It’s been over two years since Google recognized Drive spam as a real issue with the service, and we’re patiently waiting for action to be taken. In May, the company confirmed that a solution was on the way, allowing users to block email addresses from sharing content with you in the future. After a few months, this fix is ​​finally available for Drive users.

The ability to quickly and easily share files and folders on Drive is what makes it one of the best cloud storage utilities online today, but it also attracts all kinds of spam and phishing attempts. Google’s solution allows anyone to block another account by right-clicking on a shared file and selecting the “Block” option. Blocked users can’t share imported items with you, and Drive will hide any content previously sent to your account. It goes both ways: if you have already shared content with your target, they will no longer have access to these downloads.

There are some limitations to this new tool. You won’t be able to block users from your own domain (and if any of my editors were reading this, I wouldn’t dream of it). Unfortunately, there’s no way to preventively block once you’ve received spam on your account, and there’s nothing to stop spammers from bothering you with new email addresses. Fortunately, blocking prevents users from interacting with you through other apps and services.

Google says this capability is on a phased rollout schedule and may take up to 15 days to become widely available. Fortunately, it’s available to all Drive users, including Workspace, G Suite, and personal accounts.

Google drive
Google drive