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Google Drive Approvals is available to eligible Google Workspace Enterprise and Google Workspace for Education Plus accounts—not personal Gmail or standard Workspace accounts. It lets a requester send a file to approvers, collect approve-or-reject decisions and notes, and track the request in Drive. The approval applies to a specific version, so teams should decide how edits will affect sign-off before sending a request.

Google’s current instructions are in its Drive approvals help page. Availability and interface details can change.

Choose how the review should work

Before requesting approval, finish the draft, confirm that the intended reviewers can access the file, and agree on whether they may edit or comment while it is under review. The key choice is whether reviewers must approve identical content or whether existing decisions may remain when the file changes.

Review setup What happens Best suited to
Leave the file unlocked Reviewers can work with the file while the request is active. If the desktop setting “Require all approvers to review the same content” is off, edits do not reset recorded approvals; reviewers can change their decisions until approval is complete. Collaborative reviews where comments, suggestions, or edits are part of the process and the team accepts that reviewers may have seen different revisions.
Require all approvers to review the same content On desktop, edits reset existing approvals so every approver must review the changed content. Sign-off where every approver must approve the same revision.
Lock the file during review While locked, the file cannot be edited, commented on, or suggested on. Reviews that need a fixed document. An editor with edit access can unlock a locked file.

These are distinct controls: the same-content setting determines whether edits reset approvals, while locking prevents edits and comments during the lock. Choose the setup that matches your sign-off rules rather than assuming that every approval request freezes the file.

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Send an approval request

  1. Open the file in Google Drive. Use the file’s approval controls to open its approval sidebar. Google’s help page provides the current desktop instructions; labels and placement may change.
  2. Add the approvers. Select the people who need to review the file and verify they have access.
  3. Set a due date if useful. The request can include a due date, which the requester can later review alongside its status.
  4. Choose the review behavior. Set whether all approvers must review the same content, and decide whether to lock the file before sending.
  5. Send the request. Drive routes the file to the selected approvers and records the request in the approval sidebar.

Review the file and track decisions

Approvers open the requested file in Drive and record an approval or rejection. They may add an optional note with the decision. The requester can return to the approval sidebar to check the request’s status, due date, and activity.

On a computer, Drive search filters help distinguish work coming in from work the team has sent out:

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  • “Awaiting my approval” finds files that need your decision.
  • “requested by me” finds approval requests you initiated.

These filters are especially useful when a person is both reviewing other people’s files and coordinating approvals for their own.

Manage a request that is already in progress

From the approval sidebar, the requester can add an approver, replace one, change the due date, or cancel the request. If a file is locked, an editor with edit access can unlock it. When the desktop same-content setting is enabled, edits during an active review reset recorded approvals, requiring approvers to review the changed content again.

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Approval is version-specific. For Docs, Sheets, and Slides, Drive provides previous approval details through approved versions and version history. If someone edits a file after it has been approved, the recorded approval belongs to the earlier version; check the approved version before treating that sign-off as applying to later changes.

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Use Approvals on Android or iOS

Drive’s Android and iOS instructions support reviewing, approving, rejecting, and managing request details from the file list or a preview. If the file must be locked from the beginning, turn on “Lock file before sending approval request” before sending it. Google’s mobile guidance says edits or unlocking during an approval reset recorded approvals. That mobile guidance should not be confused with the desktop same-content setting, which lets teams configure how edits affect approvals.

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