A share password is an optional password on a document. When it is set, anyone opening any share link for that document must enter the password before they can see it. It is there to stop people guessing or stumbling onto a share URL, not to provide strong encryption.
How it works
The password belongs to the document, not to a single link. One password covers every share link you create for that document, embeds included. Once a visitor enters it correctly, it stays in effect for their whole visit, so their reads, edits, images, and realtime all stay authorised.
As the owner you always bypass the password. So do members of the team whose library holds the document, since they don't come in through a link. The prompt only ever appears for people coming in through a share link.
Setting a password
Type a password in the field that appears and choose Save (or press Enter). The field shows what you type, so you can check it.
Once saved, the row shows Password Set with Replace and Remove, and every pass gains a small Password tag. livediagram keeps only a scrambled form of the password, so nobody can read it back afterwards, you included: note it down before you save, and use Replace to choose a new one if you lose it.
Changing or removing it
- Replace brings back an empty field. Type the new password and choose Save, or Cancel (or Esc) to keep the old one.
- Remove, or switching Password Protection off, takes the password away at once. Every link then opens without one again.
Setting or replacing a password sends everyone currently in the document through a share link back to the prompt straight away, so they need the new password to carry on. Removing it disconnects nobody.
What visitors see
When someone opens a protected share link, they get a full-screen card headed This document is password-protected, with a single password box and an Open document button, instead of the canvas. A wrong password shows "That password didn't match. Try again." and lets them try again. Guesses are rate-limited per network, so a password can't be found by trying thousands of them.
The browser remembers a password that worked, for that link, so a visitor isn't asked again next time. They are asked again only if you replace the password (or remove it and later set a new one), or they clear their browser's site data.
Embedded documents behave the same way: the password prompt appears inside the embed frame. Because browsers keep each site's storage separate, a visitor enters the password once per site where the document is embedded.
What a password turns off
- Live images. An image tag can't supply a password, so the Live image menu disappears from every pass while a password is set. See Live Image.
- The Community. A public document can't ask its visitors for a password, so a document can't be in the Community and have a password at the same time. While it is listed, Password Protection is switched off and locked, with a note saying why.
Pair a password with a share link expiry for a link that both needs a secret and stops working after a set time.
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