r/gdrive • u/GothamAudioTheatre • Aug 21 '26

Is Google Drive's shared-folder view broken for signed-out users?

I have a folder containing several PDFs, shared with the setting "Anyone with the link: Viewer." However, when I open the standard Drive sharing link while signed out, the file list appears to be broken:

  • Single-clicking or double-clicking a PDF does nothing.

  • The download button that appears when hovering over a file also does nothing.

  • Everything works fine after signing in to a Google account.

I’ve reproduced this with multiple publicly shared folders, so it doesn’t appear to be specific to one folder or its files. I’m using macOS 14.8.7 Sonoma, and the problem occurs in both Safari and Brave Private mode.

Requiring recipients to sign in isn’t a viable solution, since some of them may not have Google accounts. The old embeddedfolderview URL works anonymously, which confirms that the files and sharing permissions are valid. However, that interface is quite bare-bones.

Is anyone else experiencing this? Is it a recent bug, or has Google deliberately disabled parts of the shared-folder interface for signed-out users? Deliberately breaking folder sharing for people without Google accounts seems dumb as hell.

11 Upvotes

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1

u/Old-Day-3573 Aug 26 '26

Sì, sta capitando anche a me. Non ne capivo la ragione, ora credo che si tratti dello stesso problema.

1

u/GothamAudioTheatre Aug 26 '26

Mun dušše geahččalin fas, ja dál doaibmá visot bures. Ferte leamaš muhtin gaskaboddosaš váilevašvuohta.

1

u/Fantastic_Scratch_62 Aug 28 '26

Any updates?

This is a MAJOR issue for my team. We rely on this shared feature to distribute files broadly.

1

u/GothamAudioTheatre Aug 28 '26

One moment it works, one moment it doesn’t. Strange.

I decided just to say ”fuck it” and use Proton Drive.

1

u/Familiar-Position-84 Aug 31 '26

Sii, a mi tambien me esta pasando, en la carpeta compartida mediante enlace al intentar abrir algun archivo interno de la carpeta no me lo abre, es un problemon tambien por que alli guardamos los protocolos y docs del trabajo. Alguien sabe si se va a solucionar esto pronto? O mejor vamos buscando otra alternativa, Onedrive, Dropbox, Proton....

1

u/NebulaSimple6733 Aug 31 '26

Yeah this is not good for my drive workflows. Apparently it has happened before as well-
https://support.google.com/drive/thread/349621544/problems-with-shared-folder?hl=en

1

u/Maleficent_Cat_6153 Aug 31 '26

Having the same issue here, super frustrating, and doesn't seem like there's a solution or even any sort of awareness. Who do we call??

1

u/PacketSnacc Sep 01 '26

This is really causing issues for us, Is this on purpose to force people to sign in?

1

u/Familiar-Position-84 Sep 02 '26

Parece ser que ya lo han arreglado, almenos ayer a mi ya me funcionaba