How to Create a Google Apps Team Drive

This Articles applies to: Content/CMS editors, content creators.

Create the drive

1. Open Drive and ensure you are logged in with your TAMU Google Apps account.
2. In the left navigation, click Team Drives.
3. At top, click New.
4. Enter a name.
5. Click Create.

Add members and set permissions

When you add new members, they’re given full access to upload, edit, and delete files, as well as to invite other members. You can, however, change member permissions to meet the needs of your team. The different access settings are:

• Full access (Manager)
• Edit access (Content manager)
• Comment access (Commenter)
• View access (Viewer)

Add members and set permissions

Note: To add members and set permissions, you need full access permission. 
 

1. In the left navigation, click a Team Drive.
2. At the top, under the Team Drive name, click Add Members.
3. Add names or email addresses.
4. (Optional) To change the permission from Full access, next to Full, click the Down arrow  and choose a new permission.
5. (Optional) Enter a message.
6. (Optional) If you don’t want to send notifications, select Skip sending notifications.
7. Choose an option:
   1. Click Send to send notifications.
   2. Click Add if you don’t want to send notifications.

Change member permissions

1. In the left navigation, click a Team Drive.
2. At the top, next to the Team Drive name, click the Down arrow  > Manage members.
3. Next to a member’s name, click the Down arrow  and select a new permission.
4. Click Done.

Remove members

1. In the left navigation, click a Team Drive.
2. At the top, next to the Team Drive name, click the Down arrow  > Manage members.
3. Next to a member’s name, click the Down arrow  and select Remove member.
4. Click Done.

Note: If you remove someone from a Team Drive, they might still have access to files shared in other ways, such as files shared with a direct link, or through group sharing.
 

Add files and folders

Now, to add some files to your Team Drive.

Create folders

1. In the left navigation, click a Team Drive or existing folder.
2. Click New > New folder.
3. Enter a folder name.
4. Click Create.

Upload an existing folder from your computer:

1. In the left navigation, click a Team Drive folder.
2. On your computer, drag an existing folder into a Team Drive. Or, click New > Folder upload. Navigate to the folder and open it.

Add and open files

To add files to a Team Drive, you need at least edit access permission. Any files you add are owned by the team. If you leave the Team Drive, your files remain.

1. In the left navigation, click a Team Drive folder.
2. Drag an existing file to upload it from your computer. Or, click New and choose an option:
   1. To create a file, select the file type you want to create, such as Google Docs.
   2. To upload a file, select File upload. Navigate to the file and open it.
3. Double-click a file to open it.

Organize files

After you’ve added files, you can star important files, move files, and delete files.

Star important files

Flag important files or folders to find them quickly later. Just right-click a file or folder and select Add star. To see all your starred files and folders, in the left sidebar, click Starred.

Move files

You can move any file you own into a Team Drive, whether it’s from another Drive location, or from your computer or mobile device.
To move files between Team Drives or from My Drive into a Team Drive, drag the files into the destination Team Drive folder.

Notes:

1. To move files between Team Drives, you must have full access to the original Team Drive and at least edit access to the destination Team Drive.
2. If someone else owns the file, you need to ask them to move it.

Delete files

Click the file you want to delete and at the top right, click Trash .This deletes the file for everyone. If someone accidentally deletes a file, you can restore it. (up to 30 days)

Restore a file

1. In the left navigation, click a Team Drive.
2. At top, next to the Team Drive name, click the Down arrow  > View trash.
3. Click a file and click Restore .

Search for files

Find a file in a specific Team Drive:

1. In Search, click the Down arrow.
2. Next to Location, click Anywhere.
3. Double-click Team Drives and select a particular team drive.
4. Click Select.
5. (Optional) Enter additional search options, such as the file type or date the file was modified.
6. Click Search.

Share and collaborate

Any files you put in Team Drives are automatically shared with members of the Team Drive. However, you can also share Team Drive files with anyone else even if they are not members of the Team Drive.

Share files

Just like in “My Drive”, there are different ways to share files with other people. To share files, you need at least edit access to the files.
 

• Share files with individuals or groups

1. Click a file to share.
2. Click Share.
3. Add names, email addresses, or Google Groups.
4. (Optional) To change the permission from edit, click the Down arrow and choose another permission.
5. (Optional) Add a message.
6. Click Send.

If you set permissions to view or comment, you can prevent people from downloading, printing, and copying shared files.

• Email a link

1. Click a file to share.
2. Click Share.
3. Click Who has access.
4. Next to Link sharing off, click the Down arrow .
5. Next to the URL, click Copy. The link is now on your clipboard.
6. Click Done.
7. Paste the link into an email.

• Share a link

1. Click a file to share.
2. Click Share.
3. Click Who has access.
4. Next to Link sharing off, click the Down arrow.
5. Turn Link Sharing on.
6. Click the Down arrow and choose a permission.
7.  (Optional) To make the document searchable in Drive, click Findable in search results.
8. Click Done.

Note: Anyone who gets the link can access the file.

Unshare files

1. Click a file to unshare.
2. Click Share.
3. Click Who has access.
4. Turn Link Sharing off.
5. Click Done.

• Unshare files with individuals

1. Click a file to unshare.
2. Click Share.
3. Click Who has access.
4. Next to the person, click the Down arrow  > Remove.

Note: If the file you unshared is still shared with a group that includes the person, they can still access the file.
 

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