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Google Drive provides an excellent content storage and collaboration service. To ensure optimal use and minimize risks, it’s important to understand the differences among Google Drive options: My Drive, Shared Drives, and Shared with Me.
Each of these choices is reachable from the left side navigation in Google Drive.
Left hand navigation in Google Drive highlighting My Drive, Shared drives and Shared with me options
In addition to the information below, you can refer to a video covering this topic.
My Drive
My Drive is your primary space in Google Drive and contains files and folders that you own and you control access to. You are able to share access and permissions to your files and folders and only those you share will be accessible to others. You can grant others the following permissions:
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Viewer – Viewers have the lowest level of sharing access, and can only view a shared file.
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Commenter – Commenters can view, comment, and make suggestions on a shared file. They can not edit the file or share it with others.
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Editor – By default, Editors can make changes, accept or reject suggestions, and share the file with others.
If you change ownership of a file from yourself to someone else, the file will be removed from your My Drive. Others can change ownership of their files to you and they will appear in your My Drive.
Content that is in your My Drive and is owned by you counts towards your Google Storage limit.
Shared Drives
Shared Drives are special folders in Google Drive that you can use to store and collaborate on files within a department/unit/team. Unlike in My Drive, Shared Drives and their contents are owned by the department instead of individuals. If members leave, the files stay in the Shared Drive so your group can keep sharing content and information without interruption. Additionally, Shared Drives exist outside the Life Cycle limits of individual Google accounts and have more granular permissions and roles. For these reasons, it is best practice to store collaborative content in a Shared Drive.
Once you are a member of a Shared Drive, the drive will appear below your My Drive and above “Shared with me” in your Google Drive in the sidebar.
Learn more about Shared Drives.
Shared with me
When Google Drive files and folders owned by other people or organizations are shared with you specifically, they appear in Shared with me. You will only find files and folders shared specifically with you and any files that are shared with the UC Berkeley community or the public that you have opened. Your access to these files can be rescinded at any time by the owner or other editors. If you want to organize these files in your My Drive, you cannot move them but you can create a Shortcut to the file which you can put where you choose. Note that if you lose access to the original file, the shortcut will no longer work. Learn more about creating Shortcuts in Google help.