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I would like to upload a protected (encrypted) document to Google drive and have this document decrypted before online viewing. The flow of operations should be:

  • Upload an encrypted document to Google Drive either via the desktop app, or directly from the Google drive portal
  • Keep the uploaded document in native docx format (Google drive cannot convert it anyhow as it is encrypted)
  • When trying to view the document online (open with option), have google drive connect to third party web service that shall receive the encrypted document, decrypt it and return the decrypted file to google drive for online view.
  • Google drive always keeps a copy of the encrypted file only.

Is the scenario described possible?

Noam Rathaus
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user3233455
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1 Answers1

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It's not doable in the way you describe.

  • Upload an encrypted document to Google Drive either via the desktop app, or directly from the Google drive portal

No problem. Just make sure that Google doesn't recognise the .docx file type and try to convert it. For a smooth user experience, you probably want to do the upload using your own app so the resulting file on Drive is associated with your app as the default opener.

  • Keep the uploaded document in native docx format (Google drive cannot convert it anyhow as it is encrypted)

No problem

  • When trying to view the document online (open with option), have google drive connect to third party web service that shall receive the encrypted document, decrypt it

No problem

  • and return the decrypted file to google drive for online view.

You can return it to Drive, ie create a new, decrypted file on Drive...

  • Google drive always keeps a copy of the encrypted file only.

... but you're saying you don't want that

If you are looking for the Drive UI to view a file which is not stored within Drive, that can't be done. If I understand your use case, I suggest you might want to look at ways that you can pass the file back to Drive in a way that the user doesn't see it. You might be able to do this by creating the unencrypted file under a Service Account, and then share that file back to the original user.

pinoyyid
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  • Hi Pinoyyid, Thank you for the quick response. How do I pass the file back to the drive without the user seeing it? Any examples or pointers would be great. I would appreciate it if you can provide pointers to the other items for which you answered no problem. – user3233455 Jan 26 '14 at 06:57