Google Shared Drives and Google Shared Folders are two features that enable collaboration with others. While both are useful for sharing content, each has a distinct design that is important to understand when it comes to safely sharing and backing up your content.
The key difference between Google Shared Drives and Google Shared Folders is ownership.
- Google Shared Drives: Ownership of files and folders inside the drive is held by the drive itself (and can be managed by the district), and all members of the drive have access to and control over the files and folders as set by the drive permissions.
- Google Shared Folders: The Owner of the folder retains ownership; the owner of the files within the shared folder retains ownership.
Examples:
- Google Shared Drive: If someone leaves CSISD, the content created by that person in a shared drive is not affected.
- Google Shared Folder: If someone leaves CSISD, the content they created and shared using a Shared Folder is removed and no longer accessible by those with whom the content was shared.
Learn how to tell the difference between a Shared Drive and a Shared Folder.