Shared Drives

Learn about Shared Drives by viewing the on demand Zoomcast

What is a Shared Drive?
Google Shared Drives are shared spaces where teams can easily store, search, and access their files anywhere, from any device.

Unlike files in My Drive, files in Shared Drives belong to the team instead of an individual. Even if members leave, the files stay exactly where they are so your team can continue to share information and get work done.

Who can create a Shared Drive?
All faculty, staff and students have the ability to create a Shared Drive.

How do I create a Shared Drive?
Open the Drive App and you will see "Shared Drives" below "My Drive". Select Shared Drives, right click OR click on "New" and type in the name of your new Shared Drive. Now click "Create" and your Shared Drive is ready to go. You can create multiple Shared Drives.

What rights do team members have in Shared Drives?
When you add new members, they’re given full access to upload, edit, and delete files, and to invite other members. You can, however, change member permissions. Learn more about setting member permissions.

What if I someone has full access to the Shared Drive and deletes a file by mistake? Can it be restored?
OIT can only restore items that were permanently deleted up to APPROXIMATELY 25 days ago (items are permanently deleted after 30 days in the Shared Drive trash).

Why use Shared Drives?
There are many use cases for Shared Drives. Here are some suggestions: interdepartmental collaboration, committees, team projects and official clubs/organizations.

How are Shared Drives different from the network shared drive (K:)?

The network drive is backed up daily and OIT has the ability to restore deleted or “lost” files based on those backups. We do not have that same capability with Shared Drives.
The K drive lives on a network server with limited storage. Shared Drives live in the Google Cloud and is accessible anywhere with an unlimited storage capacity.
The K drive allows departments to access the same files, however, simultaneous collaboration is not possible. One person may edit at a time, at which time the file is locked. Shared Drives, as with Drive, are designed with collaboration in mind. Editing a file simultaneously is baked in when the correct permissions are assigned.
There are certain types of documents that should not be stored in the Cloud (aka Google Drive). Refer to the Cloud Storage and Confidential Materials Policy for more information.

Want to learn more? Visit the G Suite Learning Center - What can you do with Shared Drives?