Changes to storage limits
On Dec 18, 2023, ITS announced changes to cloud storage accounts. The process and limit for Google shared Drives will be changing, and we will update this documentation once we have more details.
For more information, see ITS's page on Google and Microsoft changes.
Overview
Google shared Drives are available by request and can be used for file collaboration within a team, department, or research group. In this guide we review basic functions for managing Google shared Drives.
A note about storage limits
ITS has not determined yet what the storage limit will be for Google shared Drives. If you are concerned about having sufficient storage space, we recommend looking into Microsoft SharePoint instead:
Creating a Google shared Drive
If you are interested in creating a Google shared Drive, please email DTS at ts@dornsife.usc.edu. We will coordinate with ITS to set up your shared Drive.
Managing members of a Google shared Drive
File ownership
An important advantage of uploading/creating files in a shared Drive over an individual USC Google "My Drive" account is that if the file creator departs USC, transfers departments, or otherwise leaves the shared Drive, the file they created remains available in the shared Drive.
Member types
Google's official documentation provides the following summary of the different member types:
- Manager: Can manage members, and upload, edit, move, or delete all files and folders.
- Content manager: By default, can upload, edit, move, or delete all files.
- Contributor: Edit all files and upload new files, but can’t move or delete files.
- Commenter: Can only comment on all files.
- Viewer: Can only view all files.
The person who initially creates the shared Drive is a manager by default, but we also suggest assigning at least one more person the role of manager as a backup. The member type you assign to others on your team just depends on the specific situation; furthermore, as your team's use of the shared Drive evolves, shared Drive managers can change peoples' member types as needed.
For example, if you intend the shared Drive to act as a repository for approved departmental policies, you may prefer to assign people as commenters or viewers, whereas if you intend the shared Drive to act as a collaborative project that team members will be actively authoring and editing, you may prefer to assign people as contributors or content managers.
Note: We recommend being cautious in terms of how many members you assign "Manager" or "Content manager" roles to, particularly as these roles include the ability to delete files. When a file is deleted from a shared Drive, it is deleted for everyone.
Managing sharing settings on individual files and folders
Customizing file sharing settings
By default, files in a shared Drive are available to members of the shared Drive, but you can still share files with additional non-members.
Note that shared Drive member access levels override per-file access levels: for instance, if you grant a member "Contributor" access to the shared Drive, you cannot lower their access to "Viewer" for an individual file within the shared Drive.
Transferring a file from My Drive to a shared Drive
As of this writing (July 2021), it is possible to move files but not folders from My Drive (your individual USC Google account) to a shared Drive.
Quick guide
- Go to https://usc.edu/googledrive and navigate to your file.
- Right-click on the file and select Move to.
- Click on the left-facing arrow in the top left corner of the window that appears. Continue clicking on the left-facing arrow until the list of options displays Shared drives.
- Double-click on Shared drives.
- Select the name of the shared Drive. Or, if you want to target a specific folder within the shared Drive, double-click on the name of the shared Drive to select the folder. Once you've selected it, click on Move.
Detailed guide (with screenshots)
- Go to https://usc.edu/googledrive and navigate to your file.
- Right-click on the file and select Move to.
- Click on the left-facing arrow in the top left corner of the window that appears. Continue clicking on the left-facing arrow until the list of options displays Shared drives.
- Double-click on Shared drives.
- Select the name of the shared Drive. Or, if you want to target a specific folder within the shared Drive, double-click on the name of the shared Drive to select the folder. Once you've selected it, click on Move.
