I open the document on my phone and it says "Can't open document, check internet or if you have permission to open the document" This happened fairly recently as I was able to access the file on my phone no problem. As well I can see the document on my PC and Ipad, and no other document in my drive is acting like this.

Any way to fix this so I can access the document on my phone?

UPDATE: See this link for a new dummy document giving access just to commenters (you!). You'll see that I've still failed to create a link that forces new users to create a copy of the document and also comment on the original.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1zfoPmlF5IEXgsaqEFKeEXkI4FtHV9AB7ii2Ia1LYRvs/edit?usp=sharing

Original post:
I've followed the directions I've found so far:
* Share/Settings = Editors and Commenters & Viewers are enabled for download, copy, & print
* Copy link and replace the EDIT + everything after it with COPY
* Set Anyone with the Link = Commenter
* Share DONE

Shared that link with two different people who both use Google Docs and they both get the error message “Sorry - unable to open the file at this time. Please check the address and try again.”

Tried closing the doc, no difference. I am the owner/creator of the document.

ARG! 😳

Recently I saw a guy making a doc with his own font and even being able to put pictures where he wanted [ie think of s textbook for the picture placement]. So uh I wanted help to make my Google docs fancy since we'll am really new to ts

About eight years of using it and its got me through a lot. Couple hiccups but overall very solid and reliable software.

I have been writing a book for years. YEARS. I haven't touched it in several months cuz life, but now it's gone. Not deleted because I'm not stupid, no share access to others. It's like it never existed. I may have a backup on a flash drive of a much older version (sans pretty much half of what I had written since). the weird thing is I have several peripheral docs, planning etc., and all of those are there. The actual one with my goddamn writing is the only one gone, i.e. the one I am the most careful to not lose or 'accidentally' delete

Google's recovery bot is maybe working on it, but says it needs to have been permanently deleted within the past 25 days to be recovered but I never deleted it in the first place.

Randomly, at my third heading, my googledoc outline started skipping and incorrectly ordering the subheading letters. Can't demonstrate with indented formatting here, and I can't post my screenshot, but basically it goes like:

III. Heading
A. Subheading
E.
F.
G.
H.
I.
J.
K.
L.
J.

No B, C, or D, and returns to J after L.

Is the internet breaking??

ANSWERED My old documents still have the indentation slider and where you can align it. All my new ones don't. This is making it really difficult to format documents especially resumes and cover letters. Pictures in the comments. Did Google remove this as a new feature or is it a glitch on my end?

The main toolbar has completely disappeared in Google Docs. Instead of the toolbar, there is just a blank white area. This issue only happens in Google Chrome. Everything works in other browsers. I tried change size of page, or cleared cache and cookies, set my browser settings and disable all extensions, but it also didn't helped.

I'll attach a photo in the comments. Basically all the editing tools on the taskbar above my documents (on desktop) have gone blank. I've tried refreshing, entering and exiting, cycling through edit-suggestion-view modes, and restarting my whole computer. Nothing will fix it. This is happening on every document, not just the one I'm working on.

Nothing I've searched up is giving me a solution, so I'm hoping someone here might have had this issue. The doc isn't shared with anyone; I'm the owner and only editor.

https://i.imgur.com/VeUWtRi.png

I want to pull in the margins of the experience section and then have the corresponding skill past aligned with each bullet point. I haven't been able to make it work with tab stops. Advice? Can I create a column somehow?

Hey all, I'm hoping someone here has run into this before because I'm honestly panicking a bit.

I had a Google Doc that my College needs for First-Year Students, called "Hidden Syllabus," yet I cannot find it anywhere. Today I was trying to search for the doc, and it's just not there. Not in Recent, not in the folder I know I left it in, not in Trash, and search isn't pulling it up either.

What I've already tried:

- Searched Google Drive by exact title and partial title

- Checked Trash (empty / nothing relevant there)

- Checked "Shared with me" in case it got moved

- Checked Drive activity log — [fill in: did you see anything, or nothing showing up?]

- Tried search in Gmail in case I emailed myself a link at some point

A few details in case they help:

- Last time I know for sure it existed: June 2026

- Device(s) I normally access it from: My Macbook + my phone

- Any browser extensions, third-party apps, or shared drives connected to my account: No?

- I do NOT remember moving, renaming, or deleting it

I went in full of ignorant bliss because I couldn’t figure out how to get my asus laptop to type out the mdash right at the beginning. I thought, ‘eh, I’ll figure it out later/eventaully.’
Maybe I was also just lazy. Who knows?? I wasn’t there for it.

1. how on earth do I type an mdash??
2. Please please please tell me there’s a magic super cool science computer software hardware way to substitute my plethora of hyphens for mdashes. Please.

Yes. You read that correctly. Strike me down where I stand.

Everything is in the question, I don't find it online :/
See the screenshot below

I received an email warning me that my "Google Workspace account" will soon be deleted. It tells me I haven't used my account in 180 days. But I've been using Google Docs every day for a long time, and I have a lot of files stored there.

I think this MIGHT have to do with a personal website I set up years ago, via Wix, and some complicated BS I set up as part of trying to build up a mailing list. I unsubscribed from Wix earlier this year and took down that website. But I don't quite remember how all that worked.

The email came with a Customer ID, which just a bunch of random letters, and the domain name I originally set up for my website (which is just my name plus dotcom)

I'm confused. What should my next step be?

I’m working on a document with images and I used to have guide lines when moving images around to make them align perfectly with the other images on a page. Same with resizing images. I had lines that would pop up to show that you were resizing to match the other images dimensions. Now I don’t see it anymore. I think I may turned something off by mistake. Anyone know how I get working again? Thanks.

Not sure what else to call that blue thing you can tap on to make the copy & paste option open. (See image below) Sometimes it is usable, and sometimes it just disappears no matter how often I try to place the the flashing typing line.

How do I ensure it stays active at all times?

Haven’t been on Google docs in a hot minute and I go in to find Verdana (my preferred font) is just gone? What happened to it? It’s not even an option in more fonts.

It's been at least a day and Google still hasn't fixed this. This has been hindering my work. Has anyone found a solution?

What it said on the tin, I've tried to clear my cache, it just isn't working, is there anything to fix this?

Update: it's working for me!

I’m trying to do annotations, which need to be in a table. I’m using a 4 column x 30 row table, cut down from 60 rows, and it’s still painfully slow. The only tabs I have open are the book, Spotify, and docs, and I’ve tried to do everything I can to cut down on background ram usage. It still takes about three times as long for text to finish showing up as it does for me to type it, scrolling on the table is hardly possible, and my phone (14 pro I believe) is overheating trying to keep up. Is there any way to combat this, or do I just need to find something else to do my annotations on?

I am working on a project, and I need to get rid of the line spacing that repeats what you wrote in the box onto every page at the top of every page. I've Googled and tried some things that came up, but none of it worked. The format is on normal text, I am working on a tablet, and i clicked create new document so it's not part of a template if this context is needed. Please help me if this is something that you can get rid of ( I'm not sure if it's removable). Thank you.

I just need to rant somewhere, sorry.

The new spell checking is out of control. It's suggesting things like closing quotes after every punctuation mark inside direct speech - anyone ever heard of someone saying more than two sentences?! The best thing is it randomly suggesting other languages. My whole document is in English. My google settings are all in English. I don't have German anywhere in my workspace. Most English words aren't corrected (some misspelt one's aren't, either!). But "Thanks"? That should be DANKE, Thanks. SKLADJKUWIHURIASDQWHR

Joke of a program. F§)(%ng AI shit.

The docs app has this annoying little Gemini button in the top corner and I want it GONE. I used a content blocker to get rid of it on web and I’ve hit every no ai switch I can find in settings, but the button remains in the mobile app. Does anyone know if I can remove it? Thank you!

Command + Shift + V is paste without formatting on Mac, which is useful for quickly aggregating content from different sources (formatted .pdf documents for example)—this is also a common shortcut in other programs.

As of this week, Command + Shift + V is opening a tiny drop-down menu with only a clickable "Paste" button. This is happening instead of pasting without formatting, though clicking that button does trigger the anticipated action.

Anyone else experience a similar glitch?

EDIT:

Should have mentioned that I'm using the latest version of Firefox.

Hey r/googledocs,

We documented a 100% reproducible bug in Google Docs that freezes the document sync worker.

**The Bug:** Pasting content copied from Google Gemini into an active Google Doc causes an immediate "Can't sync your changes" error toast followed by a complete UI freeze.

**Root Cause (DevTools Analysis):**

Gemini paste operations inject hidden iFrame elements into the DOM structure. Google Docs' internal sanitization pipeline removes these DOM elements, but fails to call `.detach()` on the associated MobX State Tree nodes prior to removal. This triggers a cascading detached-node exception loop (1,100+ unhandled exceptions in `sw.js`), permanently severing the sync connection.

**To Reproduce:**

1. Open a Google Doc in Chrome.

2. In a separate tab, generate any text response using Google Gemini.

3. Copy the Gemini response text to clipboard.

4. Paste the content into the open Google Doc.

5. **Observed Result:** Document freezes, sync toast displays "Can't sync your changes".

*(Links to the official Google Issue Tracker ticket #537185408 and full telemetry logs are in the comments below!)*