Metadata
Title
Shared drives
Category
general
UUID
089af0250dc445cfb05cde87095e9640
Source URL
https://bconnected.berkeley.edu/services/google/shared-drives
Parent URL
https://bconnected.berkeley.edu/services/google-workspace-education
Crawl Time
2026-03-10T04:07:37+00:00
Rendered Raw Markdown

Shared drives

Source: https://bconnected.berkeley.edu/services/google/shared-drives Parent: https://bconnected.berkeley.edu/services/google-workspace-education

Shared Drives vs. Shared Folders

UC Berkeley - Using Shared Drives

\ Ready to make the switch to Shared Drives? Here are some helpful links to guide you through the process. These resources will help you set your team up for success. Use Shared Drives, collaborate effectively, keep your files safe.

UC Berkeley Resources

Shared Drive overview

Create a Shared Drive and Manage Members

Moving Content from My Drive to a Shared Drive

Google Support Learning Center

How file access works in shared drives

Steps to create and manage Google Shared Drives

We have a set of Video Tutorials about Shared Drives and how to move your content into them. These will cover everything you need to know. It should take about 30 minutes to watch all of them.

Info: Find your Shared Drive Usage

Info: My Drive vs. Shared drives vs. Shared with me

How-to: Create a Shared Drive and manage Members

How-to: Moving content into a Shared drive

How-to: Transfer Ownership of Files/Folders in Google Drive

Paying for Additional Storage

We offer a passthrough pay option, meaning you pay for additional storage directly to our reseller, and we arrange for the additional storage to be applied to a Shared Drive (or a few).

Expanded Shared Drives

Expanded Shared Drives are available for free, with a 150 GB, 500 GB, or 1 TB maximum capacity. Expanded Shared Drives are available first-come-first-served until we can evaluate the ratio of demand vs. allocation availability. We can only offer one 1 TB Expanded Shared Drive per unit/group, or per 40 employees, whichever makes the most sense for your request150 GB and 500 GB Expanded Shared Drive availability is more flexible.

Getting Started: Moving Into A Shared Drive

UC Berkeley - Using Google Shared Drives

\ You know that you need to move your content into a Shared Drive, but you're not sure where to begin? This video will explain the process.

Student Organizations

Since students do not have the ability to create a Shared Drive, you will need to ask an active employee or student advisor to create one for you. Once they create the Shared Drive for you and add you as a Manager, you can remove them. The shared drive creator is not responsible for the content in a student organization's Shared Drive. If you need help finding someone to create your Shared Drive, contact OASIS.

If you have Editor access on individual files and you are a Contributor or higher on a Shared Drive, you can drag the file(s) into the Shared Drive so that your group can gain ownership. All members of the Shared Drive will gain access and be able to see everything inside the Shared Drive. The current owner will change to Editor and all others will retain the access they previously had. 

If you want to be able to move folders, you need to have Edit access on the folder and you need to be a full Manager on the Shared Drive. You also need to be granted a special temporary permission to move folders. Request this temporary permission for your move project by completing this form

What is a Shared Drive?

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 Drive files 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.

The default Shared Drive storage limit is 25 GB.

Get Help

Learning about the [Google Cost Reduction Project](https://bconnected.berkeley.edu/projects/google-cost-reduction-project)Learn about [Google Workspace for Education](https://bconnected.berkeley.edu/training-support/learning-about-google-workspace-education)Search the [Knowledge Base](https://berkeley.service-now.com/ess/knowledge_home.do)[Request support](https://berkeley.service-now.com/ess/create_incident)[bConnected@berkeley.edu](mailto:bConnected@berkeley.edu)510.664.9000

Shared Drives Login

Once you are a member of a Shared Drive you can access from the Drive interface.

At a Glance

Key benefits:

Known limitations: