# Managing shares
> View share details, modify permissions, and manage shared database access.
The **Shares** page under **Settings** → **Data** → **Shares** lists the databases you've shared and the ones shared with you, alongside the SQL commands below.

![Shares settings page](img/shares.png)

## Reading the Shares page

For each share you've created, the Shares page shows:

- **Share name**: The share name, with its source database shown below it.
- **Owner**: The user who created the share.
- **Visibility**: Whether the share is `Discoverable` (teammates can find it without the share URL) or `Hidden`.
- **Access type**: Who can attach and query the share: `Organization`, `Restricted` (only specified users), or `Unrestricted` (any MotherDuck user with the link).
- **Update mode**: Whether the share refreshes `Automatically` when the source database changes or `Manually` through the [`UPDATE SHARE`](/sql-reference/motherduck-sql-reference/update-share/) command.
- **Created at** and **Last updated**: When the share was created and last refreshed.

Viewing every Share in the organization requires permission to view all organization Shares, which the Admin preset role includes by default. With that permission, switch between the **Just me** and **My org** views.

## Getting details about a share

You can learn more about a specific share that you've created by using [`DESCRIBE SHARE`](/sql-reference/motherduck-sql-reference/describe-share.md) command. For example:

### SQL

```sql
-- if you are the share owner, use the database name
DESCRIBE SHARE "duckshare";

-- if you are the share viewer, use the full url
DESCRIBE SHARE "md:_share/sample_data/23b0d623-1361-421d-ae77-62d701d471e6";
```

### UI

In the UI you can roll over a share to see a tooltip that tells you the share owner, when it was last updated, and access scope.

## Listing Shares

You can list the shares you have created with the [`LIST SHARES`](/sql-reference/motherduck-sql-reference/list-shares.md) statement. For example:

### SQL

```sql
LIST SHARES;
```

### UI

1. You can see shares that you've created under "Shares I've created".
2. You can find **Discoverable** **Organization** shares that members of your Organization created under "Shared with me".

To view the URLs of shares created by others that you have attached, use the [`SHOW ALL DATABASES`](/sql-reference/motherduck-sql-reference/show-databases/) command. The `fully_qualified_name` column gives you the share URL of the attached share.

## Deleting a share

Shares can be deleted with the  [`DROP SHARE`](/sql-reference/motherduck-sql-reference/drop-share.md) or `DROP SHARE IF EXISTS` method. For example:

Users who have [`ATTACH`](/sql-reference/motherduck-sql-reference/attach.md)-ed it will lose access.

### SQL

```sql
DROP SHARE "share1";
```

### UI

1. Roll over the share you'd like to delete.
2. Click on the "trident" on the right side.
3. Select "Drop".
4. Confirm.

## Updating a share

Sharing a database creates a point-in-time snapshot of the database at the time it is shared.
To publish changes, you need to explicitly run `UPDATE SHARE <share name>`.

When updating a `SHARE` with the same database, the URL does not change.

### SQL

```sql
UPDATE SHARE <share name>;
```

In the following example, the `sales` database was previously shared by creating a share named `sales_share`, and the `sales` database has been updated since. The database owner wants their colleagues to receive the updated version of this database:

### SQL

```sql
# 'sales_share' was previously created on the database 'sales'
UPDATE SHARE "sales_share";
```

If you lost your database share url, you can use the `LIST SHARES` command to list all your share or `DESCRIBE SHARE <share name>` to get specific details about a given share name.

## Editing/Altering a share

You can change the configuration of shares you've created in the UI. SQL operation `ALTER SHARE` is in the works.

### UI

1. Roll over the share you'd like to edit.
2. Click on the "trident" on the right side.
3. Select "Alter".
4. Change the share configuration as you see fit.
5. Confirm "Alter share".

**Error handling:** If you don't see the trident icon, you may not have permission to edit this share.


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