Use cases → Documents and Drive
Notify users when shared documents are expiring in bulk
Scan shared Drive documents for upcoming expiry dates and notify each owner before access is revoked, at scale, using a delegated service account.
| Who it is for | IT or compliance teams managing external sharing and document lifecycle. |
|---|---|
| APIs | Drive API, Gmail API |
| Typical scopes | drive.readonly, gmail.send |
The problem
Documents with expiring external shares are easy to miss, leading to unexpected access loss or compliance gaps. Owners rarely track expiry dates themselves, especially at scale.
How it works
- Enumerate all shared documents in the target Drives using the service account.
- Read each file's permissions to identify those with upcoming expiry dates.
- Group files by owner and prepare notification emails summarising what will expire soon.
- Send notifications directly to each owner via Gmail API under delegation.
What changes
Owners receive regular, actionable warnings about documents that are about to lose shared access, reducing confusion and support tickets.
Questions people ask
What if a document has multiple owners?
Notify all owners, but clarify in the message that action by any one of them will affect the shared link.
How often should notifications be sent?
Daily or weekly is typical, but frequency depends on document turnover and user expectations.
Want this built?
This is a pattern we run in production. We will set up the delegation and build this on top of it — $500 per hour, most of it working the same day.
Talk to us Or read the setup guideRelated use cases
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