Introduction
This article provides information on a recent change to Google Drive sharing permissions that affects how access is managed for files and folders you share with others. These changes were automatically applied system-wide by Google.
Details
Google has updated the logic for how permissions are inherited in shared Drive folders. You may notice that setting specific, more restrictive permissions on individual files within a shared folder is no longer possible.
Key Changes
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Consistent Folder Access: To ensure permissions are clear and consistent, files and sub-folders within a shared folder now automatically inherit the parent folder's sharing settings. This means that if someone has access to the main shared folder, they will now have access to the items inside it.
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Restricted Item Logic: The behavior of the "Editors can change permissions and share" setting has been updated.
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If you turned this setting off on a file to prevent editors from sharing it, and then placed that file into a shared folder, the folder's sharing permissions now override that restriction.
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Any changes made to the access of the shared folder will now apply to the file, regardless of who made the change.
This was a major logic change implemented automatically by Google and applied to all shared files and folders across the Pima Community College Google Workspace environment.
For more information, please refer to Google's Workspace Updates page.