Limit access to a folder within a shared drive

Problem

You want to to limit access to a folder that resides inside a shared drive. However, you need to keep normal access and only restrict a few folders for certain people that have access to the shared drive.

Environment

  • Google Drive

Solution

  1. Move the contents of the folder in the shared drive to a folder in their own My Drive.
  2. Right click on the folder in their My Drive, and select Add shortcut to Drive.
  3. Move the shortcut into the original location of the folder inside the shared drive.
They can treat the folder as a regular folder, and they can manage access to the folder as such.

Cause

It is expected behavior, sharing access to a shared drive gives that user access to all the content inside the shared drive (depending on their assigned permissions).