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What are Shared drives? Differences from My Drive
Google Workspace's "Shared drives" are organization-owned storage that teams share, unlike individual My Drives. Since 2025, important updates, such as changes to sharing settings specifications and enhancements to AI search functionality, have continued.
Key Differences from My Drive
| Item | My Drive | Shared drives |
|---|---|---|
| Owner | Individual | Organization (Team) |
| Files upon departure | Risk of deletion | Remain |
| Storage | Included in individual quota | From organization's pool |
| Access Management | Managed by individual | Managed by administrator |
| Item limit | No limit | Up to 500,000 files (expanded in 2025) |
Steps to Create Shared drives
- Open Google Drive
- Click "Shared drives" in the left menu
- Click the "New" button and enter a name
- Add members and set permissions
Types of Member Permissions
- Manager: Can manage members and change settings
- Content manager: Can add and delete files
- Contributor: Can edit and add files (cannot delete)
- Commenter: Can only comment
- Viewer: Read-only
September 2025: Important Changes to Sharing Settings Specifications
Effective September 22, 2025, significant changes have been made to Google Drive's sharing settings. These changes are aimed at reducing the risk of information leakage.
Change 1: Abolition of individual 'Restricted access' for files within folders
The setting that previously allowed 'restricting access to specific files within a shared folder' has been abolished. Folder sharing permissions will now be uniformly applied to all files within that folder.
⚠️ Affected cases: If you had a shared folder containing a mix of 'files visible only to certain members', reorganization is required. Please move confidential files to a separate folder.
Change 2: Unification of permissions in folder hierarchies
Files and subfolders stored within a folder have been changed to match the parent folder's permission settings. This prevents unintended exposure.
2025 Update: Expansion of Item Limit
The item limit for Shared drives has increased from the previous 400,000 to 500,000. This allows departments handling a large number of files to manage them with ease.
Digest Email Notification Feature
If a Shared drive has not been used for 7 days and contains multiple unread files, a digest email summarizing the content of these unread files will be automatically sent. This can be utilized as a notification feature to prevent oversight.
Natural Language Search with AI Overview (2026-)
With the March 2026 update, 'AI Overview' will appear at the top of Drive search results. When you enter keywords, AI will summarize and display the content of related files, indicating which files are most relevant. This significantly reduces the time spent searching for necessary information from a large number of files.
Recommended Configurations by Use Case
- Departmental Management: Create Shared drives for each department (e.g., Sales, General Affairs, Development) to prevent information leakage outside the department.
- Project-based Management: Create Shared drives for each project and archive them after completion.
- Company Regulations/Manuals: Prepare one Shared drive accessible to all employees with view-only permissions.
- Executive/Confidential Information: Create a separate Shared drive accessible only to executives.
Common Considerations
- External sharing may be restricted by organizational policy.
- Files in the trash will be permanently deleted after 30 days.
- Since September 2025, individual permission settings for files within folders are no longer possible.
- Shared drives are available with Business Starter plans or higher.
Summary
By utilizing Shared drives, you can build a team's 'knowledge base' where information is not lost even if personnel change. Reviewing your folder structure in light of the September 2025 specification changes and combining it with AI Overview's natural language search will significantly improve information management efficiency.
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