How users can create and manage shared drives?

Create and manage shared drives

What are shared drives?

Shared drives are special folders in Google Drive that you can use to store, search, and access files with a team. Shared drive files belong to the team instead of an individual. Even if members leave, the files stay in the shared drive so your team can keep sharing information and work anywhere, from any device.

What you can do with shared drives

Shared drives are shared spaces where teams can easily store, search, and access their files anywhere, from any device.

Unlike files in My Drive, files in a shared drive belong to the team instead of an individual. Even if members leave, the files stay exactly where they are so your team can continue to share information and get work done.

Common uses for shared drives:

• Projects—For people involved in the same project.

• Events—For people working for a defined period on a specific event or deliverable.

• Templates—For files that people can copy and reuse.

• Company-wide files—For files, everyone needs access to, such as training files.

• Sensitive files—For highly sensitive files, where you can add extra security to limit access.

On this page

Create a shared drive and add members What members can do at different access levels Change a member's access to a shared drive See members of a shared drive Email members of a shared drive Remove members of a shared drive Delete a shared drive

Add files and folders to a shared drive Move files in a shared drive Share files and folders in a shared drive Restrict file sharing in a shared drive Delete files in a shared drive Restore a file (up to 30 days) Find files in a shared drive

File and folder limits in shared drives Upload limits in shared drives Membership limits in shared drives Limits on shared drives listed in Drive

 

Who you can add to a shared drive

You can add anyone in your organization as a member of a shared drive.

If your organization allows, you can add external people to a shared drive as long as they have an email address associated with a Google account. Any content an external person contributes (for example, edits to, creating, or uploading a file) in a shared drive created by someone in your organization is transferred to and owned by your organization.

For people whose Google Workspace edition doesn't include shared drives, you can only add them with Viewer access. However, you might be able to give them comment or edit access to specific files in the shared drive, depending on folder permissions. See How sharing a folder in a shared drive works.

What members can do at different access levels

When you add a new member to a shared drive, you can set their access level: 

• If possible, give collaborators Manager or Content manager access so they aren’t limited in how they work together in the shared drive.

• Give members who need to edit files in Google Drive for desktop or in the Chrome OS Files app at least Content manager access.

• If you’re concerned about members deleting files from a shared drive, give them Contributor, Commenter, or Viewer access only. These members can’t delete files.

Permission	Manager	Content manager	Contributor	Commenter	Viewer
Can view files and folders	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
Can comment on files	✔	✔	✔	✔
Can edit files	✔	✔	✔
Can create and add files, can create folders	✔	✔	✔*
Can add and remove people and groups on specific files	✔	✔	✔
Can restore files from the Trash (up to 30 days)	✔	✔	✔
Can move files from My Drive to a shared drive	✔	✔	✔
Can move files and folders to the Trash	✔	✔
Can move files and folders within a shared drive	✔	✔
Can add or remove people and groups on specific folders in a shared drive	✔	✔**
Can move folders from My Drive to a shared drive	✔
Can move files from one shared drive to another shared drive	✔
Can add or remove members of a shared drive	✔
Can change member access levels	✔
Can permanently delete files in the Trash	✔
Can rename or change theme	✔
Can delete the shared drive	✔

* In Google Drive for desktop or files in the Chrome OS Files app, Contributor access gives only read access to files. To allow users to create, upload, and edit files in a shared drive in Google

Drive for desktop and Chrome OS, give the user Content manager or Manager access.

** Administrators or Managers can prevent Content managers from sharing folders.

To learn more about access control to the shared drive, go to Access control to shared drives

Create a shared drive and add members

Create a shared drive

• On your computer, go to drive.google.com.

• On the left, click Shared drives.

• At the top left, click New.

  

• Enter a name for the shared drive.

  

• Click Create.

Add members to a shared drive

Requires Manager access

• On your computer, go to drive.google.com.

• In the left column, click Shared drives and double-click one of your shared drives.

• At the top, click Manage members.

  

• Add names, email addresses, or a Google Group.

• By default, new members will be Content managers. They can upload, edit, move, or delete all files.

• To change the role for a new member, select a role from the dropdown.

• To choose to notify new members of their access, click Notify people.

• Click Send.

Change a member's access to a shared drive

Requires Manager access

• On the left, click a shared drive.

• At the top, next to the shared drive name, click the Down arrow > Manage members.

  

• Next to a member’s name, click the Down arrow > and select a new access level.

• Click Done.

See members of a shared drive

• On the left, click a shared drive.

• Under the shared drive name, click the number of members.

Email members of a shared drive

• On your computer, go to drive.google.com.

• At the left, click Shared drives and double-click one of your shared drives.

• At the top, next to the name of your shared drive click the Down arrow.

  

• Click Email Members.

• Enter your message and click Send.

Remove members of a shared drive

Requires Manager access

Members who are Managers can change what other members can do. 

• On your computer, go to drive.google.com.

• At the left, click Shared drives and double-click one of your shared drives.

• At the top, next to the name of your shared drive, click the Down arrow.

• Click Manage members.

• To the right of the person you want to change, click the Down arrow.

  

• Select a role or Remove.

• Click Save.

Delete a shared drive

Tip: If you aren’t ready to delete a shared drive, but you aren’t actively using it, you can hide it. Hiding a shared drive removes it from your view. See Best practices for shared drives.

Before you can delete a shared drive:

• The shared drive has to be empty

• You need to be a Manager of the shared drive.

Requires Manager access

• On your computer, go to drive.google.com.

• On the left, click Shared drives.

• Right-click the shared drive you want to delete.

• Click Delete shared drive.

  

To empty a shared drive before you delete it, put the files in the trash or move them to "My Drive."

Add files and folders to a shared drive

Create folders in a shared drive

Create or upload a folder

• On your computer, go to drive.google.com.

• At the left, click Shared drives and double-click one of your shared drives.

• At the top left, click New.

  

• Click the type of file or folder you want to create or upload from your computer.

Add files to a shared drive

Requires at least Contributor access

• On your computer, go to drive.google.com.

• At the left, click Shared drives and double-click one of your shared drives.

• At the top left, click New.

• Click the type of file or folder you want to create or upload from your computer. 

Any files you add are owned by the team. If you leave the shared drive, your files remain. 

Move files in a shared drive

Move files and folders from My Drive to a shared drive

If you have Contributor, Content Manager, or Manager access to a shared drive, you can move files you own or have edit access to into shared drives. 

To move a file or folder, drag it from My Drive to the shared drive. For details, see Move files & folders into shared drives.

Moving files to a shared drive can impact file access.

• You might not be able to move files owned by other people. If you want to move a file owned by someone else, ask the owner to move it. You can also contact your administrator for assistance.

• When you share files with someone outside of a shared drive, they can find the files under "Shared with me." Learn more about Shared with me.

Move files between shared drives

You can drag files and folders from one shared drive to another if you have the required access to the source and destination shared drives.

To move files from one shared drive to another you need Manager access to the source shared drive and Contributor, Content manager, or Manager access to the destination shared drive.

To move folders from one shared drive to another you must have Manager access to both shared drives.

Move files or folders from a shared drive to My Drive

You can drag files and folders from a shared drive to My Drive if you have the required access to the source shared drive and destination folder.

To move files or folders out of a shared drive, you need Manager access to the shared drive. To move files or folders into a folder in My Drive, you need Editor access to the parent folder.

Moving files out of a shared drive can impact file access. See How does file access work in shared drives?

Share files and folders in a shared drive

Requires at least Contributor access to share files; Manager access to share folders

Files in a shared drive are automatically shared with members of the shared drive. If sharing isn’t restricted, members of the shared drive can share a file or folder with people who aren’t members. 

If you're sharing a folder or a link, learn about permissions on files and folders:

• How sharing a folder in a shared drive works

• How link sharing in a shared drive works

The process to share a file or folder from a shared drive works the same as sharing from Drive.

Restrict file sharing in a shared drive

Requires Manager access

You can restrict sharing on all files and folders in a shared drive. You can prevent sharing with people outside of your organization, prevent sharing with non-members in your organization, or disallow people with Commenter and Viewer access from downloading, copying or printing files in a shared drive.

• On your computer, go to drive.google.com.

• At the left, click Shared drives and double-click the shared drive you want to change.

• At the top, click your shared drive’s name >  Shared drive settings.

  

• Update the settings you want to change.

• Click Done.

Delete files in a shared drive

Move a file to the trash

Requires at least Content manager access

After a file has been in the trash for 30 days, it will be deleted forever. Managers of the shared drive can delete files in the trash at any time.

• On your computer, go to drive.google.com.

• Click Shared drives.

• Click the file you want to delete.

• At the top, click Delete for everyone.

• Click Delete for everyone. 

Restore a file (up to 30 days)

Requires at least Contributor access

• On your computer, go to drive.google.com.

• On your left, Click Trash.

  

• At the top, next to "Trash from," click the Down arrow.

• Choose the trash you want to restore from.

• Click the file you want to restore.

   
  
  

• Click Restore.

Find files in a shared drive

Search in a shared drive

• Right-click a shared drive and click Search within shared drive name.

  

• In the Search box, enter your search term and press Enter.

File and folder limits in shared drives

Item cap

A shared drive can contain a maximum of 400,000 items, including files, folders, and shortcuts. Note: This limit is based on item count, not storage use. We recommend that you keep shared drives well below the strict limit. Shared drives with too many files might be difficult to organize and search, or members ignore much of the content.

If you're a Google Workspace administrator, you can see how close a shared drive is to the item limit in your Admin console. Search for "Manage shared drives" and review the Item cap column.

File sharing limits

A file in a shared drive can be directly shared with a maximum of 100 groups.

Storage limit

Your administrator might set a storage limit on shared drives. To see the storage limit (if any) and how much storage is used, open the Details tab in Drive.

Folder nesting and moving

A folder in a shared drive can have up to 20 levels of nested folders. We recommend that you avoid creating many folders in one shared drive. Members might have difficulty organizing and finding content. Instead, organize content into multiple shared drives.

When using Drive for desktop, you can’t move a folder from My Drive to a shared drive.

Upload limits in shared drives

Individual users can only upload 750 GB each day between My Drive and all shared drives. Users who reach the 750-GB limit or upload a file larger than 750 GB cannot upload additional files that day. Uploads that are in progress will complete. The maximum individual file size that you can upload or synchronize is 5 TB.

Some virtual file types (such as files that link to files in other external storage systems) can’t be added to shared drives.

Membership limits in shared drives

Membership	Limit per shared drive
Groups	100
Total members (groups and individual accounts added as members)	600
Total individuals (individual accounts and group members)	50,000

Within the 600 member limit, a maximum of 100 members can be groups. For example, if you add 100 groups and 100 individuals as members to a shared drive, you can’t add another group as a member because that would exceed the 100 group limit for shared drive members. However, you can still add an individual. The new individual brings the total members to 201, which is below the 600 member limit.

If someone is a member of multiple groups that are members of the shared drive, they only count as one individual toward the 50,000 individuals.

Limits on shared drives listed in Drive

Drive lists up to 1,000 shared drives in the left navigation. You can still access the other shared drives using the direct URL, or search for specific files and folders in the shared drives.

Note: Shared drives are automatically hidden for group members once they reach a certain number of members. This is to avoid spamming large groups with shared drive content. This occurs in two ways:

• If a shared drive is shared directly with a group that has more than 1000 people in it. For example, if a shared drive is shared with a group that has 1200 users, for 200 of them, the shared drive will be hidden by default.

• If a shared drive is shared indirectly with over 2500 people. For example, if the shared drive is shared with 6 groups containing 500 people each, the behavior is that the first 2500 people added (from the first 5 groups of 500 people), will see the shared drive, but then the shared drive will be hidden for the final group of 500 people because they were added beyond the 2500 limit.