What to do when a user does not have access

[Amy]

As an admin, you need to make sure your team has access to the right files and folders, so it never hurts to get a refresher on how to manage sharing and set permissions. 

We see a lot of different questions from admins and team members when a user does not have access to certain files, so here is everything you need to know about sharing. Check out this video on sharing files with team members, to get started. Once you’ve shared a file or folder, check if the user has access. If the user still doesn’t have access to the file or folder you shared, carry on reading below.  

Access privileges and user permissions:

If the user still does not have access, it might be time to look at their permissions, sometimes known as access privileges.  

If you share a folder with someone, you can decide what permissions they have to your folder. Members of a shared folder can have one of three roles—editor, viewer, or owner.

• Editor: Any member you give this permission to can add, edit, or delete files in that folder.
• Viewer: Any member you give this permission to can view and comment on files in a shared folder, but not add, edit, or delete files.
• Owner: Only one member can be the owner of a folder. The creator of a shared folder is automatically the owner, unless they change the owner to someone else.

If some of your team members say they don’t have access, this might simply mean that they are unable to make changes to the file or folder you shared.. It’s likely that the permissions may be set to viewer instead of editor, and you can easily update that to grant access. 

Restricted access:

If you create a folder inside a team folder, the new folder will automatically be shared with the same members as the original folder. However, if you don't want certain people to access this new folder, you can restrict access to it. This might make sense for some projects but it means you may forget to add a team member back in to a doc later, so make sure you haven’t removed them from a team folder and restricted their access.

Sharing files and controlling permissions are key features for team admins, so we hope that we’ve answered your questions in this post. Don’t forget, you can chat with other Business Admins by starting a discussion here.