Proton Drive link passwords: why some people still have access

A Proton Drive password controls access through a public shareable link. It does not remove an email invitation that someone has already accepted. If an invitee can still edit after you password-protect a Viewer link, check whether they opened the item through Shared with me using an Editor invitation.

Set a password on the link

On the web, go to My files, choose the file or folder, open Manage share, then select Set password or expiration date. Turn on Require password and select Save changes. You can also set an optional expiration date. These are the steps in Proton’s password-protection instructions.

On mobile, tap the item’s ellipsis menu, then Share, Link settings, Require password, and Save. Give recipients the link password they need for the link, never your Proton account password.

The password does not identify a particular recipient. As a practical consequence of how a public link works, someone who has both the active link and its required password may use that route, even if you did not invite them by email. Proton says public-link recipients do not need an account.

Example: a passworded link and an earlier invitation

Consider a synthetic example with a four-page draft. Casey shares the file through a public link set to Viewer. Earlier, Casey also invited Rowan by email as an Editor, and Rowan accepted. Casey then adds a password to the public link, expecting Rowan’s editing access to end.

Rowan opens the draft from Shared with me and can still edit. That result follows from the two access routes: the password applies to the public link, while Rowan’s accepted invitation has its own permission. Changing the link to Viewer does not change an Editor invitation. Proton documents public and email permissions as independent, and its email-sharing guidance describes invitation acceptance and view or edit access.

Now suppose Avery has the public URL but has not been invited. While the link is active and requires a password, the URL alone is insufficient for that route. With the URL and the current password, Avery can use the public Viewer link to open or download the draft, but that link does not grant Editor access. Rowan could also use the public URL, but would need its password on that route; Rowan’s separate accepted invitation remains available through Shared with me.

Casey’s own view under My files answers a different question. Casey owns the draft, so opening it there does not show what an uninvited visitor can do with the public URL. Likewise, changing link access does not erase a copy someone downloaded earlier. A saved copy is no longer being opened through that link.

If Casey intends to share only with Rowan, a direct invitation with the appropriate role is clearer than also leaving a public route available. If Casey intends to share this one draft, sharing the file is narrower than sharing its containing folder. A folder link covers more than the single file, and Proton says a folder Editor can upload files that use the owner’s storage.

Try the access-route example

Open the password access-route exercise. It is a synthetic model, with switches instead of a real password box. You can use it without uploading a file or providing credentials.

Begin with an active link, a required password, and a person who has the link but lacks its current password. The public attempt is blocked. Turn on the current-password switch and that route becomes available. Then clear the password switch and turn on the accepted-invitation switch. The public attempt fails again, while the invitation route remains available. This is the situation to investigate when an existing collaborator says your new link password changed nothing for them.

The invitation switch assumes that account setup and invitation acceptance are already complete. A person who has merely received an invitation email has not necessarily reached that state. The exercise does not simulate sign-in, pending invitations, browser memory, or organizational rules. Its separate local-copy switch represents a file that has already left the sharing route.

For your own file, compare those routes with the permission you actually want to change. If Rowan should keep reading but stop editing, inspect Rowan’s invitation role. If an uninvited visitor should be unable to open the public link, inspect that link’s password and availability. If both should lose all access to this shared item, Stop sharing removes the public link and everyone’s invitations, according to Proton’s access-management guide.

Find the route behind the result

Start with what the recipient opened. A public URL from a message is the link route. An item opened from Shared with me may be the invitation route. Proton also lets public-link Viewers save a shared folder for later in that tab after creating an account, so the tab name alone does not prove an email invitation supplied access. Inspect the actual invitation list and the URL used. An owner opening the item from My files is not checking either recipient experience. Ask for the entry point before treating “it still works” as evidence that the password failed.

If an uninvited person can open the public URL without supplying the required password, check Manage share or Link settings on the exact item you meant to share and confirm that Require password was saved. Check whether you shared a file or its folder; changing one item’s link settings is not a way to diagnose a different item’s link. An already open tab can complicate the comparison. Ask the person to open the copied public URL afresh; their previous view alone does not identify which route supplied access.

If the public URL fails, separate a password problem from an expiration problem. Compare the password the recipient is using with the current link password privately. Then check whether an expiration date was set. Knowing the password would not make an expired link active again.

An email invitation has different account requirements from a public link. A public-link recipient needs no Proton account, while someone invited through a non-Proton email address must create an account to use that invitation. If that recipient has not completed the account step, troubleshoot the invitation rather than changing the public password.

Source note: These are documented Proton instructions and a synthetic permission example. No real Proton account or recipient session was tested.