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Shared drives follow different organization, sharing, and ownership models from
a My Drive. As such, some My Drive operations
aren't permitted for content in a shared drive.
This guide outlines shared drive-specific API differences in the files and
changes resources.
File resource
The following fields in the files resource are
only populated for files located within a shared drive:
hasAugmentedPermissions: Whether any users are granted file access
directly on this file.
capabilities/canAddFolderFromAnotherDrive: Whether the current user can
add a folder from another drive (a different shared drive or My
Drive) to this folder.
capabilities/canDeleteChildren: Whether the current user can delete
children of this folder.
capabilities/canMoveChildrenOutOfDrive: Whether the current user can move
children of this folder outside of the shared drive.
capabilities/canMoveChildrenWithinDrive: Whether the current user can move
children of this folder within the shared drive.
capabilities/canMoveItemWithinDrive: Whether the current user can move
this shared drive item within the shared drive.
capabilities/canReadDrive: Whether the current user has read access to the
shared drive to which this file belongs.
capabilities/canTrashChildren: Whether the current user can trash children
of this folder.
driveId: The ID of the shared drive where the file is located.
trashingUser: If the file has been explicitly trashed, the user who
trashed it.
trashedTime: The time that the item was trashed. If you're using the older
Drive API v2, this field is called trashedDate.
The following fields aren't populated for files located within a shared drive:
permissions: Due to the potential size of shared drive access control
lists (ACLs), permissions aren't returned as part of files. Use the
permissions.list method, which supports pagination, to list permissions
for a file within a shared drive or the shared drive folder.
owners, ownerNames, ownedByMe: Files within a shared drive are owned
by the shared drive, not individual users.
folderColorRgb: Folders cannot be colored individually.
shared: All items in a shared drive are shared.
writersCanShare: It's not possible to restrict sharing by role in shared
drives.
The following fields are only set when the user has been granted file access
permissions on an item:
sharedWithMeDate
sharingUser
The following fields require special consideration when you use them with shared
drives:
parents.isRoot: This field is only true for the My Drive
root folder; it's false for the shared drive top-level folder.
parents: A parent doesn't appear in the parents list if the requesting
user isn't a member of the shared drive and doesn't have access to the
parent. In addition, with the exception of the top level folder, the parents
list must contain exactly one item if the file is located within a shared
drive.
capabilities/canRemoveChildren: Use capabilities/canDeleteChildren or
capabilities/canTrashChildren.
Change resource
The following new fields are available in the
changes resource for a shared drive:
changeType: The change type. Possible values are file and drive.
driveId: The ID of the shared drive associated with this change.
drive: The updated state of the shared drive. Present if the changeType
is drive and the user is still a member of the shared drive.
Additional changes might be required for applications that need to sync content
with shared drives or track activity. For details, see Track changes for users
and shared drives.
[[["Easy to understand","easyToUnderstand","thumb-up"],["Solved my problem","solvedMyProblem","thumb-up"],["Other","otherUp","thumb-up"]],[["Missing the information I need","missingTheInformationINeed","thumb-down"],["Too complicated / too many steps","tooComplicatedTooManySteps","thumb-down"],["Out of date","outOfDate","thumb-down"],["Samples / code issue","samplesCodeIssue","thumb-down"],["Other","otherDown","thumb-down"]],["Last updated 2025-08-18 UTC."],[],[],null,["Shared drives follow different organization, sharing, and ownership models from\na My Drive. As such, some My Drive operations are\nnot permitted for content in a shared drive. This document outlines shared\ndrive-specific API differences.\n\nFile resource\n\nThe following fields in the [`File`](/workspace/drive/api/reference/rest/v3/files) resource are only\npopulated for files located within a shared drive:\n\n- `hasAugmentedPermissions`: Whether any users are granted file access directly on this file.\n- `capabilities/canAddFolderFromAnotherDrive`: Whether the current user can add a folder from another drive (a different shared drive or My Drive) to this folder.\n- `capabilities/canDeleteChildren`: Whether the current user can delete children of this folder.\n- `capabilities/canMoveChildrenOutOfDrive`: Whether the current user can move children of this folder outside of the shared drive.\n- `capabilities/canMoveChildrenWithinDrive`: Whether the current user can move children of this folder within the shared drive.\n- `capabilities/canMoveItemWithinDrive`: Whether the current user can move this shared drive item within the shared drive.\n- `capabilities/canReadDrive`: Whether the current user has read access to the shared drive to which this file belongs.\n- `capabilities/canTrashChildren`: Whether the current user can trash children of this folder.\n- `driveId`: The ID of the shared drive where the file is located.\n- `trashingUser`: If the file has been explicitly trashed, the user who trashed it.\n- `trashedTime`: The time that the item was trashed. If you're using the older Drive API v2, this field is called `trashedDate`.\n\nThe following fields are not populated for files located within a shared drive:\n\n- `permissions`: Due to the potential size of shared drive ACLs, permissions are not returned as part of files. Use the `permissions.list()` method, which supports pagination, to list permissions for a file within a shared drive or the shared drive folder.\n- `owners`, `ownerNames`, `ownedByMe`: Files within a shared drive are owned by the shared drive, not individual users.\n- `folderColorRgb`: Folders cannot be colored individually.\n- `shared`: All items in a shared drive are shared.\n- `writersCanShare`: It's not possible to restrict sharing by role in shared drives.\n\nThe following fields are only set when the user has been granted file access\npermissions on an item:\n\n- `sharedWithMeDate`\n- `sharingUser`\n\nThe following fields require special consideration when you use them with shared\ndrives:\n\n- `parents.isRoot`: This field is only true for the My Drive root folder; it's false for the shared drive top-level folder.\n- `parents`: A parent doesn't appear in the parents list if the requesting\n user isn't a member of the shared drive and doesn't have access to the\n parent. In addition, with the exception of the top level folder, the parents\n list must contain exactly one item if the file is located within a shared\n drive.\n\n | **Note:** If you're using the older Drive API v2:\n | - `shareable`: Deprecated. Use `capabilities/canShare`.\n | - `editable`: Deprecated. Use `capabilities/canEdit`.\n | - `copyable`: Deprecated. Use `capabilities/canCopy`.\n | - `canComment`: Deprecated. Use `capabilities/canComment`.\n | - `canReadRevisions`: Deprecated. Use `capabilities/canReadRevisions`.\n- `capabilities/canRemoveChildren`: Use `capabilities/canDeleteChildren` or\n `capabilities/canTrashChildren`.\n\nPermission resource\n\nThe `permissionDetails` field in the\n[`Permission`](/workspace/drive/api/reference/rest/v3/permissions) resource is only populated for\nfiles located within a shared drive. This field is a list of condensed\npermissions that are on or inherited by this shared drive file. This field is an\noutput-only field and is present only for shared drive items. Additionally,\n\n- Two new roles of `organizer` and `fileOrganizer` have been defined.\n- The `permissions.list()` method supports pagination.\n\nChange resource\n\nThe following new fields are available in the\n[`Change`](/workspace/drive/api/reference/rest/v3/changes) resource for a shared drive:\n\n- `changeType`: The change type. Possible values are `file` and `drive`.\n- `driveId`: The ID of the shared drive associated with this change.\n- `drive`: The updated state of the shared drive. Present if the `changeType` is `drive` and the user is still a member of the shared drive.\n\nAdditional changes might be required for applications that need to sync content\nwith shared drives or track activity. For details, see [track changes for users\nand shared drives](/workspace/drive/api/guides/about-changes)."]]