Google Team Drives Are Coming! Read Info & Think Before You Click

Google Team Drives Are Coming!

What is a Team Drive?

Google Team Drives are shared spaces where teams can easily store, search, and access their files anywhere, from any device. Team Drives will be available for WLCSD educators and students beginning on July 15, 2017.  To prevent issues, it is important to have a basic understanding of what Team Drive is and how it works before trying it out.

Why might I want to use Team Drive?

Sharing files with individuals and small groups is simple, but managing a large collection of files with a larger group can be challenging. Common problems:

• Sometimes people cannot find shared documents in “Shared with Me”
• If the owner of a document leaves the district, it is gone for everyone, even if it was shared with others!

Team Drive Features

Team Drive is located in a separate area from personal storage space (My Drive).

Files are owned by the team, not an individual.

The creator of the Team Drive is has full access and could be considered the “Group Manager.” This person initially controls the level of access that all team members have:

• Full Access: can modify team membership settings, add files, move files, and delete files
• Edit Access: CANNOT add people to the Team Drive, move files or delete files. CAN create files & folders, upload files, edit files, and add people not on the team to specific files
• Comment Access: can only view and comment on files. (no editing)
• View Access: can only view files

Other Things to Know about Team Drives

• The default setting for new Team members is full access. To prevent issues, there probably should only be a few people with full access level.
• Those with full or edit access can move files that they own into Team Drive (drag and drop). Once a file is moved into Team Drive, the individual who created it no longer owns it… the team does. Consider each file carefully before moving it to Team Drive.
• When a file is moved to Team Drive by an individual, it is no longer available in that individual’s My Drive.
• At this time, folders cannot be moved into Team Drive.
• Any files in Team Drives are automatically shared with members of the Team Drive. However, those with full or edit access can also share Team Drive files with WLCSD students and staff who aren’t members of the Team Drive.
• Each Team Drive has its own trash. Files and folders in the trash are deleted FOREVER after 30 days.

How-to Guide

Step-by-step instructions for setting up Team Drives, adding files and folders, and organizing files can be found here: https://gsuite.google.com/learning-center/products/drive/get-started-team-drive/

This overview video, created by JP Hale, may also be helpful (12 min).

Questions?

Pam Shoemaker

Walled Lake Consolidated Schools

Technology Instructional Coach

pamelashoemaker@wlcsd.org