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My Drive is best for storing personal files or files that you want to share one-on-one. Shared Drive is best to use with a group of collaborators who are working on the same files. Shared Drive members can easily store, search, and access their files anywhere, from any device.

Consider using a Shared Drive in these situations:

• You’re working on a project or event with a group of people who all need access to the same files.
• Most of your files are shared with the same group of people.
• Your files share a consistent theme or topic.
• The content you want to store isn’t personal and is of interest to a specific team or group.

Files can, folders can't. When you add a member to a Shared Drive , you set their access level. That’s the level of access they’ll have on all folders in the Shared Drive . You can increase a member’s access level on individual files, but you can’t give them a lower access level than what they have as their Shared Drive membership.

You can share individual files in a Shared Drive with non-members (depending on sharing settings) but you can’t share folders.

My Drive – If you own the file you delete, it's automatically removed from Drive on all of your devices and on the web. Deleted files are moved to Trash. They still count toward your total storage until you permanently delete them from Trash. If you delete a file that you don’t own or that’s been shared with you, other people can still access it until the owner deletes it.

Shared Drive – Each Shared Drive has its own Trash. Members with Manager or Content manager access to the Shared Drive can move files to Trash. Files and folders in Trash are deleted permanently after 30 days or sooner if a member with Manager access deletes them first. Members with at least Contributor access can restore content from Trash.

In a single Shared Drive , you can have:

• 400,000 files and folders
• 600 members (a group counts as one member)
• 50,000 individuals (direct or indirect due to Google Group membership)
• 20 levels of subfolders

How to Set Up an Effective Shared Drive

Create Shared Drive based on who has access

Whatever access level you give to someone for a Shared Drive is the level they’ll have for all folders in that Shared Drive . You can change access levels on individual files, but not on folders.

Example: Say everyone on a sales team needs access to the same resources. Create a Shared Drive for the sales team, so they have a central repository for the important collateral they need for their job.

Set naming conventions

To avoid naming conflicts in Shared Drive , folders, or files, agree on organization-wide naming conventions.

Examples:

• Say your company has sales divisions in different regions. You could create a Shared Drive for each sales region and prefix the Shared Drive name with the region or an abbreviation of the region.
• Indicate status by appending a prefix, such as [Archive] to a project that’s no longer active or [In Progress] to a project that’s active.
• To distinguish between Shared Drive that are shared externally and internally, add the prefix [External] or [Internal].

Create folders for related topics

Classify content into folders. Then, nest folders for related topics.

Examples:

• Create a Shared Drive for Project X, then create folders for each topic.
• Create a Shared Drive for your marketing department, then create folders for each project.

Focus each Shared Drive on a single project or department

If a Shared Drive has a lot of members, you might have too many projects or departments represented. That can make it hard to find and manage content. Keep each Shared Drive focused on a single project or department and then create folders for each topic or project.

Example: Create a Shared Drive for Project X. Create a folder for each topic area within the project. This keeps files organized so members of Project X can easily find what they’re looking for.

Visually distinguish different Shared Drive with themes

Quickly distinguish your Shared Drive from others by adding an image to the Shared Drive banner, and adding a theme to the Shared Drive .

Note: You need Manager access to add a theme.

Adding a Theme

1. In Google Drive, under Shared Drive , click a Shared Drive
2. At the top next to the Shared Drive name, click the Down arrow, select Change theme, and then select Pick from Gallery or Create custom theme.
3. Click the picture of the theme you want, or navigate and click a custom image.
4. Click Select.