Google Drive allows two type of sharing of files. One is the through the inbuilt sharing option of Google Drive which limits the file sharing only to the Google Account holders and the other one is through sharable link, which is for sharing files externally.
Sharing Google Drive Files with Other Google Users
Files and folders in Google Drive can be easily shared with other Google Account holders by just adding their email to your shared members. Google has this functionality for its users to work collaboratively on single files like Google Sheets, Google Docs, PPT etc. In the following steps, we will leverage this functionality to share any files or folders with other Google Accounts.
Steps to Share Google Drive Files with other Google Accounts
- Login to your Google Drive Account.
- Select the files you want to share, in case you want to select multiple files, use Shift or Ctrl keys for multiple selection.
- Right Click on any of the selected files, or click on the share icon in the top right corner to open a sharing dialogue box.
- In the sharing popup, add the list of Gmail IDs, to whom you want to share your files. You can always remove or add new members to your sharing group later.
- Next thing you need to do is to set file permission. File permission tells Google how you want the other users to use the file. For now, there are two options available, Viewer and Editor. Viewers are only allowed to view the file in read-only mode, they cannot edit it, if it's an editable file type. On the other hand, Editor has the permission to edit files.
- After choosing the file permission, all you need to do is to hit Share button. All the files you have selected will be shared with the email list you specify. The sharing members may get an email notifying that you have shared a file to them.
Sharing Google Drive Files as a Link
In case the other person whom you want to share the Google Drive files does not have Google Account, then you have to create a sharable link of your Google Drive files. Google Drive sharable link allow anyone to download the shared file using the link. Follow the steps down below to create a sharable file link in Google Drive.
- Login to your Google Drive Account
- Select the file or folder you want to share externally. In this case you can't create one sharable link of multiple files, if you want to share multiple files then put all those file in a folder and finally share that folder.
- Once you have selected the file or folder to share, right click on it, choose share from the context menu.
- The same sharing popup will open like the first method. But this time all you need to do is to set the file permission and hit on copy link button to get the sharable link.
- You can now send this sharable file link to anyone for downloading or viewing the file according to the permission set before.
Sharing Google Drive Files in Android
Sharing Google Drive files in Android is almost the same as in PC or web version of Google Drive. The only difference that you find is the way of using it. You can use the web version of Google Drive in Android as well, or you can download Google Drive app from Play store for easy access.
For sharing files in Google Drive android app, you need to follow steps as mentioned below:
- Open Google Drive App, if you have multiple Google Accounts, switch to the account which has the files you want to share.
- If you want to share a single file, then tap on the three dots somewhere next to the file thumbnail and choose share from the menu opens.
- In case of multiple files, hold and select all the files from the Google Drive and decide to share from by tapping on the three dots in the top right corner.
- You can now add emails of the people whom you want to share the file or folder and the other users will be notified about it.
Creating sharable link of Google Drive Files in Android
Creating sharable link of Google Drive Files in Android is as easier you think. You just need to follow the same steps you did in the PC as mentioned below:
- Open Google Drive or login to drive.google.com in web browser
- Reach to the file which you want to create a link.
- Tap on the three dots to open the context menu, then tap on copy link to copy the sharable link
- You can now paste this link anywhere where you want to share it with others.
Wrapping Up
Sharing is an important feature of Google Drive. It lets multiple users to work on a single file collaboratively, but make sure you set the right permission while sharing. Sometimes sharing significant files with write permission may incur you huge loss. Be careful and keep sharing.
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