Shared Drives¶

Manage team shared drives in {ORG_NAME} Google Workspace

About Shared Drives¶

Shared Drives are team folders with: - Shared ownership (not tied to one person) - Permanent access (survives member departure) - Unified permission management - Version control and recovery

Accessing Shared Drives¶

From Google Drive¶

Go to https://drive.google.com
Click "Shared drives" in left sidebar
Click the drive you have access to

From Email (Via Link)¶

If someone shares a folder: 1. Click the link 2. You'll see the folder in Google Drive

{ORG_NAME} Shared Drives¶

Main Drives¶

Drive Name	Purpose	Owners
{ORG_SHORT} Documents	General {ORG_NAME} documents	Admin, Secretary
{ORG_SHORT} Finance	Financial records and budgets	Treasurer, Admin
{ORG_SHORT} Projects	Active projects	Department leads
{ORG_SHORT} Archive	Historical records	Admin

Managing Access¶

Add Team to Drive¶

# Add group to shared drive with Editor access
gam update shareddrive "Drive Name" add member group@{DOMAIN} role editor

Change Access Level¶

Role	Can Do
Owner	Everything; manage access
Manager	Add/remove members; edit content
Editor	View and edit content
Viewer	View content only

Creating New Shared Drives¶

Via Admin Console¶

Go to admin.google.com
Click "Drives" (under Google Workspace)
Click "Create shared drive"
Enter name and description
Click "Create"

Via GAM¶

gam create shareddrive "Team Name" description "Team shared folder"

Folder Structure Best Practices¶

Example Structure¶

Drive: Sales Documents
├── 2025
│   ├── Q1
│   ├── Q2
│   └── Q3
├── Proposals
├── Contracts
└── Archive
    └── 2024

Principle: Organize by time, then by type

Common Tasks¶

Create/open document in Shared Drive
Click "Share" (top right)
Share with: groupname@{DOMAIN}
Set permission: Editor or Viewer

Move Files to Shared Drive¶

Open file in personal Drive
Right-click → "Move"
Select Shared Drive folder
Click "Move"

Remove Someone's Access¶

Open Shared Drive
Click "Manage members" (top right)
Find member
Click remove (X)

Storage & Quotas¶

{ORG_NAME} has shared Drive storage limit: [TBD]
Monitor usage in Admin Console
Archive old drives to external storage if needed

Compliance & Retention¶

Backup¶

Shared Drives are backed up by Google. No action needed.

Retention Policies¶

Contact {ADMIN_EMAIL} to set retention policies for compliance.

Troubleshooting¶

Can't see a Shared Drive? - Ask the owner to add you to the access group - Check you're not using a personal Google account

Can't edit a file? - Check your role (must be Editor or Owner) - Ask the owner to increase your access

Resources¶

Need help? Contact {ADMIN_EMAIL}