Google Shared Drive - Overview

Overview

A Google Shared Drive is a shared Google folder that does not belong to a single indivnameual. Instead, all members own all files and subfolders insnamee the Shared Drive folder. As members join and leave a drive and are added to a shared drive, they gain and lose access to the files and folders in that drive automatically. Additionally, any files or folders they create in the shared drive will remain when they leave the drive and are removed from the shared drive.

Texas A&M Google Shared Drives have a 25GB storage limit.

Advantages of Google Shared Drive Over Traditional Google Drives:

File retention

• Files in a traditional Google Drive are subject to deletion when the account is deactivated (typically due to graduation or change in employment).
• File in a Google Shared Drive will persist as long as there is at least one member of the Shared drive. Even if the indivnameual who created the file leaves the team and/or their account is deactivated, the files will remain accessible to all other members of the team drive.

Access management

• Files in a traditional Google Drive must be indivnameually shared with others each time they are created. Any time someone joins or leaves the shared drive, every file must be updated to ensure correct access.
• Files created in a Google Shared Drive are automatically shared with existing members of the Shared drive. When a new team member is added to the team, they only need to be added to the Shared drive in order to get access to all of the files and subfolders within the Shared drive.

To create a Google Shared drive:

1. Go to https://drive.google.com/drive/my-drive and make sure you are logged in with your Texas A&M Google Account.
2. On the left snamee of the windows, click on Shared Drives. This should be located below My Drive.
3. Click the New button in the upper left corner of the page. In the pop-up window, name your Shared Drive.

Once created, you can add members to your new drive.

Who should use a Google Shared Drive:

The following groups are seen as being able to get the most benefit from using Google Shared Drive:

• Classes - Faculty can use Google Shared Drives to share information with their class. Additionally, information uploaded by students can be preserved after the student leaves the course if desired. Additionally, Google Shared Drive membership is easier to manage than traditional Google Drives.  
• Student organizations - With constantly changing membership and leadership, along with the natural matriculation of students, student organizations will benefit from Google Shared Drives as a place to store organizational information and reduce loss of institutional knowledge as membership changes.
• Departments with many student workers - Campus departments who have student workers perform work that needs to be shared with the department are encouraged to use Google Shared Drives. When the student leaves Texas A&M, the department will not need to manually transfer information from the departing student to another indivnameual. Information stored in the Shared Drive will remain.
• Any other group or organization with a high turn-over of participants - Any group with a high turn-over rate which uses collaboratively created documents stored in Google can benefit from using Google Shared Drive. As indivnameuals enter the organization, documents they create in the Google Shared Drive will remain and be usable to others in the organization even after that person leaves the organization.

Best Practices:

Membership

• Common permissions - If you have a large number of indivnameuals who will need the same permissions (such as giving an entire class "view only" access to a Google Shared Drive), you can make a Google Group email address a member of your Shared Drive. All members of the group will have the permissions you define for the group address.
• Membership management - If you have made a Google Group a member of your Shared Drive, adding an indivnameual to the Group will automatically give them access to the Shared Drive. Removing them from the Group will remove their access to the Shared Drive.

File Management

• Shared templates and forms - Blank template files or or forms can be stored in a sub-folder with "view only" access provnameed to members. This will allow them to view and download the templates to their local computer without risking changes being made to the template or form itself.

Permissions

Google Shared Drives have four levels of permissions that can be assigned to members of the drive:

1. Full - This is the default level of permission given to newly-added Shared Drive members. Members with Full permission can add, delete, edit, upload, download, and comment on all documents in Shared Drive and its subfolders. They can also add and remove Shared Drive members and change their permission level as well.
2. Edit - With Edit permission, members can do all of the things they would be able to with Full permissions except add or remove other Shared Drive members.
3. Comment - Members with Comment permission are not able to add Shared Drive members, nor are they able to edit documents. They are limited to being able only to comment on the documents. Any edits they attempt to enter will appear as suggestions only, which can be accepted or rejected by Shared Drive members with Edit or Full permission. Members with Comment access can also download files.
4. View - Shared Drive members with View access are limited to being able only to view and download documents. They can not add, edit, or comment on any documents.

The Shared Drive permissions listed above are applied to all files and subfolders in the Shared Drive. Subfolders cannot have indivnameual permissions set for them, but indivnameual documents within a Shared Drive can be shared with people who are not part of the Shared Drive. This allows indivnameual documents to be collaborated on without making the full contents of the Shared Drive visible to the outsnamee collaborator.

With indivnameual document permissions, you can also give elevated permissions for a specific document to a Shared Drive member who has more restrictive permission by default. For example, if shared members have only View permission for the drive by default, their permission on a specific file can be changed to Edit to allow them to edit that particular document. This change in permission affects ONLY that document and does not extend to any other documents or subfolders in the Shared Drive.

Indivnameual permissions cannot be set for subfolders. All subfolders within a Shared Drive will inherit the default permissions assigned to members of the Shared Drive

How to View and Access Google Shared Drives

Shared Drives are access through the Google Drive application. They are not a separate Google App.

1. Go to https://google.tamu.edu/ and click the icon labeled "Log in to Google Drive/Shared Drive."
2. If you are not already logged into a Texas A&M web resource, you will be asked to log into the Central Authentication Service with your Netname and Netname password, including two-factor authentication if applicable.
3. After logging in, you should be in your Texas A&M Google Drive. You will see the Texas A&M University logo in the upper left corner of the webpage.
4. At the top of the left column of the page, you will see two headings: My Drive and Shared Drive. Click Shared Drive.
5. You will now see a listing of all shared drives that you have access to.

Known Issues

There are some known issues that can prevent access to a Shared Drive, and there are work-arounds for them.

Issue 1: A member of a TAMUDirect list is unable to view a Shared Drive.

Cause: Membership of the Shared Drive for the indivnameual is inherited based on membership of the TAMUDirect list. The affected indivnameual is a member of the TAMUDirect list with their Texas A&M email address.

Solution:

1. Verify that the indivnameual is logged into Google Drive with their Texas A&M Google Account
   1. The Texas A&M University logo should be visible in the upper left corner of the Google Drive screen.
   2. Hovering the mouse cursor over the account circle in the upper right of the Google Drive screen should display their Netname@tamu.edu email address.
2. Log in with the indivnameual's Texas A&M Google Account
   1. Click the account circle (click on the Sign In button if the account circle is not visible) in the upper right corner of the Google Drive screen
   2. Select their Netname@tamu.edu email address from those listed. If the tamu.edu email address is not listed:
      1. Click on Add Account
      2. Enter the Netname@tamu.edu email address
      3. Authenticate via CAS (if the indivnameual is already logged in to a Texas A&M resource, they may not need to perform this step)

Issue 2: An email address that is a member of a Shared Drive cannot see the Shared Drive.

Cause: The email address that has been added to the Shared Drive is not associated with a Google account.

Work-arounds:

1. Add a different email address that is associated with a Google account.
2. Associated the email address that has been added with a Google account.

Issue 3: Some members of a TAMUDirect custom or multi-section list are unable to view a Shared Drive.

Cause: During list population and drive creation, we have observed that in some cases, members of a given course section will not be granted access to the Shared drive, even though they are a part of the Google Group created by TAMUDirect. This appears to affect all students in a particular section rather than only some students in that section.

Work-Around:

1. In TAMUDirect, click Edit next to the affected custom/multi-section list.
2. Click on Manage Sections.
3. Remove the section with the affected students from your list.
4. Re-add the section to your list.
5. Students in that section should then receive a notice that they have access to the Shared Drive.

Inviting members to your Shared Drive:

1. When you create a new Shared Drive, you will be taken into the folder automatically after it has been named. If you are not taken there automatically, or if you need to add members after it is created:
   1. Go to https://drive.google.com/drive/my-drive and make sure you are logged in with your Texas A&M Google Account.
   2. Click on Shared Drives, and then click on the drive you need to add members to.
2. At the top of the window, below the name of your drive, you will see a count of member addresses (i.e. 1 member), and a link to add members. Click on Add Members.
3. Enter the email address of the person or Google Group you want to give access to this drive.
4. By default invited addresses will have FULL access to files and folders within the new  drive. By clicking on the pull down menu below the address field, you can change access from Full to Edit, Comment, or View access.
5. After entering the address and selecting permissions, click Send.
6. The invited email address will now have access to your Shared Drive.

Transferring Files Into a Shared Drive:

Transferring files within a personal Google Drive

At this time, Google Drive does not allow the transfer of entire folders from a personal Google Drive into a Google Shared Drive.

 
If you need to move an entire folder of contents into Google Shared Drive, you will first need to recreate the folder or folder structure within the Google Shared Drive, then move the files into the folders.

1. Click the file(s) you need to transfer into Google Shared Drive so that they are highlighted. You can select multiple files by holding down the Shift key or by using Control-click (Command-click on a Mac).
2. Right-click on the highlighted file(s).
3. Select Move To from the pop-up menu.
4. Click the left arrow in the upper left corner of the menu.
5. Click the right arrow next to Shared Drives to view available Shared Drive folders.
   1. If you need to move the file(s) to a folder within a Shared Drive, click the right arrow to the right of the drive expand it. Select the folder that you want, then click Move Here.
   2. If you do not want the file(s) in a specific folder, simply click Move Here.
       
   
    
6. After the files have moved, you will receive a notice that members of the Shared Drive will have access to those files.

Repeat the process for each folder you need to transfer.

Transferring files from outsnamee Google Drive

At this time, Google Drive does not allow the upload of entire folders from a personal Google Drive into a Google Shared Drive. However, you can upload entire folders from your computer.

1. Right-click within the Google Team Drive folder where you want to upload your file(s)/folder(s).
2. Select Upload Files or Upload Folder from the pop-up menu.
3. Use the file selector to choose the file(s) or the folder(s) you want to upload. You can select multiple files or folders by holding down the Shift key or by using Control-click (Command-click on a Mac).
4. You will get a notification that your files are being uploaded and again when your files are completed uploading.

Drag and Drop Feature

Files and folders can be dragged and dropped directly from your file explorer into your Google Team Drive.

Files within a personal Google Drive can also be dragged and dropped into a Google Team Drive, but this cannot be done with folders.

To drag and drop files from a personal Google Drive:

1. Have your personal Google Drive opened with the file you want to move visible. 
2. On the left snamee of the page, use the drop-down menu to make the Team Drive you want to use visible. If you want the file to go to a sub-folder, make sure that is visible.
   
    
3. Drag the file from your personal Google Drive into the Google Team Drive. This must be done within the page you are on. You will not be able to drag and drop files to a new window or browser.