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Security & Access Control

How to Verify Who Accessed Your Shared Document

2 min read

To verify who accessed your shared document in Docutracker, turn on email verification for the share link. That ties each view to a verified email (instead of an anonymous “someone opened the link” event).

What “verified access” means (plain English)

  • Verified access: someone proved they control an email address by completing the email-verification step, then opened your document.
  • Why it matters: it gives you a clear, audit-friendly record of which email accessed the link and when.

Step-by-step: verify who accessed your shared document

  1. Open the document in your dashboard and click Share.
    Result: You’re looking at the share-link settings for this file.

  2. Turn on Require email verification.
    Why it matters: Without it, a forwarded link is hard to attribute to a real viewer.
    Result: Viewers are prompted to verify an email before viewing.

  3. (Recommended) Add Require password if the link is sensitive.
    Why it matters: Email verification identifies the viewer; a password reduces accidental/unauthorized access.
    Result: The link requires both verification and the password.

  4. (Optional) Add an expiration date if access should end automatically.
    Result: The link stops working at the time you set.

  5. Send the link to the recipient(s) with a one-line expectation.
    Result: Recipients know they’ll need to verify an email to open it.

  6. Check analytics after the first open.
    Result: You can see which verified email accessed the document and their engagement (time spent, pages viewed where applicable).

Troubleshooting

  • Recipient didn’t receive the verification email: ask them to check spam/promotions and try again (typos are common).
  • You’re still seeing anonymous views: the viewer may have opened the link before verification was enabled, or they’re using a different link than you intended.
  • Multiple people are using the same inbox (e.g., team@...): analytics will attribute access to that shared email. Use individual emails if you need person-level attribution.

Quick checklist (proof-oriented)

  • Email verification enabled on the link you sent
  • Password enabled (if needed)
  • Expiration set (if needed)
  • First verified view shows an email in analytics

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