Best practices for shared drives
Best practices for shared drives
Embedded Files
Here's what to consider when sharing files in a shared drive with different collaborators.
Set access levels for a shared drive
Set access levels for a shared drive
Set access levels based on your shared drive's purpose
Set access levels based on your shared drive's purpose
For any type of shared drive, give people who need to manage it Manager access so they can add or remove members, delete content, and so on.
For everyone else, if the shared drive is:
An active space for collaboration—Give people Content manager access or Contributor access so they can update content. Content managers can move files and folders within a shared drive or move files to the trash (but they can't delete files permanently).
A repository for final content—Give people Commenter or Viewer access so content can’t be updated.
Control who can delete files
If you want people to be able to:
Move files to trash—Give them at least Content manager access.
Permanently delete files from trash—Give them Manager access.
Restore files from trash—Give them at least Contributor access.
Deleting a file removes it from the shared drive for all members. The file goes into Trash and is permanently deleted after 30 days or sooner if a member with Manager access deletes it.
Consider how your collaborators edit non-Google files
If your collaborators use Drive Desk Top or Drive File Stream to access non-Google files (such as an Adobe® PDF® or Microsoft® Office® file), give them Content manager access.
Note: Members with Contributor access can still make edits offline on their desktop and then upload updated versions accessing Version History of a document even without Drive File Stream.
Change access levels and shared drive names for completed projects
If your shared drive is based around a project, once it’s complete, you can:
Change people’s access from Manager, Content manager, or Contributor to Commenter or Viewer access.
Add a status to the shared drive name, such as [Archive].
Now, the shared drive is more like a repository than an active project folder.
Request access to a shared drive
Request access to a shared drive
It’s best to request access to a shared drive from the person who shared a link to it. If they have Manager access, they can add you directly. And, the request for access won’t be sent to all members of the shared drive with Manager access.
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