What can you do with Team Drives?

Team Drives is a shared space where teams can easily store, search, and access their files anywhere, from any device.

Unlike files in My Drive, files in a Team 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.

Note: Team Drives is available with the G Suite Enterprise, Business, or Education editions.

What you need:

account_circle G Suite account

schedule 10 minutes

None
1

Set up a Team Drive

Start by setting up a Team Drive and adding members.

In this section, you learn how to:

1.1

Create a Team Drive

  1. Open Google Drive.
  2. On the left, click Team Drives.
  3. At top, click
     
    New
    .
  4. Enter a name and click Create.

Note: If you can’t create a new Team Drive, Team Drives might not be enabled. Contact your G Suite administrator.

None
1.2

Add members and set permissions

When you add new members, they’re given full access to upload, edit, and delete files. Full access members can also invite other members. If needed, you can change a member’s permission level.

Permission 

Full access

Edit access

Comment access

View access

Permission 

Can view files and folders

Full access

check

Edit access

check

Comment access

check

View access

check

Permission 

Can comment on files

Full access

check

Edit access

check

Comment access

check

View access

remove

Permission 

Can edit files

Full access

check

Edit access

check

Comment access

remove

View access

remove

Permission 

Can create and upload files, can create folders

Full access

check

Edit access

check

Comment access

remove

View access

remove

Permission 

Can add or remove people as members of the Team Drive

Full access

check

Edit access

remove

Comment access

remove

View access

remove

Permission 

Can change member permissions

Full access

check

Edit access

remove

Comment access

remove

View access

remove

Permission 

Can add people to specific files

Full access

check

Edit access

check

Comment access

remove

View access

remove

Permission 

Can move files and folders

Full access

check

Edit access

remove

Comment access

remove

View access

remove

Permission 

Can delete files and folders

Full access

check

Edit access

remove

Comment access

remove

View access

remove

Permission 

Can restore files from trash

Full access

check

Edit access

check

Comment access

remove

View access

remove

Add members and set permissions:

Requires full access permission

  1. On the left, click a Team Drive.
  2. At the top, under the Team Drive name, click +Add members.
  3. Add names, email addresses, or groups from Google Groups.
  4. (Optional) To change the permission from Full access, next to Full, click the Down arrow arrow_drop_down and choose a new permission.
  5. (Optional) Enter a message.
  6. (Optional) If you don’t want to send a notification to the new members, check the Skip sending notifications box.
  7. Click Send or Add.
None
1.3

Change member permissions

Requires full access permission

  1. On the left, click a Team Drive.
  2. At the top, next to the Team Drive name, click the Down arrow arrow_drop_down > Manage members.
  3. Next to a member’s name, click the Down arrow arrow_drop_down and select a new permission.
  4. Click Done.
None
1.4

Remove members

Requires full access permission

  1. On the left, click a Team Drive.
  2. At the top, next to the Team Drive name, click the Down arrow arrow_drop_down > Manage members.
  3. Next to a member’s name, click the Down arrow arrow_drop_down 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 everyone in your organization by link or through a group.

None
2

Add files and folders

Now, add files to your Team Drive.

In this section, you learn how to:

2.1

Create folders

Create a new folder:

  1. On the left, click a Team Drive or existing folder.
  2. Click
     
    New
    > Folder.
  3. Enter a folder name and click Create.

Note: To move folders into a Team Drive that are already stored in My Drive or another Team Drive, contact your G Suite admin.

 

Upload an existing folder from your computer:

  1. On the left, 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.
None
2.2

Add and edit files

Requires at least edit access permission

Any files you add are owned by the team. If you leave the Team Drive, your files remain.

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

Note: To store and access files on your desktop, use Drive File Stream. See Get started with Drive.

None
3

Organize files

After you add files, you can get them organized.

In this section, you learn how to:

3.1

Star important files

Flag important files or folders to quickly find them later. Just right-click a file or folder and select Add star.

To see all your starred files and folders, on the left, click Starred.

None
3.2

Move files

To move files from My Drive into a Team Drive or between Team Drives, drag the files into the destination Team Drive folder. To move folders, contact your G Suite admin.

Move files from My Drive to Team Drives:

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. 

If you’re not the owner of a file in My Drive but have Can edit access, you might be able to move that file into a Team Drive, if:

  • Your G Suite admin has enabled this option.
  • The file’s owner is a member of the Team Drive where you want to move the file. 

 Otherwise, you need to ask the owner to move the file into the Team Drive. 

Move files between Team Drives:

To move files between Team Drives, you need full access permission to the original Team Drive and at least edit access to the destination Team Drive.

None
3.3

Delete or restore files

Delete a file:

Requires full access permission

 If you delete a file in a Team Drive, it deletes the file for everyone.

Click the file you want to delete and at the top, click Trash delete.

Restore a file:

Requires at least edit access permission

  1. On the left, click a Team Drive.
  2. At top, next to the Team Drive name, click the Down arrow arrow_drop_down > View trash.
  3. Click the file > Restore history.
None
3.4

Search for files

Search in a Team Drive or folder:

  1. In the search box, click the Down arrow arrow_drop_down.
  2. Under Location, click Anywhere.
  3. Double-click Team Drives and select a Team Drive or folder.
  4. Click Select.
  5. Enter your search terms and click SEARCH.
None
4

Share and collaborate

Any files you put in a Team Drive are automatically shared with members of the Team Drive. Any member can also share Team Drive files with people who aren’t members unless you restrict sharing permissions.

In this section, you learn how to:

4.1

Share files

Requires at least edit access permission

Just like in Drive, there are different ways to share files in Team Drives with people who aren't members of the Team Drive.

Note: Your ability to share files might be limited by your organization. Ask your G Suite admin for more information.

Share files with individuals or groups:

  1. In a Team Drive, click the file you want to share.
  2. At the top, click Share person_add.
  3. Add names, email addresses, or groups from Google Groups.
  4. (Optional) To change the permission from Edit, click the Down arrow arrow_drop_down and choose another permission.
  5. (Optional) Add a message.
  6. (Optional) If you don't want to send notifications, check the Skip sending notification box.
  7. Click Send or Add.

If you set the permission to Comment or View, and you have full access membership, you can prevent people from downloading, printing, and copying shared files.

None

Share a link:

To make a file widely accessible and avoid managing access in your organization, you can share the file with a link. Anyone in your organization who gets the link can access the file. Optionally, you can let other users share the link with people that are not in your organization.

  1. In a Team Drive, click the file you want to share.
  2. At the top, click Share person_add.
  3. Click Who has access.
  4. Next to Link sharing off, click the Down arrow expand_more.
  5. Next to Link Sharing, click Turn on slider-off to make the link accessible to anyone in your organization.
  6. Under the URL, click the Down arrow arrow_drop_down and select a permission level.
  7. (Optional) To allow sharing the link outside of your organization, check the Allow external access box.

    Note: If you don't see this option, it could be turned off by your G Suite admin.

  8. (Optional) To make the document searchable in Drive, check the Findable in search results box.
  9. Click Copy to copy the link.
  10. Click Done.
  11. Paste the link in an email, on a website, or wherever you need to share it.
None
4.2

Unshare files

Unshare files with your organization:

  1. In a Team Drive, click the file you want to unshare.
  2. Click Share person_add.
  3. Click Who has access.
  4. Next to Link Sharing, click Turn off slider-on.
  5. Click Done.
None

Unshare files with individuals:

  1. In a Team Drive, click the file you want to unshare.
  2. Click Share person_add.
  3. Click Who has access.
  4. Next to the person, click the Down arrow arrow_drop_down > Remove.
  5. Click Done.

Note: Group settings can override individual settings. So, if you try to unshare a file with a person who belongs to an organization or group with access to the file, this person can still access the file.

None
4.3

Protect files

Protect all files in a Team Drive:

Requires full access permission 

  1. On the left, click the Team Drive that contains the files you want to protect.
  2. At the top, next to the Team Drive name, click the Down arrow arrow_drop_down > Team Drive settings.
  3. Click Edit to set any of these permissions:
    • Sharing files with people outside of your organization
    • Sharing files with people in your organization who aren’t members of the Team Drive
    • Allowing people with comment and view-only access to download, copy, or print files 
  4. After you choose an option, click Apply.
  5. Click Done.
None

Prevent people from downloading, printing, or copying a file:

Requires full access permission 

  1. Click the file you want to protect.
  2. At the top, click Share person_add.
  3. At the bottom, click Who Has Access.
  4. Click More more_vert > check the Restrict download, print, & copy actions on this file for commenters and viewers box.
  5. Click Done.

Note: You can limit how people share, print, download, and copy within Google Drive, Docs, Sheets, and Slides, but you can't stop how others share the file content in other ways.

None
4.4

See or email members

See members of a Team Drive:

  1. On the left, click a Team Drive.
  2. At the top, next to the Team Drive name, click the Down arrow arrow_drop_down > View members.

Email members of a Team Drive:

  1. On the left, click a Team Drive.
  2. At the top, next to the Team Drive name, click the Down arrow arrow_drop_down > Email members.
  3. Change the subject and enter your message.
  4. (Optional) To only email members with full or edit permission or send yourself a copy of the email, check the boxes.
  5. Click Send.
None

Next steps

Try it now

Go to Team Drives

Get more training

Access Team Drive files when you're offline, learn keyboard shortcuts, and more.

See Drive tips