Documents were shared from Google Drive and you need to know how to access them. Troubleshooting steps included.
In this Article:
Accessing Google Drive
You can access Google Drive by going to drive.google.com, or if you’re already on a Google page, you can click the 9 boxes, and click Drive.
Accessing the Shared Document
When something is shared with you from Google Drive, you’ll get an email with a link to the document and it will be added to your Google Drive under ‘Shared with me’ on the left side toolbar.
Access Via Email
- Open the email
- Click on ‘Open’ or the preview box in the email to open the document.
- Depending on the Access Level granted to you, you will be able to View, Edit, or Comment on the document.
- Your Access Level is displayed in the email. In the screenshot below, this person has Edit access and can make changes to the document
Access Via Google Drive
- Go to drive.google.com and click on ‘Shared with me’
- All shared documents will be listed
- You can search by name or look through the list
Troubleshooting
You click on the link in the email and you see a message stating ‘You need access’.
Why?
This happens when you try to access a document that hasn’t been shared with the email address you’re using.
In the screenshot above, you’ll see a ‘You’re signed in as’ section and the email address you’re logged into Google with.
If that email doesn’t match the email the document was shared with, you’ll be unable to access it as the document was not shared with the email address.
Fix it
To fix this, you’ll need to log into Google using the email address the document was shared with. Google allows you to be logged into multiple accounts at one time so you can easily switch between accounts.
Below are instructions on how to do this on a computer. Please visit Google Support for instructions for Android or iPhone/iPad or for more details.
- Close the ‘You need access’ tab
- Go to google.com or any other Google page
- Click on the circle in the upper right corner
- Click on + add account
- Log into the same email account the document was shared with
- Once you are signed in, you can easily switch between the accounts by clicking on the same circle and choosing the correct account from the list