AccessDropYour Google Sheets template opens for the buyer, and they still can't fill it in
Two different mistakes get mixed up under "the link doesn't work": a buyer who can view but not edit, and a buyer who's quietly editing the one original file every other customer also got sent.
You sell a Google Sheets budget tracker, planner or tracker template, and deliver it as a shared link inside the PDF Etsy sends out. You open it and it's fine — you can type into every cell. A buyer opens the same link and either can't type anything at all, or they can, and three weeks later your own original template has someone else's numbers in it. Those are two different failures, and neither is the generic "forgot to set it to Anyone with the link" mistake other guides on this site cover for raw files.
A Viewer link was never going to let them edit
Google documents this plainly rather than leaving it to guesswork: a Viewer "Can View? Yes | Can comment? No | Can edit? No | Can download? Yes, by default. The owner can control it. | Can share? No." Viewer access isn't a smaller amount of Editor access — it's a different permission entirely, with no edit cursor available at any zoom level or any click. If you shared the link as Viewer, that was never going to let a buyer fill in a single cell, and nothing on their end is broken.
What actually gets them an editable copy
The feature that matters here isn't the share link at all — it's File, then Make a copy. Google's own instructions are exactly that short: "In the menu, click File and then Make a copy. Type a name and choose where to save it." A Viewer can do this (download, copy and print are allowed for Viewers by default, unless the owner switches them off), and the copy is a completely independent file in the buyer's own Google Drive — their edits never touch your original. That's the correct shape of delivery: Viewer access to a link, with the buyer expected to duplicate it before typing anything in.
The other mistake: sharing it as Editor
This one is worse than a buyer being stuck, because it doesn't look broken to you at all. Share the link as Editor instead of Viewer, and every buyer who opens it is editing the same live document — not a copy, the actual file. Formulas get overwritten, other buyers' entries show up in cells, and the first person to notice usually assumes you've sold them someone else's half-finished spreadsheet. The permission table above is the same one either way: Editor "Can edit? Yes... Can share? Yes, but an editor can't change the owner" — so a buyer with Editor access can even reshare your live working file further, which is the opposite of what a one-time template sale is meant to do.
| What the buyer sees | What's actually happening | What to check |
|---|---|---|
| They can open it, but can't type anything | Shared as Viewer, which is correct — but File → Make a copy wasn't mentioned anywhere | Add a line to the listing: "File, then Make a copy, to get your own editable version" |
| They can open it, but Make a copy isn't in the File menu at all | Sharing settings have download/copy/print unticked for Viewers | Share → Settings (gear icon) → tick Viewers under "People who can download, copy, and print" |
| It worked for months, now other people's data is in it | Shared as Editor — every buyer has been editing one live file | Reshare as Viewer going forward; the already-shared Editor link needs restricting or replacing |
What this actually changes
- 1
Share as Viewer, never Editor
Editor access on a template you're selling to strangers means strangers editing your original. Viewer, plus a copy, is the only shape that keeps each buyer's version separate.
- 2
Say "File, then Make a copy" in the listing, in those words
A buyer who's never used Sheets for anything but a shopping list doesn't know that's the step. Naming the exact menu path removes the one piece of knowledge the whole delivery depends on.
- 3
Leave download, copy and print switched on for Viewers
It's tempting to lock this down to protect the template from being redistributed, but it also locks out the one legitimate action a paying buyer needs to take.
- 4
Open the link signed out, in a private window, after any change
The same check the Notion and Canva guides on this site both make: your own view, signed in as the owner, is never what a buyer with the link actually sees.
Notion template link not working for customers covers the closest parallel on this site — a different platform, the same underlying shape of mistake, where the link that opens for you and the thing a buyer actually needs turn out to be two different things.
The structural fix is the one every guide on this site reaches for regardless of host: put a link you control in the PDF, not the raw Sheets URL. How to deliver digital downloads on Etsy covers why that matters even when the destination is working perfectly — if you ever need to fix a sharing setting or rebuild the template, you repoint one link instead of hoping every past buyer still has the old one.
See how the link check works
A real example delivery PDF, and what the weekly access check does and doesn't catch.
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