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Let’s say you want to share a file or a folder you have in your Google Drive – but you want to control who has access to it.
While there is no direct way to password protect a file or folder in Google Drive, you can definitely still do it! We’ll walk you through the steps in this tutorial.
Note: We’re going to make a folder password protected using Google Forms & Google Drive. If you want to make a particular file or document password protected, you can go through the exact same steps.
The general idea is as follows:
First, we’ll get a link to the folder.
Then, we’ll create a form that asks for the password and then gives a link to the folder.
FInally, we can share the form and the password to anyone who should have access to the folder.
So, let’s get to it!
Here’s how we’ll get a link to the folder:
- Open up your Google Drive.
- Right click the folder you want to password protect.
- Click on “Share”.
- Click on “Get shareable link” – this will both create a shareable link as well as copy it to your clipboard.
- Make sure it says “Anyone with the link can view” (if you don’t want people to be able to edit anything).
- Click “Done”.
Now, we’ll set up the Google form.
- Click here: https://docs.google.com/forms/u/0/
- Click on the big plus sign at the top left hand corner under where it says “Start a new form”
- Click where it says “Untitled form” to title your form. You can title it anything you want.
- Click where it says “Form description” to write a description – you can skip this step if you want.
- Click where it says “Untitled Question” and write “What is the password?”
- Make sure it says “Short answer” in a box next to your question.
- Where it says “Required” make sure it’s turned on (the circle should be on the right side and the color should be purple – click on the right side if needed).
- Click on the three little dots next to where it says “Required” and then click on “Response validation”.
- Where it says “Number” click on the down arrow and choose “Text” from the drop down menu.
- Where it says “Contains” don’t do anything (leave that setting as is).
- Where it says “Text” to the right of “Contains”, write in any password you want. (For the purposes of this tutorial, I’m making the password Happy2019.)
- Where it says “Custom error text”, write in an error message such as “No, please try again”. Don’t leave this blank – there’s a chance that the real password will be shown if you don’t fill this in.
- Click on the little gear icon in the upper right hand corner next to the SEND button.
- Click on “PRESENTATION”.
- Uncheck the “Show link to submit another response” box.
- Where it says “Confirmation message”, this is where you will copy your link from earlier.
- Click “SAVE”.
Now your Google form is complete!
To check this, you can click on the little eye icon in the upper right hand corner (next to the settings gear you clicked on earlier). This will allow you to preview your form. You can test out typing in an incorrect & a correct password (don’t forget to click on “SUBMIT”).
The last part is to share both the form and the password.
So how do you share the form? Click on the “SEND” button in the upper right hand corner (next to the little preview eye and the little settings gear). You can either send out the form via email or you can click on the gear icon to get a link. You can then share the link whenever you want.
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