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I have a main folder in Google Drive with lots of sub folders that also have sub folders. The main folder is shared with my team. Some of the sub folders are shared with external people (temporary consultants for example). This has become a mess. I need to see a list of all people that have access to the sub folders so that I can delete the sharing. How can I do that?

I could go through all sub folders manual one by one but that would take forever.

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4
  • I don't see any way to do it easily. There might be some tool available to a Google Apps admin, but I don't know what it might be.
    – ale
    Commented Jul 1, 2013 at 13:47
  • Thanks! I'm using Google apps and I'm the admin, any idea?
    – Martin
    Commented Jul 2, 2013 at 13:08
  • Not from me, sorry. I'm just a regular old Google Account user.
    – ale
    Commented Jul 2, 2013 at 13:12
  • You can see the permitions for your google account at: security.google.com/settings/security/permissions
    – Eliy Arlev
    Commented Apr 22, 2020 at 21:17

9 Answers 9

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29

If you know the email addresses of the people you have shared files with, all you have to do is enter the following search in Google Drive's search bar:

to: [email address]

Google Drive will then show all files shared with that user.

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1
19

I know this answer is a bit late, but there is a new solution to this problem.

Check out https://whohasaccess.com to uncover all the people that access your shared files and folders.

enter image description here

Disclaimer: I'm part of the team that developed WhoHasAccess.

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9
  • 1
    This is awesome, great work.
    – Ed_
    Commented May 11, 2015 at 19:43
  • unfortunately the site is down.
    – Arashsoft
    Commented Dec 22, 2015 at 22:54
  • @Arashsoft as far as I can see everything is running smoothly. Could you provide some details? Thanks
    – Patrick Rudolph
    Commented Dec 22, 2015 at 23:21
  • 2
    Are you kidding me? It says "This will allow WhoHasAccess to:See, edit, create and delete all of your Google Drive files...."
    – Douglas Held
    Commented May 11, 2020 at 10:38
  • 1
    This is a third party solution. Native solutions should be upvoted.
    – TFuto
    Commented Oct 4, 2021 at 23:09
6

I was trying to find every file that had owners that were not myself as well, it was driving me crazy. Somehow there were a good amount of files and folders in there that I never remember having added at all. Not sure at all how that happened. Anyways, after playing around for a bit I found that if you search at the top, use:

-owner:me

That will show every file that has an owner other than yourself!

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2
  • That is very interesting and helpful, but it not addressing the particular question.
    – Douglas Held
    Commented May 11, 2020 at 10:32
  • So close to the perfect answer.... "-sharedwith:me"
    – Tom Halladay
    Commented Mar 6, 2023 at 5:23
3
  1. In the search bar at the top, enter owner:me
  2. When all your files have loaded, click on Ctrl+A to select all the files
  3. Right-click on any of the files and select Share to pop up a list of all the files you've shared with anyone
  4. Scroll through the list, and click the checkbox next to any one you want to remove
  5. Click Done
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1
  • Looks promising! This is very, very slow but appears to work. If there are a lot of files, I think the approach might work best subdirectory-by-subdirectory.
    – Douglas Held
    Commented May 11, 2020 at 10:43
2

Sorry, there is currently no built in way to do this. As of now the only way is to do it manually by viewing the sharing options of the folder (As the GIF below depicts)

enter image description here

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5
  • I wish this didn't keep replaying ad infinitum.
    – aparente001
    Commented Sep 22, 2015 at 2:59
  • @aparente001 sorry, what?
    – ComputerLocus
    Commented Sep 22, 2015 at 13:00
  • This gif plays over and over and over again, ad nauseum.
    – aparente001
    Commented Sep 23, 2015 at 2:05
  • @aparente001 of course it plays over and over. Otherwise you may not be able to see it originally before the first loop ended.
    – ComputerLocus
    Commented Sep 23, 2015 at 12:59
  • All I know is that it makes it hard to read the other materials on the page. Perhaps I didn't understand your question when you asked, "Sorry, what?"
    – aparente001
    Commented Sep 24, 2015 at 4:37
2

I needed this so bad for my Google Apps account!

After a bit of searching, I found this post which uses a Google Script to scan all folders/files and sends you an email of all people who can access your Google Drive files.

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3
  • Actually this is a very new script! Written in September 11, 2013.
    – Mohammed J. Razem
    Commented Sep 21, 2013 at 9:22
  • 1
    Could you describe the contents of the link a little- that way, in the event that it moves, we don't lose all the info. Thanks!
    – batpigandme
    Commented Sep 21, 2013 at 18:39
  • 1
    This tool is 40$!
    – Arashsoft
    Commented Dec 22, 2015 at 22:56
-1

I do believe this is straight forward.

Put the view Owner Type and More, you will then see the options on a float box of : Ownership and Visibility

.

I do believe they will allow you to find out what is shared and then remove people as you so desire.

However I am not sure if a list in the manner which you want is available using the default client tools.

Hope this helps.

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5
  • How do you get to view owner type?
    – batpigandme
    Commented Jul 1, 2013 at 16:57
  • Alternatively if you are able to load on Flashpanel on to your GA account. I know it provides a documents exposure report in which this information is available.
    – jCisco
    Commented Jul 1, 2013 at 18:09
  • 1
    I don't see how this answers the question.
    – ale
    Commented Jul 1, 2013 at 19:10
  • Is the OP using a regular google account or a Google Apps one?
    – jCisco
    Commented Jul 1, 2013 at 23:13
  • I'm using Google apps
    – Martin
    Commented Jul 2, 2013 at 7:30
-3

To get a list of shared folders you can perform a search of files with name 'desktop.ini', starting from root Google Drive folder.

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1
  • 2
    It sounds like this will only work if you have synchronized your Google Drive with a Windows PC.
    – Vidar S. Ramdal
    Commented Mar 30, 2015 at 8:03
-3

This is how you can do it:

In the search bar in drive use "to:" to find documents you shared with someone.

Example:

to:[email protected]
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1
  • 1
    This solution was already offered in this answer, and your answer doesn't appear to improve upon the solution.
    – ale
    Commented Aug 6, 2015 at 14:51

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