Google Drive
Google Drive for Google Workspace at CatholicU
Google Drive is a space where Catholic University users can store, access, and share files in one place.
Google Drive is composed of two offerings: My Drive and Shared drives.
This document describes the Google Drive for desktop (formerly Drive File Stream) application that allows Google Drive files to be accessed natively from Microsoft Windows or Apple macOS computers, and provides additional information about My Drive and Shared drives.
Google Drive for desktop (G:)
Google Drive for desktop is software that allows you to see and edit files in Google Drive using your computer’s native tools and applications, without using space on your hard drive.
When you are logged onto Drive for desktop, your Google Drive is mapped to the computer’s G: drive. (On a Mac, it is mounted as the Google Drive volume.)
Using Google Drive for desktop to map Google Drive to your Windows computer's G: drive (or to your Mac's Google Drive volume), you can:
View and organize your Drive files using your computer’s familiar tools, such as
File Explorer on Windows
Finder on macOS
Create and edit Drive files with applications installed on your computer, such as
Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint
Adobe Acrobat, Photoshop
Access all of your files in Google Drive without using storage space on your computer.
Google Drive for desktop is included in the current image for Windows computers. If your campus computer does not have this image, please request it by sending an email message to techsupport@cua.edu.
If you don't see your G: drive, simply open the Google Drive application on your computer and enter your Cardinal Credentials when prompted. Please see How to connect the G: drive for detailed instructions. When it is running, Drive for desktop places a Google Drive icon in the computer's taskbar (or menu bar). Google periodically may ask you to re-logon to Drive for desktop, as a security precaution.
Google Drive for desktop is for use with Google Workspace, the Google product used by Catholic University. Google also makes Backup and Sync software available for consumer (gmail.com) Google Drive use; it doesn’t work with Shared drives. Only Google Drive for desktop should be used with Google Workspace Google Drive.
In short:
Google Drive for desktop is for use with Google Workspace that is used at the University.
Backup and Sync is for consumer (non-University) gmail.com Gmail accounts, and should NOT be installed on any university computers.
My Drive
My Drive is a space where you can store and access documents that are specific to you individually. Files you create in My Drive have your Cardinal account as the file owner.
My Drive is accessed through the Google Drive web interface, or using the Drive for desktop program on the local computer.
Using My Drive to store your files
Transferring files from your office computer to your Google My Drive is as easy as drag and drop. Learn more about storing desktop files on My Drive.
Google has tips on using Drive when you switch to Drive from your C:\ drive, and a Drive cheat sheet.
Shared drives
Google Shared drives provide project-focused shared storage for departments or teams. Google Shared drives can be used by offices, departments and schools, and by faculty and students, to store documents and files related to a project or other focus theme (e.g., budgets). Unlike the My Drive, files you create in a Shared drive are owned by the drive itself, not by your Google account. This eliminates the issue of data being lost when a former employee’s account is deleted, as can happen with My Drive information. Shared drives are meant to hold all the documents for the project or topic.
Google Shared drives are accessed through the Google Drive web interface, or by using Google Drive for desktop on the local computer.
Benefits of Shared drives
While still using Google Drive “My Drive” for personal files, the “Shared drives” support:
Maintaining file access after an employee leaves the institution
Improved Sharing: All members of a Shared drive see the same content
Content Discoverability: When you add a user to a Google Group, that user is automatically added to all the Shared drives that include that Group
Access files from anywhere
Recent Shared drives changes and improvements
Google has a real-time presence feature for Microsoft Office. After opting in to this feature, you will see real-time presence status indicators in the bottom right-hand corner of Word, Excel, and Powerpoint windows that are active in the foreground. Real-time presence checks to see if someone else is viewing or editing a Microsoft Office file stored on Google Drive while you have it open. It will alert you and them to help avoid version conflicts. When conflicts do occur, it’ll help you resolve them with a side-by-side view of the document versions, allowing you to easily merge them into one up-to-date file.
Known Shared drive issues as of February 2021
Google reports the following issues with Shared drives or Drive for desktop:
You can't store some file types in Shared drives, including (but not limited to):
Google Maps
Google Photos
Some virtual file types
Files owned by other domains
When using Drive for desktop, you cannot move a folder from My Drive to a Shared drive.
Requesting a new Shared drive
Who is eligible
Any faculty, staff or student may request a Shared drive. Each Shared drive must be sponsored by a school, department or office.
How to request
To request a new Shared drive, please create a service request ticket by pasting the template below (click to reveal the text) along with your answers in an email message to techsupport@cua.edu.
Shared drive request template
Please provide answers to these questions.
Shared drive name. What is the proposed name of the Shared drive? We will use a short department name prefix for each Team Drive, e.g., PSY-Common.
Permissions. How many permission types will you use for the Shared drive? Just read/write? Or will some people need contributor or read-only access?
Google Groups for Shared drive access. We use Google Groups to permission Shared drives. Do you already have a Group that has the necessary members, or do you want one created for this purpose?
Shared drive owners. What are the email addresses (not names) for the two or three people who will be the owners of the Google Groups associated with the Shared drive. Also please provide your department head’s email address, as he or she will be authorized to request changes if no owners are available.
Shared drive members (optional). Technology Services can populate the Shared drive Google Group for you if you provide the email addresses (not names) of those who should have access to the Drive.
In answering the template questions, please see “Naming the Shared drive,” below.
We recommend that only two or three people be designed as owners. Those owners can grant and revoke access to the Shared drive (see the next paragraph about requesting Groups).
While Shared drive members can be individual accounts or Google Groups, Catholic University follows Google best practices and uses only Google Groups to permission Shared drives. If two sets of permissions are needed, e.g., Content manager and Contributor, or Content manager and Viewer, two Groups ( e.g. “<MyDept> ReadWrite” and “<MyDept> ReadOnly”) are used.
Shared drive permissions
The following chart (from Google documentation) represents the types of access that are available for Shared drives:
Content manager is the default role. (Technology Services administers Shared drive creation and removal, assigning Groups to Shared drives, and makes advanced Drive settings, so the “Manager” role is not assigned.)
Shared drive owners grant and revoke user access to the Shared drive using the Google Groups assigned to the Drive rather than from the Drive directly. Each assigned Google Group is associated with one of the permission levels listed in the chart.
Note: Only individuals in Groups with Content manager access have read/write access on the Google Drive for desktop Windows G: drive or macOS volume. All other permission levels have read only access on Google Drive for desktop. Those with Contributor access should use the Google Drive web interface at drive.google.com to edit files.
Naming the Shared drive
Since there currently are no barriers to prevent the same name being used for multiple Shared drives, files or folders, Google best practice is to use an organizational prefix for the school, department or office in the Shared drive name.
Departments or offices requesting a new Shared drive must name the Drive using the following convention: department-subtopic[-subtopic]. Some examples:
Provost-Budgets
TS-ServiceDesk
MATH-Common
PSY-Chair
This makes it easy for Shared drive members to find the correct drive, as they may be members of many drives. It also makes it easier for departments to manage their Shared drives.
Managing Access to Shared drives
Cardinal Mail Google Workspace Shared drives are created with one or more Google Groups as members. The Shared drive owners add or remove members from these Google Groups in order to grant or revoke access to the Shared drive. For more information, please see Managing Shared drive access using Google Groups (for Shared drive Owners).
Using a Shared drive
Adding Content
Shared drive members in Groups with Content manager or Contributor access can add files and folders to the Shared drive.
Migrating files from Windows to Drive
To migrate files from a network file share (e.g., O:, U:) or local C: drive on a campus Windows computer, use Windows File Explorer to drag and drop them to the Google Drive for desktop mapped to the G: drive.
Although you can use a web browser to copy files from your computer to a Shared drive, we recommend copying them to Google Drive for desktop on G: with Windows File Explorer (or Mac Finder) instead. This better preserves the attributes of the source files.
You can also migrate files already on Google Workspace from My Drive to a Shared drive through the Google Drive web interface. Simply right click and select Move. Please note that you can only move files for which you are the file owner, and you cannot move folders (just files).
If you need to migrate My Drive files but the file owner is no longer affiliated with the university, or you need to migrate entire folders of files, please submit a service request to techsupport@cua.edu.
Important: If you are using a Microsoft Access or FileMaker database, please email techsupport@cua.edu before attempting to migrate your database files to Google Drive.
Organizing Files
Members in Groups with Content manager or Contributor access can create files and folders.
Members with Content manager access can rearrange files and folders within the Drive.
Members with Content manager access can delete a file, which deletes the file for everyone. If someone accidentally deletes a file, members with Content manager or Contributor access can restore it from the Trash. Each Shared drive has its own Trash area. Items are permanently deleted after 30 days in the Shared drive trash.
Files and folders on a Shared drive may not be moved outside that Shared drive.
Google has a helpful description of how to manage Shared drive files and folders.
Sharing and Collaborating
Shared drives themselves are designed specifically for sharing and collaborating. Any files you put in Shared drives are shared automatically with all members of the Shared drive.
Although individual files within a Shared drive can be shared to others who do not have access to the Shared drive, it is a best practice that everyone needing access to any file in the Shared drive already have it through membership in the drive.
It is especially important for members of Shared drives owned by offices and departments to consult with their department head or designee before sharing any file in the Shared drive.
If the Shared drive is for academic collaboration, and you do need to share an individual file in the Shared drive with someone who is not a member, Google provides step-by-step instructions. Note: You can share only individual files; sharing folders is not supported at CatholicU.
Reliability of Shared drives
With Drive, your data is located in the cloud, so no matter what happens to your devices or the university’s on-premises servers, your files are safe. You can read more about the reliability G Suite and Google Cloud Platform.
If a Shared drive file is deleted, Content managers have 30 days to restore it from the Shared drive’s Trash before it is deleted permanently.
Shared drives are for files that are in active, collaborative use. They should not be used as a backup or storage for files that are not currently in use or shared with others.
Please contact Technology Services by email to techsupport@cua.edu if you want to discuss ways to protect your Shared drive data.
Viewing Drive Activity and File Versions / History
If you want to see the activity that has occurred in Google Drive, you can click on the lowercase i icon in the upper right hand corner. This opens a panel on the right side of the browser window where you can see who has edited/created/moved/deleted files not only in the Shared drives, but My Drive as well. Google describes in detail how to view activity & use file versions.
If you are using Google Docs, you can see this revision history per file comparing earlier versions of the file.