How to Unshare a Google Doc

This article outlines how to unshare a Google Doc or multiple documents. These directions apply to desktop users on any operating system and for iOS and Android users.

How to Unshare a Google Doc

Unsharing a shared document is just as easy as sharing one. It takes only a few clicks to unshare it and make it inaccessible to anyone but you.

Since there are two primary ways documents from Google Docs are shared, we’ll go over the unsharing process for both. Toward the bottom of this page are directions for bulk unsharing, helpful if you need to make several documents private at once.

Undo Link Sharing

If you’ve been sharing the document through its link so that anybody can access it, even if they aren’t logged in to their Google account, then follow these steps (if you're not sure, just follow along and see if it applies to your situation):

1. With the document open, select Share from the top right side of Google Docs, or open the File > Share > Share with others menu.

   If you're using the mobile app, tap the person icon at the top right.

2. Select Anyone with the link.

   Mobile users will see this option only after tapping on the Manage access section at the bottom.

   If it reads Restricted, then you must be sharing it with specific people—see the next set of directions below.

3. Choose Restricted from the drop-down menu.

   Tap Change in the mobile app to find this menu.

4. Select Done (if you see it) to close the share settings.

Undo Email Sharing

Do this if you’ve added people to the share list by entering their email address. You can unshare the document with specific people or everyone.

1. Open the document and then use the File > Share > Share with others menu, or the large Share button at the top right, to open the share settings.

   Use the person icon at the top-right if you're in the mobile app.

2. Use the menu to the right of the person you’re sharing the file with to choose Remove access.

   Repeat this step for everyone on the list if you want to make this document completely private.

   Mobile users should tap the Manage access section at the bottom and then tap the person's name to find the Remove option.

   As you can see, there are other share options, so if you want the person to have some level of access, you could select Viewer instead of fully unsharing it.

3. Select Save if you see it.

How to Unshare Google Docs in Bulk

Do you have lots of files to unshare? The instructions above are fine for a few documents, but if you have an entire folder of things you need to make private, you can select all of them at once to perform bulk actions.

1. Open Google Drive on a computer and navigate to wherever the shared files are held.

2. Highlight the docs you want to edit the share settings for. You can do this by selecting one and then using Ctrl (equivalent to Command on macOS) to choose the others, or Ctrl+A to grab all of them, or by right-clicking the folder that contains the documents.

3. Select Share.

4. To remove an email address, use the menu to the right of the person you want removed from the share, and choose Remove access.

   To delete any shared links, select Anyone with the link under the doc you want private, and select Restricted.

5. Select Done or Save.

How to Find All Shared Google Docs

Google, unfortunately, doesn't provide a simple one-page list of everything you're sharing. As nice as it would be to see at a glance which docs aren't private so that you can adjust the share settings, there are only two Google-sanctioned methods, and neither are super helpful.

If you don't have lots of files on your Google Drive, the best way to identify the ones you're sharing is to open Google Drive and scroll through everything to look for the share icon (two heads). This indicates any share level, so if it's available via a link or shared with one or more people over email, the icon will give it away.

Another method is to use the search filter to find files shared with a specific person. Select the search options button next to the search bar at the top of Google Drive, and then enter the person's email address into the Shared with field, followed by SEARCH. If you want to restrict the search to only Docs files, choose Documents from the Type menu.

Those are Google's only options for locating shared files. Still, Filewatch is a great alternative that scans your whole drive and organizes every shared file into categories according to who has access. Two handy categories are Public on the web and Anyone with the link.

Any document you select will open in Google Docs in a new tab. Follow the steps above to change the privacy settings.