How to Lock a File in Google Drive

Collaboration is great, but sometimes you need to lock a file down temporarily. The lock feature in Google Drive does exactly this; it locks the document so that edits and comments cannot be added.

In order to lock a file in Google Drive, you must have Edit access to the file.

Step 1 - Right-click on the document you would like to lock in Google Drive and hover over 'File information' to select 'Lock'.

Step 2 - Editors can unlock the file. Click 'Lock'.

Step 3 - If the file is locked, you will see the blue 'Locked' icon on the toolbar. You can see below an example of this in Google Sheets.

Step 4 - To unlock the document, click the blue 'Locked' button and then select the green 'Unlock file' option.

Step 5 - You can also unlock a document from the file menu.

To learn more about Google Drive, check out our £75 'Working with Google Drive' course.

You can also book live training with CloudShed.