# Google Drive service accounts need explicit membership on a Team Drive

## TL;DR

If a service account gets empty results from the Team Drives list, the missing piece is usually Admin-side, not code: the service account email must be added as a member of the Team Drive in the Admin console, with sharing enabled for Drive and Docs. Context: Stack Overflow #43243865 (accepted answer, 14 votes): the asker's service account could not see a Team Drive at all, even with Drive API access enabled. The accepted answer walks through the Admin-side setup that fixes it: turn sharing on under Apps, Google Workspace, Drive and Docs, Sharing settings, open the Team Drive in Manage Team Drives, and add the service account email as a member with the needed access level.

Use this when you run into the situation in the title.

**When not to use this skill:** unrelated tasks. It covers only the procedure above.

## Compatibility

The steps above apply to the commands named in them. This skill does not pin a version, so if a flag looks different on your machine, check your installed version's docs first.

## Details

Only then does the service account's Team Drives list return the drive.