How to turn off Version History in Google Sheets

Question

I have developed a tool to be used by customers based on Google Sheets. The document contains a number of sheets/tab, half of which are for customer use and the other half protected and only to be accessed by the owner.

The protected tabs contain sensitive information from a central database and shouldn't be viewed by anyone else other than the sheet owner (me).

It seems that protecting these sheets has been working as intended until one customer noticed today that if he clicks the Version History, it displays all changes made and opens all the protected sheets!! This seems like quite a major loophole to the sheet protection feature...

Does anyone know how to turn off Version History so link just right of 'Help' in the task bar doesn't appear at all?

I found this, but that doesn't seem to make any difference. In the 'Turn off view history for one file' instructions, I don't have 'Tools > Activity dashboard privacy' And for the 'Turn off view history for all file' instructions, it doesn't remove the version history links right of 'Help' so customers can still access the history and therefore the protected files.

If someone can advise here, that would be appreciated.

Answer 1

You can NOT.

Not unless you have a work or school account as clarified in your mentioned link

Some Docs features are only available for work or school accounts, and you’re signed in to a personal account: [email protected].

To sign in to your work or school account, click here.

Also further down:

If you don’t see Activity dashboard or the privacy settings:

If the file isn’t owned by a Google Account through work or school, no one can see the view history. You haven't viewed a shared file owned by a work or school organization. You may be signed in to the wrong account. You’re signed in to your personal account: [email protected].