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Create a Google Shared drive

Anyone can create a Google Shared drive and then add members and set permissions. You can designate a Google Group as the membership for a Shared drive. Using Workgroup Integration, you can create a Google Group from existing Stanford Workgroups. Below you will find instructions for creating and managing Google Groups and Shared drives.

Create a Google Group

One of the advantages of Google Shared drives is that the group owns all of the documents in the Shared drives, so even if one member leaves, all of the documents remain.  You can use Workgroup Integration to create a Google Group from current Workgroups. Once the permissions are granted to your Google Group, access to the Shared drives is automatically adjusted when you add or remove members from your Stanford Workgroup, allowing you to manage access entirely from within Workgroup Manager.

To do this, follow the instructions on the Google Groups for Workgroups page to create a Google Group that you will then use as the owner of the Shared drives.

  • Allow up to 24 hours for the linked Google Group to appear on the Google Groups management site.
  • All administrators of the Workgroup become owners of the new Google Group.  All members of the Workgroup become members of the Google Group.
  • You can only use Workgroup Manager to maintain membership for Stanford users.  You can add non-Stanford users directly to the Shared drives within Google Apps.
  • When you create the Shared drives, you can name them anything you want and then in the membership list assign the Google Group name that the Workgroup Integration tool created, and give it Full access permission.  The Google Group name will be in the format stem_workgroup@stanford.edu.
    • Full access permission allows members full access to upload, edit, and delete files, as well as to invite other members to the Shared drives.
    • If you want some members of the Shared drives group to have only Edit, Comment, or View access, create separate Workgroups and then add those groups as members with the appropriate permissions.

Create a Shared drive

Google carefully documents how to create and manage Shared drives.  Below are some links that you might find useful.

Last modified February 16, 2023