The Orphaned File Crisis
In a standard Google Drive setup, every file is owned by the specific person who created it. If Sarah, the Marketing Director, creates the “Q3 Master Budget” spreadsheet, she is the owner. She can share edit access with her entire team, and the team collaborates seamlessly for months.
However, when Sarah resigns and her Google Workspace account is deleted by the IT department, a crisis occurs. Because Sarah owned the Q3 Master Budget, deleting her account deletes the spreadsheet. The entire marketing team suddenly loses access to their most critical document, and IT has to scramble to recover the deleted account to salvage the files.
To prevent this, Google Workspace offers a structural feature called Shared Drives (formerly Team Drives). A Shared Drive fundamentally changes the concept of ownership. When a file is placed inside a Shared Drive, it is no longer owned by an individual person; it is owned by the company domain itself. If Sarah quits, her account is deleted, but the files she created in the Shared Drive remain perfectly intact and accessible to the rest of the team.
Creating a Shared Drive
Note: Shared Drives are only available on paid Google Workspace business and enterprise plans, not free personal Gmail accounts.
- Open Google Drive in your web browser.
- Look at the left sidebar. Instead of clicking “My Drive,” click on Shared drives.
- Click the New button in the top left corner (or right-click anywhere in the blank space).
- Name the drive according to its function (e.g., “Marketing Department” or “Project Alpha”).
Managing Member Permissions
Unlike a single folder where you share individual files, a Shared Drive operates on a rigid, top-down permission structure. When you add a member to the Shared Drive, they automatically get access to every single folder and file inside it.
- Click on your newly created Shared Drive.
- Near the top, under the title of the drive, click the Manage members button.
- Type the email addresses of your team members.
Before hitting send, you must choose their permission level carefully from the dropdown menu on the right. Google offers very specific roles:
- Manager: Can add/remove members and permanently delete files. (Reserve this for department heads).
- Content Manager (Default): Can add, edit, and move files, but cannot permanently delete them or change member access. (Best for most employees).
- Contributor: Can add and edit files, but cannot move or delete anything.
- Commenter/Viewer: Read-only access.
Migrating Files to a Shared Drive
Transitioning your company from “My Drive” to “Shared Drives” requires a careful migration of existing files.
If you have a folder in your personal “My Drive” that you want to move into the new “Marketing Department” Shared Drive, simply click and drag it over. However, there is a catch: You must be the owner of the files to move them.
If your coworker created a file and shared it with you, you cannot drag their file into the Shared Drive. They must drag it in themselves, thereby transferring ownership from their personal account to the corporate domain.
Never run a business out of individual “My Drive” folders. By establishing dedicated Shared Drives for every department and project, you ensure that institutional knowledge and critical documents belong to the company, completely eliminating the panic of orphaned files when employees leave.