Google Drive shared drives vs My Drive: who owns the files?

The short answer: decide who must retain the work

Use My Drive for individually managed work and consider a shared drive for files that must remain with the organisation as people change roles. Google explains that shared-drive files belong to the organisation, rather than the person who added them. They remain when that person leaves.

A folder shared from somebody’s My Drive is a different arrangement. The word “shared” describes access; it does not, on its own, establish organisational ownership of everything inside. Before reorganising documents, identify the actual location and owner of representative files.

A project folder and a team filing system have different jobs

Imagine a five-person agency preparing a customer launch. One designer’s private sketches can stay in their individual workspace. Approved artwork, the project brief and the customer handover need a location that another employee can maintain next month. The agency should decide that home before sending permanent customer links.

This is a planning example, not a report of an agency migration. The practical question is what would happen if the original creator were unavailable tomorrow: who can find, edit, share and retain each deliverable?

Moving a folder changes the access question

Google’s shared-drive access guidance explains that moving content can change inherited access. Shared-drive membership and limited-access folders also affect visibility. A successful move is therefore insufficient evidence that the right people can still open the documents.

Prepare a small inventory: file URL, current owner, required internal readers, external readers and intended destination. Review access with the relevant owner. Avoid moving an entire customer archive merely to discover how the permissions behave.

Use a handover table before changing locations

The table proposes locations; it grants no access. Keep actual permission decisions with the responsible administrator. Record the account and Workspace edition as part of the brief, since availability and organisation policy affect the options.

Check continuity from the recipient’s side

In an authorised pilot, use a harmless document and a representative internal collaborator. Verify the new location, editing rights, retained links and external access where permitted. Include one person who should not have access and confirm that the restriction still holds. Record observed results separately from expected results.

Then agree the migration order, communications and recovery plan. Keep the Google Drive profile alongside the wiki, drive and chat guide when deciding where finished knowledge should live. Searchability, ownership and access are related, but none automatically proves the other two.

Frequently asked questions