How to See Who Has Access to Every File in Your Google Drive

Google Drive's UI answers "who has access?" one file at a time. If you want the same answer for all your files at once — across My Drive, Shared Drives, and files shared with you — you need to export every permission to a spreadsheet.

This guide shows how to do that for free, in about 5 minutes of setup, using the DriveAuditr Google Sheets template.

What you'll get​

A single Google Sheet with one row per (file, person) pair. So if a file is shared with three people, you get three rows for that file. Each row tells you:

• The file's name, owner, type, and direct URL
• The person's email, domain, and display name
• Their role — owner, editor (writer), commenter, or viewer (reader)
• The permission type — direct user share, group share, domain share, or "anyone with the link"

That's the structure you need to answer questions like:

• "Which of my files are shared with personal Gmail addresses?" → filter where domain = gmail.com.
• "Who outside my company has edit access?" → filter role = writer AND domain ≠ your company domain.
• "Is anything shared with my old contractor's email?" → filter email = that address.
• "Which files are still 'Anyone with the link'?" → filter permission type = anyone.

Step 1: Copy the free template​

Get the DriveAuditr template (free, emailed instantly) and click "Make a copy" to put it in your own Drive. Everything runs locally in your Google account — no server, no data export, no third-party storage.

Step 2: Run the audit​

In your copy of the sheet:

Drive Audit → Run Audit Now

The first run requests read-only Drive permission so the script can enumerate your files. The script is open source on GitHub — you can read every line before authorizing.

Step 3: See the access list​

When the audit completes, the "Drive Audit" tab contains the full access list. The most useful columns are:

Step 4: Slice the data​

A few useful filters once the data is loaded:

Everyone outside your company:

Filter: Domain is not equal to yourcompany.com

Files anyone on the internet can access:

Filter: Permission type = anyone

Files where a specific ex-employee still has access:

Filter: Email = exemployee@yourcompany.com

Files shared with personal email addresses:

Filter: Domain matches one of: gmail.com, yahoo.com, outlook.com, hotmail.com

You can also sort by File modified to see whether the access lives on stale or actively-used files — old files with broad access are usually the easiest cleanup wins.

Why a spreadsheet beats Google Drive's UI​

Drive shows you permissions one document at a time. A spreadsheet:

• Gives you one searchable view across every file.
• Lets you filter by domain, role, permission type, or modification date in seconds.
• Makes a great input for a spreadsheet macro that revokes access in bulk (advanced).
• Is reproducible — re-run the audit monthly and diff the results to spot newly-introduced shares.

Step 5: Keep it fresh​

Permissions change every time someone clicks "Share." Use:

Drive Audit → Setup Weekly Schedule

…to re-run the audit weekly. Combine with conditional formatting (highlight any row where Domain ≠ your domain) and you get a living "who has access" dashboard with effectively zero ongoing effort.

Frequently asked​

Does the script see files in Shared Drives? Yes — any Shared Drive you're a member of is included.

Can it see files I don't have access to? No. The audit only lists files visible to the Google account running it. To audit an entire Workspace tenant, run it from a super-admin account.

Does this share my data with anyone? No. The script runs entirely inside your Google account using Apps Script. There is no external server.

Next steps​

• Export Drive permissions to CSV, Excel, or PDF
• Step-by-step Google Drive permission audit
• Find publicly shared Google Drive files
• Google Drive security audit checklist

Questions? Email driveauditr@terrydjony.com.