Permission Inheritance Examples

Scenario: Workspace Member + Drive Inheritance

You

• Role: Workspace Member
• Not a workspace admin
• You join a workspace that already has two drives

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Drive Setup (by an Admin)

Drive A: Marketing Project

• Default inheritance for workspace members: Full Access

Drive B: Finance & Legal

• Default inheritance for workspace members: No Access

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What You See When You Join the Workspace

Drive A — Marketing Project

Because the drive’s default inheritance is Full Access:

• The drive appears in your drive list
• You can open all folders and files
• You can:

  • Upload files
  • Rename, delete, and reorganize files
  • Manage file- and folder-level permissions
• You are not a Drive Manager

  • You cannot rename or delete the drive
  • You cannot manage drive-level permissions
  • You cannot manage metadata at the drive level

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Drive B — Finance & Legal

Because the drive’s default inheritance is No Access:

• The drive does not appear in your drive list
• You cannot browse its folders or files
• You have zero visibility that its contents even exist

In effect:

This drive is invisible to you unless someone explicitly adds you.

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If an Admin Later Changes Something

Case 1: Admin explicitly adds you to Drive B as an Editor

• Drive B now appears in your drive list
• You can access all folders and files in that drive
• Your permissions are Editor, regardless of the default inheritance

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Case 2: Admin changes Drive B’s default inheritance to “Viewer”

• You see the drive
• You can view/download files, but not edit or upload

Scenario: Workspace Contractor

You

• Role: Workspace Contractor
• Same setup as before, two drives, one with “No Access”, and another with “Full Access” default inheritance

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What You See When You Join the Workspace

Both Drives Are Invisible:

Because contractors ignore default inheritance:

• The drives do not appear in your drive list
• You cannot browse their folders or files
• You have zero visibility that their contents even exist

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If an Admin Later Changes Something

Case 1: Admin explicitly adds you to Drive A as an Editor

• Drive A now appears in your drive list
• You can access all folders and files in that drive
• Your permissions are Editor, regardless of the default inheritance

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Case 2: Admin adds you to a specific folder inside of Drive A

• You see the drive
• You can view and download files inside of that specific folder, and if you were to mount that drive you would only see that specific folder you were added to.
• If you were added to a child folder, you would be able to navigate to that folder via the parent folder, but you would not be able to see any folders that you were not explicitly added to.