Differences Between Google Shared Drive and MyDrive

Google MyDrive

Google MyDrive, also known as a personal Google Drive, is a place you can store files that only you have access to and you own. You can create files in your MyDrive by selecting new and then the type of file you would like to create. You can also upload files directly from your computer or mobile device using the web interface or the Google Drive desktop or mobile app.

While you can share files out of your MyDrive, it is recommended that you utilize this as a short term and limited option. It is suggested to utilize a Shared Drive for sharing with multiple individuals.

My Drive access levels when sharing:

  • Viewer – Can only view the files shared with them.
  • Commenters – Can only view and comment on files shared with them.
  • Editors – Can make changes to the file or folder shared with them.

 

Please refer to this Knowledge Base Article for Google storage quotas for your respective designation

 

Google Shared Drive

A Google Shared Drive is the ideal way for teams to share files. You can use a Shared Drive to search, access, and collaborate on files within your department or within a group of individuals (i.e., committees, student workers, etc). The files will always stay within the Shared Drive and can be accessed from anywhere and on any device.

Some of the best reasons to use a shared drive include:

  • Easy to share with all members of the drive.
  • Files are being synced in real time.
  • Larger storage capacity (up to 500GB).
  • Files are owned by the team rather than an individual account.

Shared Drive access levels determine how much access an individual has:

  • Viewer – Can only view the files/folders shared with them.
  • Commenter – Can only view and comment on files.
  • Contributor – Can add and create files, as well as move files (not folders) from My Drive to the Shared Drive.
  • Content Manager – Same as contributor, but can also move files and folders within the Shared Drive. Users with this access level can move files to the trash as well. 
  • Manager – Same as the previous two, but can also move files out of the Shared Drive or to another Shared Drive. A Manager can also permanently delete files.

All files and folders within a Shared Drive can be seen by all members of that Shared Drive.

We periodically audit our Google Shared Drives to ensure they remain active and have the required number of Managers. Google best practices recommend having at least two Managers per drive.

When a Google Shared drive has only one Manager, we will request that they add a second active TCNJ employee (Faculty or Staff). Once two active TCNJ employees (Faculty or Staff) are assigned as Managers, additional users—such as emeriti, students, affiliates, supplemental or part-time staff — may be designated as Managers if desired. Additionally, to ensure data integrity, optimal storage allocation, and security compliance, Google Shared drives that have no members and show no activity for one year will be deleted.

Due to the large volume of shared drives in our environment, descriptive naming is a necessity. To help maintain an organized environment and ensure drives are easily recognizable across campus, please follow these guidelines when submitting names for a Google Shared Drive:

  1. Avoid Personal Names or Generic Labels. Shared drives belong to the department or team, not an individual. Calling a drive "Research" or "Misc" might be meaningful to you, but when multiple groups collaborate across campus, it becomes unclear whose drive it is, what research is being done, or which department owns the files, etc.
  2. For Time-bound projects,  it helps to have the term of the project in the name to distinguish active project files from archived historical data.
  3. Add the department or function of the shared drive to the name. It helps to establish ownership of the data so that Admin can reach out to the appropriate parties when membership needs to be adjusted.

   Here is an example of a descriptive shared drive name:
   HSS - Curriculum Review
   [Department] - [Function/Project]

  • To optimize the usage of Shared Drives, since each one can hold up to 500GB of storage, it is our strong suggestion that for projects that happen annually, a single Shared Drive be created and subfolders be made inside of it for the individual years. Using the above as an example, instead of making "HSS - Curriculum Review AY25-26" that it instead be "HSS - Curriculum Review" with subfolders for "AY25-26", "AY26-27", "AY27-28", etc.

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