Google Drive for the desktop gets Share option

Martin Brinkmann
May 6, 2013
Updated • May 6, 2013
Google
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Google is currently rolling out a new feature for its Google Drive file synchronization service that adds sharing options to the desktop version of the client. According to the post on Google Plus, only PC and Mac clients of Google Drive will receive the feature starting today. Google failed to mention Linux or any other version of Google Drive in this context.

I just checked my local copy of Google Drive and noticed that the share functionality is already supported by it, at least partially. Note that you do need to run Google Drive before the context menu option becomes available on Windows. I do not know if it is similar on Mac systems.

After you have started Google Drive on your system open the local Google Drive folder. One easy option to do so is to right-click the icon in the system tray and select the menu option to open the local Google Drive folder. It should open the folder in Windows Explorer.

Here you can right-click on any file or folder and select Google Drive > Share from the menu to use the new share functionality.

google drive share

This opens a "this program cannot display the webpage" error currently on my system. I'm not sure if this is because the feature has not been rolled out fully to my account yet or because there is a connection issue of sorts.

Let me know if you have access to the feature as well and if you are encountering the same error message or can make use of the sharing functionality already.

It is likely that the sharing feature is similar to the online sharing feature on the Google Drive website.

google drive share online

It displays a link to you when you select the share option that points to the selected files or folders.

Several other file synchronization services, Dropbox for instance, have been offering local sharing options for some time now for desktop users.

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Comments

  1. Srihari Thalla said on May 21, 2013 at 3:58 am
    Reply

    It is working fine now. It seems this feature is now rolled completely to all users.

  2. Srihari Thalla said on May 7, 2013 at 10:33 am
    Reply
  3. Srihari Thalla said on May 7, 2013 at 9:54 am
    Reply

    For me, a window opens with title “Share Settings – ” but there is nothing in that window!!

    Look at the screenshot – http://www.daxserver.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/google-drive-desktop-share-error.png

    1. Martin Brinkmann said on May 7, 2013 at 10:22 am
      Reply

      Does a right-click reveal anything?

  4. Coyote said on May 6, 2013 at 5:03 pm
    Reply

    Works fine for me, the windows that pops up is the same share dialog as the website like you said. The add people has options for read/write, comment or just view. There’s a option whether you want a copy sent to you and to notify the person you are sharing with.

    1. Martin Brinkmann said on May 6, 2013 at 5:11 pm
      Reply

      It is still not working for me. Seems to use Internet Explorer on my system, can you confirm that?

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