domainwidedelegation.comStart free

Use cases → Documents and Drive

Bulk reset permissions on Shared Drives using delegation

Remove and reapply user and group access across many Shared Drives by impersonating an admin with delegated access.

Who it is forWorkspace admins managing Shared Drive access hygiene across numerous teams or acquired domains.
APIsDrive API
Typical scopesdrive

The problem

Shared Drives accumulate outdated permissions as users change roles, leave, or external sharing rules evolve. Manual review is tedious, and scripts must operate at scale without missing inherited or direct grants.

How it works

  1. List Shared Drives and enumerate current permissions using Drive API as a delegated admin.
  2. Identify non-compliant or obsolete permissions based on policy or directory data.
  3. Batch remove outdated permissions, then apply the intended set per drive.
  4. Log actions and handle retries for transient API errors or quota limits.

What changes

Access is reset to policy-compliant state across all targeted Shared Drives, reducing accidental exposure and aligning with current org structure.

The trap in this one. The Drive API's permission deletions are eventually consistent: recently removed users or groups may still appear in subsequent listings for minutes, leading to scripts reprocessing or missing changes. In practice, this causes double-removal attempts that return 404 errors, or leaves residual access if scripts assume immediate consistency. Always reconcile state after a delay, not in the same run.

Watch it explained

“Automate Your File Sharing on Google Drive with Apps Script: GAS091” — Ashton Fei on YouTube. Third-party video, included because it covers this ground well. We are not affiliated with the channel.

Questions people ask

Can I remove all permissions in one API call?

No. Each permission must be deleted individually via the permissions.delete method. Batch requests help, but rate limits still apply.

How do I verify all permissions are correct after reset?

Fetch the permissions list again after a short delay and compare against your intended state. Expect some lag before changes fully propagate.

Want this built?

This is a pattern we run in production. We will set up the delegation and build this on top of it — $500 per hour, most of it working the same day.

Talk to us Or read the setup guide

Related use cases

Create a client folder structure the moment a deal closes

Provision a consistent Drive folder tree, seeded with templates and shared with the right people, automatically.

Generate documents from a template and real data

Produce agreements, letters and reports from a Docs template with fields filled from your systems.

Sort incoming files into the right place automatically

Watch a drop folder, work out what each file is, and file it where it belongs with a consistent name.