This article explains how Google Workspace Super administrators can set up an email forwarding rule in Gmail. This rule automatically redirects AODocs document sharing requests from AODocs storage accounts to the relevant library administrators.

This procedure applies only if your organization uses Gmail as its email system. If you don't use Gmail, ask your email system administrator to set up forwarding rules for all your AODocs storage accounts to:
aodocs-permission-requests@ao-docs.appspotmail.com.

In this article:

Automatically generated table of contents

Why set a forwarding rule for the AODocs storage account?

If you don't implement a forwarding rule, any sharing requests on AODocs attached files are sent to the AODocs storage account only.

This is a technical account. If no one regularly accesses its mailbox, sharing requests won't be received or processed by the appropriate person. This means requests could be lost.

Implementing the forwarding rule described in this article ensures requests reach the right people. When you implement this rule:

1. Your AODocs storage accounts are identified (tagged) via a group.

2. Sharing request emails received by the AODocs storage accounts are redirected to AODocs via this AODocs email address: aodocs-permission-requests@ao-docs.appspotmail.com

3. AODocs performs a triage to assign the request to the corresponding library administrator.

4. AODocs sends emails to the corresponding library administrator as shown in the example below.

5. The library administrator can then process the sharing requests.

Configure a forwarding rule for AODocs storage accounts

Create an admin group

1. Open the Google Admin console.

2. Select Directory > Groups.

3. Click Create group.

4. Enter the following values:

• Group name: AODocs email forwarding group
• Group email: aodocs-emails-forwarding@yourtenant.com
• Group description: This Google group uses the Google Admin console's email routing rules to forward all emails received by the AODocs storage accounts to the AODocs application.

5. Click Next.

6. In the Access type section, select the checkbox Restricted.

7. Click Create group.

8. Click Done.

Note: Do not delete this admin group for as long as you use AODocs in Google Workspace.

Add the AODocs storage accounts to the newly created admin group

If you have multiple AODocs storage accounts, add them all as members to the newly created group. In our example, we are adding the AODocs storage account aodocs@demo.aodocs.com to the group aodocs-emails-forwarding@demo.aodocs.com.

1. Open the forwarding group you just created and select Members.

2. Click Add. 

3. Click Add members. 

4. In the dialog that opens, select your AODocs storage accounts.

5. Click Add to group.

Your AODocs storage accounts are displayed in the list of members.

Create the forwarding rule in Google

1. In the Google Admin console, select Apps > Google Workspace > Gmail.

2. Scroll down and click Routing (not Default routing). You can also use the search bar.

3. Next to Routing, click Configure.

Configure the routing rule with the settings defined below.

Note: Don't configure the settings that are not mentioned.

4. In the Routing description, enter:
Used to forward emails sent to AODocs storage accounts to the AODocs application.

5. In the Email messages to affect section, select the checkboxes: 

• Inbound 
• Internal - receiving

6. In the For the above types of messages, do the following section select Modify message from the drop-down menu.
 

7. Under Also deliver to, select the checkbox Add more recipients.

8. Click Add and add this address as a recipient:
aodocs-permission-requests@ao-docs.appspotmail.com

9. Click Show options.

10. In the Account types to affect section, select the checkbox Users.

11. In the Envelope filter section, select the checkbox Only affect specific envelope recipients.

12. Select Group membership (only received mail) from the drop-down menu.

13. Click Select groups and add the AODocs email forwarding group:
aodocs-emails-forwarding@yourtenant.com

Note: If you have more than one organization, configure the routing rule at the root organization.

14. Click Save.

Known issues

Share permissions on folders in Secured Folders

In Secured Folders, when you grant edit rights to a user on a folder via the AODocs interface, they still don't have edit access on the folder in Google Drive (whereas they have edit rights in AODocs). If they access the folder via Google Drive, the access request may be sent to the AODocs storage account.

Synchronization delay between AODocs and Google Drive

When you share documents or folders in AODocs, there's sometimes a delay before the new access permissions are synchronized to Google Drive. If a user tries to access a folder or document via Google Drive on which the access permissions haven't yet been propagated, the access request may be sent to the AODocs storage account. This can occur even if permissions have already been granted on the AODocs side. In this case, wait for the permissions to propagate to Google Drive.

Learn more:  Google Drive performance recommendations (under Guidelines).