Sharing files and folders with others is the core competence of Google Drive. But what if you want to stop others from sharing your files and folders in Google Drive? Let’s say you’ve given someone editing rights on a document but you don’t want them to re-share this document with others?
In this tutorial you’ll learn how to stop sharing of files and folders in Google Drive. If you prefer you can watch this tutorial in video form.
The first step is to actually give the person you’re sharing your document with accessing rights. You do so by right-clicking the document and then clicking on Share.
Add the person you want to share the document with. Then go ahead and click on the gear icon to get to the settings interface.
Now the advanced sharing options appear. In this tutorial we are unticking the box for Editors can change permissions and share. That has the effect that the person we’re sharing the document with, Craig Smith, can edit it. But Craig won’t be able to change the permissions on this document or even share it with other people. So this option lets us restrict the sharing of files and folders.
Go back by clicking the arrow button and you’ll see the main sharing interface again. Add a message for the person you’re sharing the document with and hit Send. Now your document is shared but can’t be re-shared with others.
Did you know that you can share files and folders with others and set an expiration date for the access you grant them? Learn how to do so in this tutorial.
Here is the official Google Support article all about restricting re-sharing of files and folders in Google Drive.