Disable, enable & delete a label

This page describes how to perform these tasks involving labels:

  • Disable a label
  • Enable a label
  • Delete a label

Disable a label

Disabling a label results in a new disabled published revision based on the current published revision. If there's a draft revision, a new disabled draft revision is created based on the latest draft revision. Older draft revisions are deleted. For more information, see Label lifecycle.

Once disabled, users can still apply this label through the API. The label still appears where it's already been applied and in your search results. A disabled label can be deleted.

To disable a published label, use the disable method on the labels collection.

You also must specify:

  • A Label resource that represents every label. It contains a resource Name and ID, which is a globally unique identifier for the label.

  • useAdminAccess is true to use the user's administrator credentials. The server verifies that the user is an admin for the label before allowing access.

This example uses the ID to disable the correct label.

Python

service.labels().disable(
name='labels/ID',
body={
  'use_admin_access': True
}).execute()

Node.js

service.labels.disable({
  'resource': {
    'use_admin_access': true
},
'name': 'labels/ID'
}, (err, res) => {
  if (err) return console.error('The API returned an error: ' + err);
  console.log(res);
});

The label has the State of DISABLED and the label's revision ID is incremented. Users can apply the label through the API. However, a disabled label is not shown in a UI unless the showInApply property of the disabledPolicy method is configured.

Enable a label

Enabling a disabled label restores it to its published state. It results in a new published revision based on the current disabled published revision. If there's an existing disabled draft revision, a new revision is created based on that draft and is enabled. For more information, see Label lifecycle.

To enable a disabled label, use the enable method.

You also must specify:

  • A Label resource that represents every label. It contains a resource Name and ID, which is a globally unique identifier for the label.

  • useAdminAccess is true to use the user's administrator credentials. The server verifies that the user is an admin for the label before allowing access.

This example uses the ID to enable the correct label.

Python

service.labels().enable(
name='labels/ID',
body={
  'use_admin_access': True
}).execute()

Node.js

service.labels.enable({
  'resource': {
    'use_admin_access': true
},
'name': 'labels/ID'
}, (err, res) => {
  if (err) return console.error('The API returned an error: ' + err);
  console.log(res);
});

The label has the State of PUBLISHED and the label's revision ID is incremented. Users can view and apply the label to files through the API.

Delete a label

Only draft and disabled labels can be deleted. When a label is deleted, all instances where the label was previously applied, including any corresponding field values entered by users, are permanently deleted and removed from those Drive files.

To delete a label, you must first disable it and then use the delete method.

You also must specify:

  • A Label resource that represents every label. It contains a resource Name and ID, which is a globally unique identifier for the label.

  • useAdminAccess is true to use the user's administrator credentials. The server verifies that the user is an admin for the label before allowing access.

This example uses the ID to delete the correct label.

Python

response = service.labels().delete(
  name='labels/ID',
  useAdminAccess=True).execute()

Node.js

service.labels.delete({
  'name': 'labels/ID',
  'use_admin_access': true
}, (err, res) => {
  if (err) return console.error('The API returned an error: ' + err);
  console.log(res);
});

The label has the State of DELETED and the label's revision ID is incremented. The label cannot be applied and deleted labels are eventually purged. For more information, see Label lifecycle.