How to Prevent Sharing, Downloading, Printing, and Copying of Files and Folders in Google Drive

Quick and easy-to-follow guide for Google Drive users

If you’ve shared items with others, you can prevent them from taking specific actions.

You can prevent those who only have the Viewer or Commenter access levels from downloading, printing, or making copies.
Also, you can prevent those who have the Editor access level from updating permissions and granting access to others.

How to prevent sharing, downloading, copying, and printing of Google Drive files and folders step-by-step with images

Step 1

Go to Google Drive at https://drive.google.com and right-click a file or folder, then select Share.

Step 2

You can select and manage multiple items:

Left-click and hold down the mouse button over empty space.
Drag your cursor to form a rectangle over all items you want to manage.
Release the left mouse button, selecting all items below the rectangle, indicated by the blue highlight.

Alternatively, you can select multiple items this way:

Left-click to select the first item you want to manage.
Hold down the SHIFT key.
Left-click to select the last item you wish to manage.
Items in-between are selected as well, indicated by the blue highlight.

Step 3

Right-click over the selected items and choose Share.

Step 4

Click the gear icon – Share with people settings.

Step 5

Check or uncheck the boxes. Changes here get auto-saved.

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