Introduction
This article explains:
- What Google shared drives are
- How to obtain a shared drive
- How you can view Google shared drives
- How you can control who has access to shared drives
- Owner verses Manager
Instructions
Google Shared Drives
VT Google Workspace shared drives are a way to store and access files necessary for a group's collaboration efforts. They are owned by a department, but they are managed by anyone assigned to the Manager role within the drive.
The storage allocated by a shared drive comes from the department's storage allotment. It can be increased or decreased by an organizational unit (OU) admin. If the storage necessary exceeds the department's storage allotment, then additional storage can be purchased.
Owner verses Manager
A Manager is a member of a shared drive who is in the Manager role. There can be multiple members who have this role for a shared drive. They have full control of the drive regarding its content, configuration, and membership. Only other managers can assign or remove a manager. If you need to change who is a manager of a shared drive, first contact an existing manager. If that is not possible, you can use Make Someone Manager of a Google Shared Drive (vt.edu). You can view who is the Manager by going into the shared drive and viewing its membership.
An Owner of a shared drive is only set by an organizational unit admin (OU Admin) within the CCS Admin Tool (CAT). There can be only one Owner, and it can only be an OU. Owners of a shared drive are responsible for the storage limit applied to a shared drive. Ownership is viewable within CAT.
Obtaining a Shared Drive
Shared drives can only be requested by faculty or staff on behalf of a department or unit. The Departmental Google Workspace Shared Drive Service Catalog entry is available to make the request. You will no longer be able to create shared drives from the New menu within VT Google Drive.
Viewing Shared Drives
- Log into Google Drive with your @vt.edu email address and passphrase.
- In the left menu column, click Shared drives.
- If someone has added you to a shared drive, you will see it here.
Setting or Changing Access Restrictions / Permissions
- While viewing a specific shared drive, under the name of the shared drive, click the # people link or Manage members located below the profile picture.
- In the window that appears, in the Add people and groups text box, type the name or email of the person or group to add.
- For each person whose access you want to set, to the right of the person's name, from the drop-down, select the desired role.
- When you are finished making changes, click Done to save your changes.
*The university discourages the purchase of third-party storage options such as Dropbox because Virginia Tech already has options in place with OneDrive and Google Drive and many of these options, including Dropbox, are not approved for use.
Google Workspace Program Search Term: GWP