit access to the relevant folders. This will give them the necessary permissions to make changes to the content within those folders.

Here's a quick rundown of the Content Manager permission:

By setting up the Content Manager permission, you can give specific users the control they need to manage their areas of responsibility, while keeping overall access controls in place.

Configuring sharing settings is a crucial step in managing access levels in Google Drive. You can manage these settings individually for users, groups, or the entire organization through the Workspace Admin Console.

To modify permissions for an individual user, sign in to the Google Admin console using your administrator account and navigate to Apps > Google Workspace > Drive and Docs > Manage shared drives. Select the shared drive you want to manage and click on the “Manage members” button.

There are various sharing settings that provide further control over how files and folders are shared. These settings include allowing users to share files outside of the shared drive, notifying the file owner when someone shares their file, and allowing users to make files publicly accessible to non-Google users.

Here are the three choices for sharing a file for organizations: restricted, only within the group, and anyone with the link. Restricted means only people added by an editor can open the document or folder with this link, while within the group means anyone in the organization's Team Drive can open the document or folder with this link.

To configure groups to provide granular access, start by setting access to individual subfolders first, and then work your way up to setting access for the whole Shared folder. Assign Manage Access, Edit access to the users and groups that you want to be able to edit content, and Assign View access to the users and groups that you want to have read-only access.

You can also configure an open system with restrictions by planning out your structure, configuring groups to provide granular access, changing the All Users group's access to View on the Shared folder, and removing All Users from any folder you don't want viewable by the whole company.

Here are the steps to manage sharing settings for a user or group:

Managing access groups is a crucial step in setting up Google Drive access levels. You can grant access to folders and subfolders just like you would to individual users, and groups can contain other groups.

To configure groups, start by setting access to individual subfolders first, then work your way up to setting access for the whole Shared folder. Access flows down the hierarchy of folders, so it's safest to begin by manipulating the access to the lowest subfolders individually.

You can assign Manage Access, Edit access to the users and groups that you want to be able to edit content, and assign View access to the users and groups that you want to have read-only access. To do this, click on the folder that you want to configure, and then click Manage Access.

The All Users group's access level is set to Manage Access, Edit in the Shared folder and flows down through all individual subfolders. You cannot modify the settings for All Users in individual subfolders until the access level for that group is changed in the Shared folder.

To make a folder private to a certain subgroup of users, remove All Users completely from those folder using the X to the right of the folder's access level. Now the folder will only appear for users and groups that you explicitly list.

Here are some key steps to manage access groups:

Google Drive offers three main types of folder systems: completely open, open with restrictions, and closed. A completely open system allows all users to view and modify all shared content, which is recommended for small companies or teams using Looker.

In an open system with restrictions, access to shared content is restricted in some way, so that only certain people can edit certain content or view it. This is recommended for medium-sized or larger teams and companies with highly diversified user bases.

A closed system, on the other hand, silos content to certain groups and prevents users from different groups from knowing about each other. This is strongly recommended for private label and signed embed use cases where customers host clients into the system who may be from different companies or groups.

To configure an open system with restrictions, you'll need to plan out your structure, configure groups to provide granular access, and change the All Users group's access to View on the Shared folder. You'll also need to remove All Users from any folder you don't want viewable by the whole company.

Here's a summary of the three main types of folder systems:

In a closed system, all user folders are private by default, and users can only see other users who share a group. This ensures that customers or other groups cannot see each other's content.

You can simplify Google Drive permissions by using a small number of groups. A simple set of permission groups might include one for owners and admins, another for managers, and a third for all staff members.

Having a clear hierarchy of groups like this makes it easier to manage access levels. For example, you can give owners and admins full control, while limiting managers to editing and viewing permissions.

Using just four groups, such as owners/admins, managers, staff, and contractors, is a good starting point for most businesses. This setup provides a solid foundation for managing access levels and permissions in Google Drive.

Simple permissions are the default way to manage access levels in Google Drive. They're easy to set up and work well for small teams.

Complex permissions, on the other hand, offer more granular control over who gets access to what. This is especially useful for larger organizations with multiple areas of the business.

Using complex permissions allows you to create a separate organizational structure for each area of the business. This is what itGenius does, with multiple folders for different areas.

This approach enables you to fine-tune access levels and make sure the right people have access to the right information. It's particularly important for growing businesses with large teams.

Simple access levels are perfect for most businesses, especially small ones. You can start with just a few groups to manage permissions.

One group can be for owners and admins of the business, another for managers, and a third for all staff members. This setup is simple and effective.

You can also consider creating a fourth group for contractors, but it's not necessary for every business. With these four groups, you have everything you need to manage permissions.

Here's a simple breakdown of the groups:

This simple setup is a great starting point, and you can always add more complexity later if needed.

Google Drive has five distinct permission levels: Manager, Content Manager, Contributor, Viewer, and Commenter. Each level grants different access privileges to users.

Managers have the highest level of control, allowing them to create, delete, and modify files, add and remove members, and change member permissions. They essentially have full administrative control over the shared drive.

To share files and folders, you can share them with individual users, groups, or the whole organization. You can also share files publicly, allowing anyone with the link to access the file.

To modify user permissions, you can do this individually or by department. To modify permissions for an individual user, follow these steps: sign in to the Google Admin console, navigate to Apps > Google Workspace > Drive and Docs > Manage shared drives, select the shared drive you want to manage, click on the “Manage members” button, locate the user whose permissions you want to modify, and choose the appropriate permission level from the drop-down menu.

Google Shared Drives offer various sharing settings that provide further control over how files and folders are shared. These settings include allowing users to share files outside of the shared drive, notifying the file owner when someone shares their file, and allowing users to make files publicly accessible to non-Google users.

Here are the three choices for sharing a file for organizations: restricted, only within the group, and anyone with the link. Restricted means only people added by an editor can open the document or folder with this link, within the group means anyone in the organization's Team Drive can open the document or folder with this link, and anyone means fully public access: anyone on the internet with the link can view.

Google Team Drive's settings can be adjusted to restrict access to members-only and to disallow downloading, copying, or printing by commenters and viewers. This is done by changing “full access” to “edit access” in the admin Team Drive settings panel.

In Google Drive, permissions and sharing settings define how files and folders behave, especially in Team Drives. When you give access to a Google Drive folder, everything in that folder is now available at the same permission level.

Access Control is a crucial aspect of Google Drive, allowing you to manage who can access your files and folders. You can control sharing settings internally and externally, with three choices for sharing a file: restricted, only within the group, and anyone with the link.

To restrict access, you can set permissions to only allow people added by an editor to open the document or folder. You can also set up a search setting to allow people in the organization or group to search for the file. However, this setting is left unchecked by default.

Files in Team Drives can be shared with non-members, but you can adjust the settings to restrict access to members-only. This can be done by changing "full access" to "edit access" in the admin Team Drive settings panel.

To keep track of who has access to your files, you can check the users within the sharing box. However, there's no macro level view of which files are being shared, both where (inside or outside the Team Drive) or with whom.

Here are the three sharing options for organizations:

To configure groups for granular access, you can set access to individual subfolders first and then work your way up to setting access for the whole Shared folder. This is because access flows down the hierarchy of folders, so it's safest to begin by manipulating the access to the lowest subfolders individually.