Give access to a document you link in an email

A document you attach from Drive travels as a link, not as a copy, so it opens only for people who already have access. When you click Send, Mail checks each linked document against the people in the To and Cc fields. If someone can't open it, Mail asks what you want to do before the message goes anywhere.

Share before sending?

The Share before sending? dialog lists each document that somebody on the email can't open, with Viewer beside it, and names the people who would be given access. You have three choices:

• Share & send gives those people view access to the documents listed, then sends the message. They can open the link as soon as it arrives.
• Send without access sends the message exactly as written and shares nothing. The link still goes out, and anyone without access lands on a screen where they can request it.
• Cancel closes the dialog and leaves you in the message. Nothing is sent, so you can take the link out or add the recipients from Drive yourself.

Access is only ever added, never taken away, and people who can already open the document are left alone.

The notes underneath

The dialog can also show short notes about links it can't help with:

• "Chat invitations aren't granted from mail": a chat you link stays as it is. Invite the person from the chat room instead. See Share a chat room.
• "Bcc recipients are not granted access": access is given to To and Cc recipients only. A Bcc recipient would show up in the document's list of people, which would give away that you copied them in.
• "You can't share …": you can open that document yourself, but you're not allowed to pass access on. The note names the document, and the recipient can request access instead.

When there is nothing to share

If every link is one of those cases, the dialog is titled Send without sharing? and its main button is a plain Send. There's nothing Mail can grant here, so this is a heads-up: you hear that a link will land on the request-access screen before you send, rather than after.