---
title: Can view, Can comment and Can edit
type: reference
section: drive
summary: What the three permissions in the share dialog mean, which two you can actually choose, and how a permission on a managed folder reaches its contents.
sources:
  - evolve-front-end/components/powerflow/share-resource-dialog.tsx
  - evolve-front-end/components/content-platform/content-platform-workspace-access.ts
  - evolve-front-end/app/i18n/locales/en/content-platform.json
verified:
  at: 2026-09-04
  env: code
  by: content-lane-drive
ttl_days: 45
related: [drive/invite-people-to-a-managed-folder, drive/link-access, drive/cannot-share]
---

The share dialog lists three permissions, **Can view**, **Can comment** and **Can edit**, and lets you choose two of them. **Can comment** appears in the menu but is not selectable yet, so a recipient holds either read access or write access.

## What each permission covers

| Permission | Stored as | What the recipient can do |
| --- | --- | --- |
| **Can view** | read | Open and preview the item, and download the original. On a managed folder, list its contents and open them. |
| **Can comment** | not issued | Shown in the menu and disabled. Choosing it has no effect. |
| **Can edit** | write | Everything **Can view** allows, plus changing the item and adding to a managed folder. |

The control for recipients you are adding is labelled **Permission for new recipients**. Its trigger reads **Can edit** when write access is selected and **Can view** in every other case, including while **Can comment** is highlighted.

Each row already in the access list carries the same menu plus a fourth entry, **Remove**, which withdraws that recipient's access when you choose **Done**.

## How a folder permission reaches its contents

A permission set on a managed folder covers the folder and the items inside it. There is no narrower override for a single item inside the folder: to give someone access to one file only, share that file instead.

The platform records four grant kinds internally, shown elsewhere as **Read**, **Write**, **Review** and **Publish**. The share dialog issues read and write. Review and publish come from the review and publishing settings on the managed folder.

## Permissions you cannot change here

A row with a greyed-out permission menu was granted outside Drive, for example through a Space or a collaboration. Change it where it was made. The dialog still shows the row so you can see who holds access.

## Related

- [Invite people to a managed folder](/help/drive/invite-people-to-a-managed-folder)
- [Share a file or folder by link](/help/drive/link-access)
- [Cannot share](/help/drive/cannot-share)