Google Team Drives is now available to all CU Boulder affiliates. Like Google’s My Drive, Team Drives is a shared space where teams can easily store, search, and access their files anywhere, from any device. But unlike files in My Drive, files in a Team Drive belong to the team instead of an individual. This makes it much easier to manage permissions and assure that shared files will remain accessible to the group, even when a member leaves the university.
Also, unlike My Drive, Folders in Team Drive cannot be shared or have separate permissions from the other folders within the Team Drive. Members of a Team Drive have permissions across the entire Team Drive and can access all folders stored in a Team Drive.
If you’re trying to decide whether it makes more sense to keep files in a Team Drive or My Drive, check out Google’s My Drive vs. Team Drive FAQ and ask yourself these questions:
- Are the files of interest to most or all members of a particular project team?
- Do the files share a consistent theme?
If you answered "yes" to both of these questions, creating a new Team Drive is probably a good idea. If the files are for a variety of projects, it’s best to create multiple Team Drives.
Please be aware that there are certain data migration and content limitations, as well as known issues, that you might want to review before moving to Team Drives. Individuals can request a Google Team Drive by contacting the IT Service Center at help@colorado.edu or by calling 303-735-4357 (5-HELP from a campus phone). The IT Service Center can also help if you have files and folders to be moved to a Team Drive.
