AccessDropYour Google Drive link works for you and not for them
The link isn't broken. You're signed in as the owner, and your buyer isn't — which is why you can't see the problem they're seeing.
You've sent a Drive link to a customer. It opens perfectly when you click it. They say it asks them to request access, or shows nothing at all, or wants them to sign in to an account they don't have.
You are testing as the owner of the file. Google grants you access because of who you are, not because of the link. Your customer has neither of those things, and the only way to see what they see is to stop being you.
Fix it in three settings
- 1
Open sharing on the folder, not the files
Right-click the folder in Drive and choose Share. Setting permissions on the folder cascades to what's inside it, which is far more reliable than sharing thirty individual files and missing one.
- 2
Change General access to "Anyone with the link"
This is the setting that actually causes the problem. If it says "Restricted", only people you've named individually can open it — everyone else gets the request-access screen. Change it here.
- 3
Set the role to Viewer
Immediately to the right of that setting. "Viewer" is what you want. If it's set to Editor, anyone with the link can rename, edit or delete your master files — an equally serious problem in the opposite direction.
Then test it as a stranger
Changing the setting isn't enough on its own, because you still can't see the result while you're signed in. Test it properly:
The stranger test
- Copy the share link
- Open a private or incognito window — this signs you out for that window only
- Paste the link and open it
- You should see the files immediately, with no sign-in prompt and no access request
- Repeat on a phone, on mobile data rather than your home Wi-Fi
- Try downloading something, not just viewing it
If the incognito window shows the files, your customers will see the files. If it doesn't, they won't — regardless of what the sharing dialog claims.
Other reasons it fails
| What the buyer sees | Usual cause |
|---|---|
| "You need access" / request access form | General access is still Restricted. The fix above. |
| Asks them to sign in to Google | Either Restricted access, or the file sits in a work or school Google account whose administrator blocks external sharing. Move it to a personal account. |
| "File not found" or a dead link | The file or folder was moved, renamed or deleted after the link was shared. This is the one that breaks silently, months later. |
| Opens, but download is greyed out | Someone has enabled the option that stops viewers downloading, printing or copying. Turn it off in the share dialog's advanced settings. |
| "Download quota exceeded" | Google rate-limits very heavily-downloaded files. Genuinely a sign of success, and a reason to think about a proper delivery setup. |
The failure that costs the most
It isn't the link that never worked — a buyer emails you and you fix it. It's the link that worked for months and then stopped, because you tidied your Drive.
If you've sold a product with that link baked into a PDF, every buyer who bought it now has a dead file, and you have no way of knowing until someone complains. Most won't complain. They'll leave a review, or ask for a refund, or simply not come back.
- Never move or rename a folder you've shared in a product. Create new ones instead.
- Keep product files in a separate area of Drive from your working files, so a tidy-up can't touch them.
- Re-run the incognito test on your live products every few months.
- Better: don't put the raw Drive URL in front of buyers at all — see below.
Putting a link you control in front
The structural fix is not to give buyers the Drive URL directly. Give them a short link you own, which points at the Drive folder. If the destination ever changes, you repoint the short link once — rather than re-issuing every PDF you have ever sold.
That's what AccessDrop does. You paste your Drive, Dropbox or Canva link in, and it produces a branded delivery PDF with a QR code and a short link — and it checks the link is actually reachable from outside your account before you ship it, which is the incognito test, run for you, every time.
£19 for a year, one payment, up to 5 deliverables. It doesn't host your files — Drive still does — it makes the handover reliable.
See how the link check works
A real example delivery PDF, and what the access check catches.
See a sample delivery