Configure shared access to a folder

You can allow your friends or colleagues to access your folders on Yandex.Disk. When they gain access to your shared folder, they will see a copy of the shared folder on their Disk.

When you make changes to a shared folder, such as renaming or adding a file, all the authorized users see your changes. Information about the changes is also displayed in History on their Disk.

If you give users full access to a folder, they can also modify your files and upload new ones. This allows you to work on the same data together.

Note. You can create 50 public folders and accept an invitation to 50 folders of other users.
  1. Access to a folder
    1. Access rights
  2. Do other people's folders take up space on my Yandex.Disk?
  3. How to quickly access a shared folder?
  4. Managing shared folders
  5. I can't set up shared access

Access to a folder

  1. Choose the folder and click  → Shared access on the top panel or in the context menu.

    To share a folder with the Yandex.Disk desktop program, right-click the folder and choose Yandex.Disk: Configure shared access.
    Restriction. You can't share a folder if it:
    • Doesn't belong to you.
    • Contains a shared folder.
    • Is located in a shared folder.
  2. Select friends or colleagues from the list or manually enter an email address.

    To access the folder, you need a Yandex account. If the invited person doesn't have an account, they receive an invitation to register.

  3. Choose the access rights and click the Invite button.
    Note. If you see an error message when sending an invitation, make sure that there are no errors or typos in the address.


Access rights

When granting access to a folder, you can give the user the following rights:

  • Read-only — Permission to view and download files from the shared folder.

    In this case, the participant can't modify or add files either on the service page, or through programs or applications. (The “Yandex.Disk” program doesn't synchronize changes to a shared folder made by a participant with restricted access on their computer.)

  • Full access — Permission to upload new files, modify existing files (rename, edit, publish), and delete them.

You cannot set custom access to individual files or subfolders within a shared folder. Authorized users lose access to a file in a shared folder if the owner or someone with full access rights deletes the file, or moves it to a private folder.

To see who has access to the folder, select the folder and click in the upper panel.

In this window you can:
  • Change access rights.
  • Revoke access from participants (a copy of your folder will be removed from their Disk).
New access rights will be immediately and automatically applied to users of a shared folder.

Do other people's folders take up space on my Yandex.Disk?

No, a shared folder takes up space only on its owner's Disk. Once you accept the invitation, the service copies the folder to your Yandex.Disk, but space occupied by the folder isn't counted. This means you can accept an invitation to access a folder of any size, regardless of the space available on your Yandex.Disk.

If you run out of space on your Disk, you won't be able to upload files to a shared folder, even if you are not the owner of this folder. If you want to be able to upload files to a shared folder, make sure you have some free space on your Disk.

How to quickly access a shared folder?

You can see the list of folders that you have granted or gained access to on the Shared folders page. Each shared folder is marked with the icon.

Managing shared folders

  • Each authorized user can rename and move shared folders on their personal Yandex.Disk. This does not have any effect on granting or getting access rights.
  • Authorized users can revoke their own access to a shared folder by deleting the copy from their own Disk.
  • The folder owner can delete it. To do this, disable folder sharing, then delete it and empty Trash. In this case, all users will lose their access rights to the folder.
  • A user with full access can view, download, modify, publish and delete files from a shared folder.
  • A user with Read-only access can view and download files from a shared folder.
    Note. If you can't modify or delete a file from a shared folder, ask the owner for full access to the folder.

I can't set up shared access

You may have run out of space on Yandex.Disk.

When there's no more space on your Yandex.Disk, access to Yandex.Disk is restricted:
  • You can't upload new files.
  • You can't share files or create shared folders.
  • Files that you shared earlier become unavailable via public links.
  • You can't watch videos.
  • API access is suspended.
Other actions with files are not blocked. You can still view files, download them to your computer, and edit, move, and delete them.
To fully restore all Yandex.Disk features, delete unnecessary files or buy more storage space.
Tip. To avoid losing files, download them to your computer before deleting them.