The default permission for drive folders is “Shared within the organization”
The common practice for our users is to have their video/screenshots files automatically synced in a drive folder, and then sharing it by link to a client. With the recent change, they now need to change this parent folder sharing settings to either No access or To anyone with the link.
So basically, anything but the default in between setting.
Team leaders often need to have access to their employees directory, so “No access” is not possible here, while “Anyone with link” is a bit dangerous since our users handle clients data.
Would it be possible to add back the possibility of sharing specific files with a link independently of the Access level of its parent directory?
This change is tied to the new Drive “inheritance” model for link sharing, which enforces that a file’s sharing scope cannot exceed that of its parent folder. If the parent folder is set to “Shared within organization,” you can only share the file with users in your domain unless you adjust the folder’s setting. The only current workaround is to move the file into a folder with broader link sharing or create a shortcut in such a folder, which preserves the original location while allowing external link access.
There’s no admin control to revert to the old behavior, but you can submit feedback directly from Drive via Help > Send feedback so it’s logged with the product team. For sensitive client data, a safer pattern is to use a dedicated “External Sharing” folder with strict owner controls and audit external shares via the Security > Drive audit log in the Admin console.