How to Regain Access in Google Docs When Your Access Has Expired

Google Docs is a web-based Cloud app that allows multiple individuals to collaborate on a single document. The app, however, has serious ownership and sharing controls. The owner of the document (the document creator) will have an array of options before them.

Here’s more about Google Docs access issues. If your access has expired or you’re experiencing trouble finding a document you could previously access, you might find a solution below.

Expired Access

As mentioned, Google Docs has multiple access and sharing options, all controlled by the document creator. Google Docs is all about shared access. Someone creates a document and shares it with you. They then automatically become the document owner. The document owner can assign admin roles, as well as the admin access level. An admin can have the same privileges as the owner, as long as the owner allows it.

Now, you might receive a “Your access has expired” message when trying to work on a document you’ve worked on recently. If so, chances are that your access has expired.

When editing sharing settings within a Google document, the owner (or admin) can choose when each member’s access expires. This can be in 7 days, 30 days, or at a custom date. Once the access expires, you’ll receive the above-mentioned message.

It’s quite possible that the owner may have accidentally set the expiration date or forgotten to change it at some point. The only way to re-gain access to that Google document is to contact the document owner/admin. Shoot them an email or send them an instant message. They can then quickly and change the sharing/expiration settings and have you working on the document in no time.

Revoked Access

If the owner purposefully cancels your access to a document on Google Drive, you won’t be able to find it, let alone access it. In this scenario, the only thing you can do is contact the owner and ask for clarification.

But don’t think that a revoked access means that the owner is angry with you. Sometimes, after you’re done collaborating, the owner will revoke your access to a document. If you know that your work on a document is complete and you can’t seem to find it, most likely, this is the answer. In any case, contacting the owner or an admin can resolve the issue very quickly.

However, a problem arises when you can’t contact the document owner. If you don’t see the document, you won’t be able to see the owner’s email address, not to mention contact them via in-Doc chat.

The solution here is going through your Gmail inbox and finding the original message where the owner invited you to share the document. You’ll be able to find their email address here and contact them through Gmail. Use keywords when searching for said editing/viewing/commenting invitation.

Can’t Edit

You may have access to a document, can view it, even add comments, but you might not be able to edit it. Again, it’s up to the owner or admins to assign privileges to you.

There are three privileges on Google Docs: view, comment, and edit.

The edit privilege gives you access to do whatever you want on the document. The comment privilege doesn’t allow you to edit the document, but you can add comments. Finally, the view privilege will enable you to only view the document in real-time, without being able to make any changes or additions.

This is very useful when working with a larger team on a single document. Instead of continually having to ask people to stop editing the document, you can prevent them from doing so altogether. They can add comments with constructive criticism and suggestions, but they won’t be able to do anything with the body of the text.

Alternatively, you can allow view-only privileges to a user.

If you’re on the other end of this stick and wish to gain other privileges, contacting the owner/admin should help you out here. You can do so through the embedded chat in Google Docs, or by sending them an email directly.

Deleted Document

The worst-case scenario, in terms of access to a Google document, is that it’s been deleted. This usually happens by accident, although the owner may have wanted the document to be removed.

Keep in mind that only the owner can restore a deleted document. Therefore, if you need access to a document that you suspect was removed, the best way to go would be contacting the owner.

Luckily, Google Drive doesn’t immediately obliterate a deleted Google document. It keeps it in the Trash folder. To access the Trash folder, go to your Google Drive. On the left-hand side, you’ll see a list of tabs. Towards the bottom, you’ll see the Trash tab. Click it. Your deleted document should be there.

Transferring Ownership

Let’s say that you and a team have worked on a Google document to a certain point. Now, nobody from the team has any purpose for it and they want to delete it. The owner doesn’t want it cluttering everything. But you still need the document and want to use it. One option would be to copy the content of the entire document and paste it to another Google Doc file. However, this would delete the editing and comment history.

Luckily, you can transfer ownership of single documents. All the owner needs to do is this.

Go to Google Docs home page. Find the document in question. Navigate to the upper-right corner of the screen and click Share. If the future owner isn’t in the document, enter their email address. If they are, select Advanced in the bottom-right corner of the Share window. Then, find the person on the list of people who have access. Click the pencil icon next to their name. Select Is owner and then click Done.

That’s all that the owner needs to do in order to transfer the ownership of a Google document to you.

Sharing in Google Docs

As you can see, the sharing policy in Google Docs is pretty tight. You can even prevent people from doing anything within a document except for comment and view. If you no longer have access to a document, it’s best that you contact the owner or one of the admins. They will help you re-gain access or explain why your access was revoked in the first place.

Have you successfully re-gained access to the Google document? What caused you to lose access? Feel free to share your story in the comment section below and ask any questions.