How do I know if I have permission to create a Shared Drive?

How can an admin enable the Shared Drive?

How to recover permanently deleted Shared Drive files using G Suite native features?

Restoring lost data is just a matter of a few clicks

Try SysCloud out with a FREE trial and discover how much faster, easier, and more flexible backups could be - for everyone in your organization. 

Start enjoying faster and easier backups, today

Protect Your Cloud Data, Now!

Ever find yourself juggling countless files in Google Drive and wondering if there’s a better way to share documents without losing track of who owns what? Curious why Google created Shared drives if My Drive already exists? You’re not alone.  

In this guide, we’ll demystify how Shared drives differ from My Drive and help to discover which option suits your team best, stay organized, and ensure you never lose access to important files again. 

A shared drive (formerly known as Team Drive) is a shared space in Google Drive that is designed for team collaboration. Unlike files in My Drive, which are owned by individuals, files in a shared drive belong to the team as a whole. This means that even if a team member leaves, the files remain in the shared drive, ensuring uninterrupted access for the entire team. Shared drives make it easy to store, search, and access files from anywhere, on any device, so your team can work seamlessly together. 

Each shared drive has roles that determine how members interact with its content. The Manager role (sometimes referred to as “owner” in older documentation) offers the highest level of control, allowing Managers to add or remove members, manage settings, and even delete the entire Shared drive. Any user within your Google Workspace organization—or external users if your sharing settings allow—can be added to a shared drive with an assigned role: Manager, content manager, contributor, commenter, or viewer. 

Enterprise (Enterprise Standard, Enterprise Plus) 

Education editions (Education Fundamentals, Education Standard, Teaching and Learning Upgrade, and Education Plus) 

G Suite Business (legacy), Essentials (legacy) 

Admins must turn on shared drives in the Admin console before users can create them. 

Owners (Managers, in the case of shared drives) or users with sufficient permissions can access and manage the files. 

Users with appropriate permissions can create, move, edit, comment on, view, delete files, and change settings. 

Manager/content manager/contributor can restore files from Trash

Only the file owner can restore files from Trash 

Within the same shared drive: Manager or content manager can move them

From My Drive to shared drive: You can move files if you’re the file owner or you have Manager/content manager/contributor permission in the target shared drive.

From one shared drive to another: Manager roles on both shared drives are required.

You can move files/folders you own anywhere in My Drive.

All members at the shared drive level see the same files/folders. You can also share individual files/folders for more granular access. 

Different people might see different files in the same folder based on file-level permissions. 

Files in a shared drive’s Trash folder remain for 30 days before permanent deletion. Only managers/content managers can delete. 

Files in My Drive’s Trash remain for 30 days before permanent deletion. 

Permissions set on files carry over if moved from My Drive to a shared drive. The file will inherit the shared drive’s membership and roles. 

Permissions set at the folder level pass down to new files created in that folder. 

Note: Every shared drive member will have access to all the files and folders within the shared drive. It is not possible to remove the folder access for a specific member; however, you can restrict the permission to that of a Viewer so that the user can only view the shared drive contents.

Step 2 : Check if the Shared drives option is visible or not.

Step 3 : If yes, click on the option and try creating a new Shared drive folder.

Step 4 : Only if you have the permission, you will be able to create a Shared drive folder.

If you don’t have the permission to create a shared drive, then ask your administrator to enable the shared drives option in the Admin console.

Step 2 : Go to ‘Apps > G Suite > Drive and Docs’.

Note: You can turn a service on or off for a specific organizational unit. To do so, select the organizational unit under the “Organizational Units” section on the left. Select On or Off. Choose “Override” if you want to keep the same settings for the child organizational unit even if the settings for the parent organizational unit is changed. Otherwise, choose “Inherit” where the settings are reverted to the same settings as its parent. To learn more about organizational structure, click here.

Step 3 : Select “Sharing settings.” Select the desired organizational unit.

Step 4: Under “Shared Drive Creation,” uncheck the option “Prevent users in (your domain) from creating new shared drives.”

Step 5: Click “Save.” It might take 24 hours for the changes to take effect.

Step 2: On the left, click ‘Shared drives’ > ‘+New’. (You can also right click on “Shared drives” and click on “New shared drive..”)

Step 3: Give an appropriate name and click “CREATE.”

To add members to your shared drive and set access levels:

Step 4: Open one of your shared drives. Click “Manage members” at the top right-hand corner.

Step 5:  Add members to your shared drive. You can also assign specific roles to the newly-added members. Click “Send.”

Note: By default, new members areContent managers. They can upload, edit, move, or delete all files. You can change this using the drop-down arrow next to “Content manager.”

If you have created a shared drive or are assigned as a manager, you can control your data by assigning appropriate roles to your team members

Yes, if you are the  manager or content manager of a shared drive, you can delete the files in that shared drive.

By default, all new members added to a shared drive are assigned the role of Content Manager. However, if your role is changed to that of a Viewer, Commenter, or Contributor, then you won’t have permission to delete the files.

Step 1: Open the shared drive and right-click the file/folder you want to delete.

Step 2: Click “Delete For everyone.” You will be asked for confirmation. Select “DELETE FOR EVERYONE” to confirm.

Note: The file/folder moves to the shared drive’s Trash folder. Files/folders in a shared drive’s Trash folder are automatically deleted after 30 days.

Step 1: Go to the shared drive’s Trash folder, right-click the file you want to delete and select “Delete forever.”   

Step 2: Click “DELETE FOREVER” to confirm.

To know more about Google Drive backup, read our article explaining the Top 6 Ways to Back up Google Drive.

No, Team Drive is only available in the G Suite subscription levels of Business, Enterprise, or Education; so it is a middle to upper-tier offering and is not free. The price depends on your subscription plan.  

No, There are limits to the number of items, members, and daily uploads you can have in a shared drive. 

A shared drive can contain a maximum of 400,000 files and folders. 

Individual users can only upload 750 GB each day between My Drive and all shared drives. Users who reach the 750-GB limit or upload a file larger than 750 GB cannot upload additional files that day. Uploads that are in progress will complete. The maximum individual file size that you can upload or synchronize is 5 TB.

A given file within a shared drive can be directly shared with a maximum of 100 groups.

A folder in a shared drive can support up to 20 levels of nested folders.

You can add users and groups in Google Groups to a shared drive. 

Total individuals (users and group members) 50,000

Note: In this 600 limit, a maximum of 100 members can be grouped.

To know more about Shared drive limits, click here.   

To delete an entire shared drive, follow the given steps:

Before deleting a shared drive, make sure that the drive is empty. (If you want to keep any files/folders, move them to My Drive, or else move them to Trash.)

Right-click the drive you want to delete, and click on “Delete share drive.” You will be asked for confirmation. Click “ Delete shared drive” again to confirm.   

4) What happens when someone leaves a shared drive?

When a user leaves a shared drive, all the data associated with that user account stays in the shared drive. This data cannot be deleted by anyone other than the Owner/Manager of the Shared drive. 

5) What happens if the Manager leaves the shared drive?

If you are the only Manager of a shared drive and decides to exit the drive, then no other member will be able to manage the membership or settings. To prevent this situation, the Manager – before leaving – can designate another member as the Manager of the shared drive. 

Get expert insights on SaaS data and security

Actionable insights, best practices and tips for IT admins to protect SaaS data.

Explore SaaS 
data protection center

Shared Drive for the Confused – Google Drive vs. Shared (Team) Drives

I acknowledge cookies need to be deleted from my browser to remove tracking.

Ensure complete tracking removal by deleting cookies from your browser. Click here to learn how.

These cookies are set through our site by a range of third-party social media services that we have added to the site to enable you to share our content with your friends and networks. These cookies are capable of tracking your browser across other sites and building up a profile of your interests. This may impact the content and messages you see on other websites you visit. If you do not allow these cookies, you may not be able to use or see the social media sharing tools.

These cookies are necessary for the website to function and allow us to count visits and traffic sources so we can measure and improve the performance of our site. The cookies may be set by us or third-party providers in response to actions made by you which amount to a request for services, such as setting your privacy preferences, logging in or filling in forms. All information these cookies collect is aggregated and therefore anonymous.

This website uses cookies. We use cookies to personalize content and ads, to provide social media features and to analyze our traffic. We also share information about your use of our site with our social media, advertising and analytics partners who may combine it with other information that you’ve provided to them or that they’ve collected from your use of their services.Learn more about how we process personal data in our  Privacy Policy.

These cookies are set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. They are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you disable these cookies, you will experience fewer or no targeted advertising. You may still see advertisements.

A Complete Guide to Google Drive Backup

Gmail Backup: How to Backup Gmail Emails for Business (Step-By-Step Guide)

What Is Google Vault? How Is It Different from Backup?

12 Reasons Why You Need Google Workspace Backup

How to Back Up Outlook Emails: A Step-by-Step Guide

An Admin’s Guide to SharePoint Online Backup

10 Critical Reasons to Backup Microsoft 365 Data Immediately!

How to Backup OneDrive for Business: A Complete Guide for Admins

How to Backup Outlook Emails: A Complete Guide (with screenshots)

Microsoft Teams Recovery Wizard

Gmail Recovery Wizard

Google Classroom Recovery Wizard

Google Sites Recovery Wizard

OneDrive Recovery Wizard

SharePoint Recovery Wizard

How to Prevent Cyberbullying in Schools: Strategies, Tips, & Best Practices

Mental Health in Schools – The Ultimate Guide for School Administrators

How to Recover Deleted Emails from Gmail for Business

How to Recover Permanently Deleted Files from Google Drive for Business

How to Recover Deleted Gmail Account – A Complete Guide

How to Recover Permanently Deleted Files from OneDrive for Business

How to Recover Deleted SharePoint Files in Microsoft Office 365?

How to Recover Deleted Outlook Emails in Microsoft 365?

SaaS Backup Buying Guide

How to Transfer Your Google Drive Files to Another Account

A Complete Guide to Google Organizational Units

How to Use Google Takeout for Business: A Complete Guide

How to Delete a Google and Gmail Account

How to Import MBOX into Gmail: A Step-By-Step Guide

Demystifying Google Drive Document Sharing

Google Vault: The Ultimate Guide for IT Administrators (Updated)

Google G Suite Primary Domain Change Migration Guide

Admin's Guide to Using OneDrive Shared Folder and Files

A Complete Guide to Azure AD Administrative Units

Why do IT Admins Prefer SysCloud for SaaS Backup?

FERPA Compliance: A Complete Guide for Educational Institutions

Ransomware Recovery Guide: How to Recover from a Ransomware Attack

Gmail Security Settings: Strengthen Gmail Security against Phishing and Ransomware

5 Microsoft 365 Admin Center Outlook Settings to Stop Phishing Attacks

Insider Threats : A Guide to Your Cloud Apps Security

The State of G Suite Third-Party App Security – 2018 Report

14 Types of Phishing Attacks That IT Administrators Should Watch For

16 Top Brands That Scammers Target for Brand Impersonation Attack

How to Prevent a Phishing Attack? 17 Easy Hacks for Administrators

Google Drive Security : 3 Ways to Guarantee Safety

How Compliance to PCI Can Be Achieved in Google G Suite

SOX Compliance in Google Apps

Top 3 Critical Security Mistakes When Configuring a Google Apps Domain

This article provides a Google Drive vs shared drive comparison, along with the different ways in which an admin can manage shared drives.

Features	Shared drive	My drive



Show More

Shared Drive for the Confused – Google Drive vs. Shared (Team) Drives

What is a Shared Drive?

Shared drive Vs. Google Drive

Similarities between shared drive and Google Drive

Key differences between Shared Drive and Google Drive

My Drive vs Team Drive – Created by Me

My Drive (Shared with Me) vs Team Drive (Member)

How do I know if I have permission to create a Shared Drive?

What should I do if I don’t have the permission to create a Shared Drive?

How can an admin enable the Shared Drive?

How to create a Shared Drive

How do I manage my Shared Drive?

Can I delete files in a Shared Drive?

Frequently asked questions