Set Sharing Permissions in Google Drive with Expiration Date

You can easily change the sharing and access permissions of any shared file or folder in Google Drive with the help of Google Apps Script.

The following Google Script sets auto-expiration dates for shared links and makes the folder /file “Private” after the expiration date.

const EXPIRY_TIME = '2014-05-01 23:42';

function autoExpire() {
  var id, asset, i, email, users;

  // The URL of the Google Drive file or folder
  var URL = 'https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B4fk8L6brI_ednJaa052';

  try {
    // Extract the File or Folder ID from the Drive URL
    var id = URL.match(/[-\\w]{25,}/);

    if (id) {
      asset = DriveApp.getFileById(id) ? DriveApp.getFileById(id) : DriveApp.getFolderById(id);

      if (asset) {
        // Make the folder / file Private
        asset.setSharing(DriveApp.Access.ANYONE, DriveApp.Permission.NONE);
        asset.setSharing(DriveApp.Access.ANYONE_WITH_LINK, DriveApp.Permission.NONE);

        // Remove all users who have edit permissions
        users = asset.getEditors();
        for (i in users) {
          email = users[i].getEmail();
          if (email != '') {
            asset.removeEditor(email);
          }
        }

        // Remove all users who have view permssions
        users = asset.getViewers();
        for (i in users) {
          email = users[i].getEmail();
          if (email != '') {
            asset.removeViewer(email);
          }
        }
      }
    }
  } catch (e) {
    Logger.log(e.toString());
  }
}

function Start() {
  var triggers = ScriptApp.getProjectTriggers();

  for (var i in triggers) {
    ScriptApp.deleteTrigger(triggers[i]);
  }

  var time = EXPIRY_TIME;

  // Run the auto-expiry script at this date and time

  var expireAt = new Date(
    time.substr(0, 4),
    time.substr(5, 2) - 1,
    time.substr(8, 2),
    time.substr(11, 2),
    time.substr(14, 2)
  );

  if (!isNaN(expireAt.getTime())) {
    ScriptApp.newTrigger('autoExpire').timeBased().at(expireAt).create();
  }
}
Amit Agarwal

Amit Agarwal

Google Developer Expert, Google Cloud Champion

Amit Agarwal is a Google Developer Expert in Google Workspace and Google Apps Script. He holds an engineering degree in Computer Science (I.I.T.) and is the first professional blogger in India.

Amit has developed several popular Google add-ons including Mail Merge for Gmail and Document Studio. Read more on Lifehacker and YourStory

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