Granting Collaborator access is a sharing action on an individual file. The most common path is the Share dialog in Lightning Experience, where you pick the people or groups and set their access level to Collaborator. Developers can do the same thing in bulk by inserting ContentDocumentLink records with ShareType set to C.
- Open the file's sharing settings
Find the file in the Files tab, on a record's Files related list, or in a library. Click the file, then choose the share or sharing settings option to open the Share dialog for that specific file.
- Add the person or group
In the dialog, search for the user or public group you want to bring in. Adding a public group grants the access to every member of that group at once, which is the easier choice for team-wide files.
- Set the access level to Collaborator
Choose Collaborator as the access level so the audience can both view and edit (upload new versions). Pick Viewer instead when you only want read-only access for that person or group.
- Save and confirm
Save the change. Salesforce writes a ContentDocumentLink with ShareType C for that audience. Reopen the sharing settings later to change a Collaborator to Viewer or to remove access when it is no longer needed.
Set to Collaborator for view-and-edit, or Viewer for read-only. Collaborator maps to ShareType C; Viewer maps to ShareType V on the ContentDocumentLink.
Choose a user, a public group, a record, or a library. Group shares spread Collaborator access to all current and future members of that group.
An org setting that lets files attached to records follow the record's sharing (inferred access, ShareType I) instead of a fixed level. Enable it to keep file visibility aligned with record visibility.
A separate option that generates a shareable URL for read-style access. Use it for quick distribution, but use named Collaborator shares when you need people to edit and be tracked individually.
- Collaborator cannot delete the file or re-share it. If a contributor needs those rights, transfer ownership rather than trying to stretch the Collaborator level.
- Adding a public group as a Collaborator gives every member edit access. Audit the group's membership before sharing a sensitive file with it.
- Removing a Collaborator stops future edits but does not delete the versions or comments they already added. The file's history keeps those contributions.
- ShareType I (Inferred) is not the same as Collaborator. Inferred access comes from the related record or library; Collaborator (C) is an explicit view-and-edit grant.