How can I use Google Shared Drives for my department or team?

What are Google Shared Drives?

Google Shared Drives (formerly known as Team Drives) is a feature in Google's Google Workspace for Education and covered under the Google Workspace Service Level Agreement. Detailed information about UC Berkeley Google Workspace for Education is available at

https://bconnected.berkeley.edu/collaboration-services/google-workspace-education

They offer shared space in Google Drive where teams can create, store, search, collaborate on, and access all their group-owned files, from any device. All data (files, folders, spreadsheets, forms, and presentations) are owned by the group and not an individual. 

Why should I use shared drives?

Groups and teams change for a variety of reasons which could lead to the potential loss of team data. Files are owned by the team so if an employee leaves the organization, the files remain in shared drives. This makes group data more secure and consistently available to all. All team members will see the same content.

How do I create a shared drive for my group?

Shared drives may only be created and owned by Special Purpose Accounts (SPAs) -- you must first be logged in as the SPA in order to create a new shared drive. Once you are a member of a shared drive you can access it from your Google Drive.

How do I log into my department’s SPA Google Drive account?

Please follow the instructions in. Login as a SPA

How do I access shared drives?

1. Open Google Drive from your own bConnected account.
2. To view all the shared drives you've been added to, click on 'Shared drives' in the left-hand menu (see image below). 

On a web browser, go to Google Drive. Select Shared drives from the left sidebar and then click New to create new folders and files for your group. Alternatively, if you want to access the files the same way you access other files on your computer's hard drive, Google Drive for Desktop (previously Google Drive File Stream) supports shared drives. 

How do I manage membership?

Permission levels in Shared drives work differently from My Drive and should be reviewed closely before determining which role to assign a team member to. Files are owned by the SPA account and assigned the Manager role.
Related Article: What can you do with Shared Drives? 

Frequently Asked Questions

Can individual documents be shared with people who are not members of the team?

Yes, but it is recommended to use Google groups instead of individuals when sharing files. When you add a new member to a Google Group, that member is automatically added to all shared drives that include that group.

Can somebody outside of the UC Berkeley domain be a team member?

Yes, you will be warned when adding members outside of the UC Berkeley domain.

Can I move my files from My Drive to my team's shared drive?

Only files from My Drive can be moved to Shared Drives. When you are in My Drive, right-click on the file you want to move, click on 'Move to' and follow the steps. Migrate your files instead of making copies. Making copies could cause confusion and will change links that could be bookmarked or posted elsewhere. When a file is migrated, the link remains the same and the collaborators who currently have Editor/Viewer/Commenter rights to that file will continue to have access even after the file is moved to a shared drive.

What is the maximum limit of items that can be kept in the shared drive?

Google shared drives can contain a maximum of 400,000 files and folders. For more information on limits, see shared drive limits.