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 a shared drive belong to the team instead of an individual.
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You can use shared drives in Google Drive to store, search, and access files with a team. Shared drive files belong to the team instead of an individual. Even if members leave, the files stay in place so your team can keep sharing information and work anywhere, from any device.
Google shared drives (formerly known as Team Drives) are a new feature in Google’s G Suite. Unlike files in My Drive, files in shared drives are owned by the team/group rather than an individual. See below for a table that outlines the other differences between shared drives and My Drive. Who owns files and folders?
Add members and set access levels:
- On your computer, go to drive.google.com.
- At the left, click Shared drives and double-click one of your shared drives.
- At the top, click Manage members.
- Add names, email addresses, or a Google Group. New members must have a Google account.
- To change:
- Click Send.
1.2 When to use shared drives
Consider using a shared drive in these situations: You‘re working on a project or event with a group of people who all need access to the same files. Most of your files are shared with the same group of people. Your files share a consistent theme or topic.
Administrative tools control the majority of security options with shared drives, but if users are not aware of how these work it can cause security risks.Establishing best practices when granting user rights is key to avoid the wrong information being shared.
Store, share, and access your files and folders from any mobile device, tablet, or computer—and your first 15GB of storage are free.
3.4 Delete a shared drive
Make sure the shared drive is empty. If you want to keep files or folders, move them to My Drive.click Delete shared drive. Click Delete Shared Drive to confirm.
Follow these steps:
- Access your Google My Drive and locate the files you want to move.
- Select the file or files by clicking on a single file or holding the Shift key while clicking all of the files you want to move.
- Right-click, or Ctrl-click on the selected file(s).
- Select Move to…
How to Move Files from Shared With Me to My Drive?
- Click “Shared with me” tab located at the left side of window.
- Click a file which you want to move.
- Click “Add to My Drive” icon located at the top of the window.
- A “Move To” window opens up.
- Select the folder from “My Drive” to move the file.
- Click “Move” button.
Anyone can create a Google Shared drive and then add members and set permissions. You can designate a Google Group as the membership for a Shared drive.
My Drive includes items you own, such as Google Docs, Presentations, Drawings, etc., and folders that you have created, as well as files and folders that you have synced or uploaded.Shared with Me shows files and folders that you do not own, but that have been shared with you.
Manage members & view amount of shared drive used
- Sign in to your Google Admin console.
- From the Admin console Home page, go to Apps Google Workspace.
- Make sure that, for your organization, Drive is turned on.
- Click Manage shared drives.
- (Optional) To select a filter option, click Add a filter.
A shared drive can contain a maximum of 400,000 items, including files, folders, and shortcuts. We recommend that you keep shared drives well below the strict limit.To review the percentage of storage used in a shared drive, go to Manage shared drive users and activity.
Is Google Drive and my drive the same?
You could simply use the web interface to upload, create and store files. If you choose to use Google Drive this way you’ll only have files in the My Drive section. You can use Google Drive to sync files with the cloud and between different computers.
Google Drive shared drives is part of Google’s Google Workspace Business and Enterprise plans. Shared drives is not included in Google Workspace Basic. Google Workspace Business plans cost $12 per user, per month. Enterprise plans cost $25 per user, per month.
- Google Drive. Many users are already familiar with Google Drive because they’ve used the platform’s 15 GB of free storage and file-sharing space for backing up personal files.
- OneHub.
- Microsoft OneDrive.
- eFileCabinet.
- Dropbox Business.
- MASV.
- 7. Box.
- Wire.
How do team drives work?
A Team Drive provides a place to put files owned by the team, so that when a person leaves, any files they’ve placed on a Team Drive remain. A Team Drive also allows an administrator to control who may move files, so files remain in expected locations.
You can share the files and folders that you store in Google Drive with anyone. When you share from Google Drive, you can control whether people can edit, comment on, or only view the file.
When you remove a shared file, be it within the shared with me or in your own drive, it really just removes the shortcut to that file. If you had access before, you will still have access after. If you click the link to that file after you remove it, the file will reappear in the shared with me section.
If you delete a file from a network share, it is gone. If you look in the Recycle Bin, it won’t be there. This happens because Windows is organized so that deleted files can be captured by the Windows Recycle bin on local drives only.