Visitor Sharing in Google Drive

Visitor sharing allows you to invite people who don’t have Google accounts and people outside of the University to collaborate on your Drive files and Google Docs, Sheets, and more. 

Visitors can edit, comment on, or view your document for 7 days after they verify their email address using a PIN. If they must collaborate longer, they can use the link from the original sharing email to verify their identity again. You can stop sharing at any time or control if visitors can edit, comment, or find your file.

How to share files with a visitor:

1. On your computer, log in to your work or school account.
2. Go to Google Drive, Docs, Sheets, or Slides.
3. Click the file you want to share and then click Share.
4. Under "Share with people and groups," enter the email address you want to share with and press Enter.
5. To change what people can do to your doc, on the right, click the Drop arrow > Viewer, Commenter, or Editor.
6. Click Send.

How to remove a visitor's access:

You can take away a visitor's access at any time.

1. On a computer, log into your work or school account.
2. Go to Google Drive, Docs, Sheets, or Slides.
3. Click on the file that's shared with a visitor.
4. In the top right, click Share and then Advanced.
5. Next to the visitor, click Remove.
6. Click Save changes and then Done.

Collaborate on Drive files as a visitor:

When you get an invitation to collaborate as a visitor, you must verify your identity with a PIN. After that, you can collaborate on the shared file or folder for 7 days. If you need to collaborate longer, you must verify your identity again using the link from the original sharing email.

As a visitor, you can:

• Suggest edits to, comment on, or view shared documents.
• Create files with Docs, Sheets, Slides, and Forms in folders or subfolders in a shared drive.
• Visitors with contributor access can also upload or download files and folders to folders or subfolders in a shared drive.

How to collaborate as a visitor:

1. In your email inbox, open the invitation email.
2. Select Open.
3. In your email inbox, open the verification code email from Google.
4. Copy the verification code.
5. Return to the “Verification” browser tab and enter the verification code.
6. Select Next.