In this blog we are going to find out who exactly has access to my Google Drive files, be it a Google Sheet, Google Doc, Form and more. To do this we are going to be using the DriveApp and Google Apps Script.

Recently Aryan Irani shared this post which shows how you can get the file permissions on a Google Drive file using DriveApp. This uses the DriveApp methods for .getEditors() and .getViewers(), which left me wondering about commenters???

The answer is file commenters are included in the .getViewers() response and as pointed out by TheMaster you can filter out commenters with .getAccess().

Another approach is to use the Advanced Drive Service:

The advanced Drive service lets you use the Google Drive API in Apps Script. Much like Apps Script’s built-in Drive service, this API allows scripts to create, find, and modify files and folders in Google Drive. In most cases, the built-in service is easier to use, but this advanced service provides a few extra features, including access to custom file properties as well as revisions for files and folders.

Learning about the Advanced Drive Service can be useful as it open up more opportunities to interact with Google Drive content and can also help you get file properties.

In the case of permissions there is a dedicated Permissions Resource that allows access to all the file permissions. For example, if I wanted to see what accounts had access to a file in MyDrive you can use:

// Requires Drive Advanced Service v3
const fileP = Drive.Permissions.list(fileId, {
  fields: "*" // all fields
});

fileP.permissions.map(perm => {
  console.log(`${perm.role} - ${perm.emailAddress}`)
});

Using the Advanced Drive Service does require a step up in understanding how to call the Drive API and the response you get but once you begin understanding it can come with huge benefits with more efficient code.

Source: Find out who has access to your Google Drive Files using Google Apps Script

Martin Hawksey

Member of Google Developers Experts Program for Google Workspace (Google Apps Script) and interested in supporting Google Workspace Devs.

mashe.hawksey.info