On Business and Enterprise plans, you control who can access your docs by choosing who can access the folders they live in. This article covers folder sharing, how folder permissions affect doc access, the four access levels, and sharing with people outside your workspace. To learn about creating, moving, or deleting folders, check out this article instead.

Folder sharing basics

Folders are a great way to manage sharing. If you regularly share the same docs with the same group, share the folder with that group once and they'll automatically have access to every doc inside - no need to invite them doc by doc. As with sharing docs, you choose each person's level of access.

If you're on a Team/Business or Enterprise plan, you can adjust a folder's permissions to choose who has access to the docs inside. When you create a folder, it's private by default. No one else in your workspace can access the docs within it until you share it.

How folder access affects doc access

Someone's access to a folder or subfolder directly affects their access to the docs inside it - which is a key thing to understand when sharing docs and folders.

A folder sets the floor. Whatever access someone has to a folder, they have at least that same level of access to every doc inside it. A doc's own permissions can raise someone above that floor, but never below it. This means…

• Doc permissions can be more permissive than the folder, never less. You can give someone a higher level of access on an individual doc than they have on its folder, but you can't give them less.

• You can't remove someone's doc access while they still have folder access. Since folder access sets the floor, the only way to take away their access to a doc inside is to remove their folder access first (or move the doc to a folder they can't access).

• You can grant someone access to a doc without giving them any access to the folder it lives in. Just share the doc directly with them as described here.

So what happens when folder and doc access differ? The more permissive one wins. If someone has one level on the folder and a different level on a doc inside it, they get whichever is more permissive:

• Anna has Can edit on the folder and Can view on a doc inside → she gets Can edit on that doc.

• Anna has Can view on the folder and Can edit on a doc inside → she still gets Can edit on that doc.

Folder permission levels

There are four access levels for folders:

• Can view: View all docs in the folder. Team/Business and Enterprise only.

• Can comment: View and comment on all docs in the folder. Team/Business and Enterprise only.

• Can edit: Edit all docs in the folder and add new docs. Team/Business and Enterprise only.

• Can manage: Edit all docs, add and remove docs, and share the folder. Limited to Doc Makers only.

You can also grant folder access to groups, to external users (depending on your org's policies), or to your entire workspace.

Subfolder Permissions

Subfolders - folders nested inside other folders, available on Team/Business and Enterprise plans - follow all the same sharing rules as top-level folders. The four access levels and the floor concept all apply. The one distinct concept is how a subfolder relates to its parent folder.

Shared with parent folder

When you create a subfolder, Shared with parent folder is turned on by default. Everyone with access to the parent folder automatically gets the same access to the subfolder. Permissions flow down the folder tree, just as folder access flows down to the docs inside.

Open the subfolder's Share menu to turn this on or off:

• On (default): the subfolder inherits access from its current parent. Move the subfolder to a different parent, and it inherits that parent's access instead.

• Off: only people you've explicitly added to the subfolder have access.

Restrict a subfolder to fewer people

To limit a subfolder to a smaller group than its parent, open its Share menu and turn off Shared with parent folder. The subfolder then uses its own sharing list, and anyone who had access only through the parent loses access to the subfolder and its docs.

Grant access explicitly

You can add people or groups directly to a subfolder from its Share menu, just like any folder. Access you grant explicitly stays in place even if you later move the subfolder or turn off Shared with parent folder.

Share a folder

To share a folder or subfolder, you must already have Can manage access to it. Then just follow these steps:

1. From your workspace home, click on Folders in the left panel

   • If you're a member of multiple workspaces, make sure you select and expand the correct workspace in the left panel first.

2. Find and open the folder you want to share.

3. In the upper-right corner, click Share.

4. To share with your whole workspace, click the dropdown next to Anyone in the workspace and choose an access level (Can manage, Can edit, Can comment, or Can view).

5. To share with specific people or groups, search for them in the text bar, choose their access level from the dropdown, then click Invite.

   • Note: You can't grant external users Can manage access. Sharing with external users may also be limited by your org's policies.

Share with people outside your workspace

If you're on a Team/Business or Enterprise plan, you can invite external users to your folders. You must have Can manage access to invite anyone, including external users.

You can grant external users edit, comment, or view access, but not manage access. Depending on the level, they can edit, comment on, or view all docs in the folder. External users cannot create new docs, move docs into or out of the folder, delete docs, or invite others.

If you later revoke an external user's access, they immediately lose access to the folder and all docs inside it, and those docs disappear from their Recent and Starred lists.

Manage externally shared folders

On the Enterprise plan, org admins and content admins can view and manage externally shared folders from the Folder management page in admin settings. Learn more in this article. You can also choose to restrict external sharing of folders entirely.

FAQs

How do I remove someone from a folder or subfolder?

1. Open the folder.

2. Click Share in the upper-right corner.

   • If Share is disabled, you likely don't have Can manage access. Only people with Can manage access can change who a folder is shared with.

3. In the Share dialog, find the person, click the dropdown next to their name, and select Remove.

Note: When removing someone from a subfolder specifically, if their access is inherited from the parent folder, either remove them from the parent folder, or turn off Shared with parent folder on the subfolder and manage its sharing directly.

Related articles

• Create and manage folders

• Move docs between folders and workspaces

• Share your doc