File Sharing in Google Drive

Summary

This reviews how to access files shared with you in Google Drive, best practices, and some basic troubleshooting.

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Sharing Best Practice

Always save shared content in a Shared drive. This ensures that others can access the content in the event that you leave Dartmouth.

What Happens When the Owner of a Shared File Leaves the College?

When a person leaves the college, the data from their accounts will be deleted after a certain period of time.

  • If the files that they shared with you were saved to a Shared drive, you will retain access after they have left. 
  • If the files were shared from their personal drive and not in a Shared Drive, the files will be deleted when they leave. 

If, however, there are files outside of Shared drives that were shared with you by a colleague leaving the college, that colleague should move them to a Shared drive prior to leaving or you can make copies of the files and then save them to your Shared drive before they have had their last day at the college. Please note that when you make a copy of your colleague's file, the version history will not be copied with it. Version history starts over with the new (copied) file.

Awareness is key, as there is no mechanism in place that will notify you when the shared data will be removed. Ensuring that shared content is saved in a Shared drive is the best way to maintain continuity in the event that team mates and colleagues leave Dartmouth. 

Accessing Your "Shared with me" Files

  • Log into your Dartmouth Google account at google.dartmouth.edu.
  • Select Google Drive.
  • From the side bar on the left of the screen, select the Shared with me option. This will show you all of the files that have been shared with your Dartmouth Google account.

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Making a Copy of a Shared File

  • Select Shared with me in the sidebar of your Google Drive.
  • Find the file(s) from the colleague that is leaving the college.
  • Right-click on a file and select Make a copy.

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A copy of the file will be created and saved to your drive (My Drive). You can then Move the file(s) to a Shared drive.

Moving a File

  • Select My Drive in the sidebar of your Google Drive.
  • Find the file that was created by you or by the Make a copy process.
  • Right-click on the file, select Organize, and then Move.
  • In the next pop-up, select All locations and then Shared drives to save the file to a shared location.

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Ensure You Are Using Your Dartmouth Google Account

You can sign into multiple Google accounts in one browsing session, it's important to know how to swap between the two or you risk requesting access for something with a personal account or storing a file in the wrong Google Drive. Your Dartmouth Google account will usually have the Dartmouth logo next to your profile icon. 

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How to change accounts

  1. Locate the circle in the upper right hand corner of your Google, Gmail, or Drive page and select it. 
  2. You will then see a drop-down menu that will show all the Google accounts you are signed into. The Google account listed at the top is the account you are currently viewing. To swap between accounts, select the other account. 

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Request Permission

If you see the following message when trying to access a file shared with you, be sure that you are signed into the correct Google account. You will see the account you are signed in as at the bottom of the message.

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Details

Details

Article ID: 87301
Created
Wed 9/18/19 4:06 PM
Modified
Wed 2/21/24 12:04 PM