Learn best practices, advanced features, and optimisation tips for team collaboration with shared drives. This shared drives guide will give you a complete overview, covering everything from basic setup to advanced tricks.
What are Shared Drives in Google Drive?
Shared drives are communal spaces where you can create, store, and edit files with your colleagues, allowing you to collaborate more effectively. The files from shared drives are owned by the team rather than a specific individual. The main benefit is that teams can continue to share information and work on files even after team members leave.
Non-members, including users from outside the organisation, can also be added to individual folders (they must have a Google account and be signed into Google Drive).
Shared drives are available only to Google Workspace users. If you are currently using a free Google Drive account, consider switching to Google Workspace.
Here are some other advantages of using shared drives:
- All members of a shared drive have access to the same content.
- Multiple users can access and control shared drives.
- Shared drive managers can control what members can do.
What’s the difference between My Drive and Shared Drives?
The key difference between My Drive and Shared Drives is based on ownership and purpose. My Drive serves as a personal storage space where files belong to you as an individual user. It offers detailed sharing control, but there is a risk of losing data if you leave the organisation. In contrast, shared drives are intended for team collaboration. Here, files are owned by the organisation, which means continuous access is guaranteed through team-based permissions.
The following table summarises the differences between My Drive and shared drives.
| My Drive | Shared drives | |
|---|---|---|
| Ownership | Files and folders in “My Drive” are owned by your individual Google account. If you leave the company or delete your account, the files may be lost. | Files and folders in “Shared Drives” are owned by the team or organisation, not an individual. This ensures that files remain accessible even if team members leave. |
| Purpose | Designed for individual file storage and personal organisation. Sharing is done on a file-by-file or folder-by-folder basis. | Designed for team collaboration and shared projects. Provides a central location for storing and accessing team files. |
| Sharing | You have granular control over who has access to your files and folders. You can grant various permission levels (Viewer, Commenter, Editor). | All members added to a shared drive can view its contents. Access is managed at the shared drive level. Permissions are managed by roles within the shared drive. |
| File Organisation | Only you can add files to My Drive. You have complete freedom to organise your files and folders as you see fit. | Encourages a structured and organised approach to file management, promoting consistency and ease of access for all team members. Any member who has Contributor permissions (or higher) can add files. |
You can consider using shared drives when a group of files is intended for the same group of people. For example, the marketing department can collaborate on files using their own shared drive.
Permissions levels in shared drives
Shared drives use tiered permission levels to control access to folders and files.
- Managers can oversee membership, content, and settings.
- Content managers can organise and edit files.
- Contributors can add and edit content.
- Commenters are limited to viewing and annotating, and
- Viewers have read-only access.
Members with Manager, Content Manager, or Contributor permissions can move files from My Drive to a shared drive and can restore deleted files from shared drives. Each shared drive has its own bin and you can usually restore only the files that you own.
Members with Manager roles in multiple shared drives can also move content from one shared drive to another.
Folders can be moved from My Drive to shared drives only by Google Workspace admins.
This structured system allows admins to assign appropriate roles, ensuring both data security and efficient collaboration.
It’s recommended that you run security audits regularly to ensure that your organization’s data is truly safe. It’s a smart way to find any weak spots that could put your important users and customers at risk. Our Google Workspace Security review is a comprehensive assessment of your current security posture to identify vulnerabilities and offer actionable recommendations to mitigate risks. We’ll look at configurations such as permission to see certain files, how you share information with others, and what security measures are in place. This way, you can be confident that your company’s data is always protected. Find out more about our Google Workspace Security Audit service.
How to Enable or Disable Shared Drives as an Admin
As a Google Workspace administrator, you hold the keys to enabling or disabling shared drive creation, setting sharing permissions, and managing member access, ensuring your data remains protected and accessible to the right people.
Step 1: Log in to the Google Admin console with an administrator account.
Step 2: Go to Menu > Apps > Google Workspace > Drive and Docs > Sharing settings > Shared drive creation.
Step 3: Uncheck the “Prevent users…” box to allow shared drive creation OR check the box to prevent shared drive creation.
Step 4: Changes are usually saved automatically but you can also click “Save”.
As an admin, you can also control who can create shared drives by following the same steps from above.
How to Create a Shared Drive
To start a new shared drive, go to Google Drive and right click on the “Shared drives” tab from the in the left-hand panel, then “New shared drive”. After naming the drive, click “Create,” and add members.
The person who creates a shared drive will be assigned the Manager role. To add members to the shared drive, follow the next step in this guide.
Our Google Drive training sessions also cover shared drives so you can master advanced features and best practices. Check out the latest Google Drive training workshops and on-demand courses here.
How to Add Members to Shared Drives
Teammates with Manager permissions can add users to shared drives. Adding members to the shared drive grants them access to all files and folders within, according to their assigned permission level. Follow these steps:
Step 1: Open the Shared Drive you want to share.
Step 2: At the top, click on “Manage members.”
Step 3: Add People or Groups. Enter the email addresses of the people or Google Groups you want to add.
Step 4: Choose the appropriate permission level (Viewer, Commenter, Contributor, Content manager, Manager).
Step 5: Click “Send.”
Depending on your organisation’s settings, you might be able to add external users with Google Accounts. Also, some organisations might choose to manage access to shared drives through Google Groups. This means you would add or remove members from the relevant Google Group.
Sharing Files and Folders from Shared Drives
You can share individual files and folders with users who are not members, including Google Groups (every member of the group gets access), using the usual Share button. These users will not have access to the entire content of the shared drive.
If your team struggles to collaborate effectively within Google Drive and files get lost in the shuffle consider joining our Google Drive training sessions. Out workshops will equip your team with the knowledge and skills to leverage shared drives and other Google Drive features.
Final thoughts
If you are working in teams or departments, Google shared drives should be your preferred collaboration method. By mastering them, you can significantly enhance effective team collaboration and streamline your workflows.
To learn even more about shared drives and unlock their full potential for check out our Google Drive training sessions which covers this feature among others.
