Weeding Google Drive Guidance and advice for managing your files with Google (September 2018) Disclaimer: Google is continually developing and updating its G-Suite products for Education (of which Google Drive is a part). Therefore, whilst this guidance is correct at the time of writing, over time the way Google works will change. If you notice that Google is no longer functioning as described below, please email recordsmanagement@port.ac.uk and we will investigate the change and, if appropriate, update this guidance. Contents 1. Introduction and Overview of Google Drive... 1 1.1. My Drive... 2 1.2. Team Drives... 2 1.3. Shared with Me... 2 2. Managing My Drive... 2 2.1. Deleting a document or folder that you own and haven t shared... 2 2.2. Deleting a document or folder that you own, but have shared... 2 2.3. Declaring a document which has become a record from My Drive, into a corporate system... 3 2.4. Transferring My Drive documents into a Team Drive... 3 2.5. Transferring ownership of a record to a colleague... 3 3. Managing Team Drives... 4 3.1. Deleting a document or folder from a Team Drive where I have Full Access... 4 3.2. Deleting a document or folder from a Team Drive where I do not have Full Access... 4 3.3. Declaring a document which has become a record from a Team Drive, into a corporate system... 4 3.4. Closing a Team Drive... 4 4. Managing Items Shared with Me... 5 4.1. Deleting my access to a document or folder that was shared with me... 5 1. Introduction and Overview of Google Drive Google Drive is for document storage only, although documents can take many formats (word processing documents, spreadsheets, presentations, A/V files etc). There are two document storage areas in Google Drive. These are your My Drive and your Team Drives. In addition, there is a section called Shared with Me. Please Note: If you have something which constitutes a University Record, it should be stored in the appropriate corporate database (e.g. SCMS, Pure, itrent, efin, InTend etc) or on the erecords system (formerly EDM). See 2.3 and 3.3 below. 1 P a g e
1.1. My Drive The simplest way to think of it is that My Drive equates to your N:Drive, in that it is personal to you and linked to your University IT account. Just like your N:Drive, if you leave UoP and your account is closed, My Drive will also be closed. However, unlike your N:Drive, you can choose to allow others access to either a single document or a folder of documents held on My Drive. If you leave UoP and do not follow the Staff Access to Facilities and Leavers Procedure (http://www2.port.ac.uk/accesstoinformation/policies/), then those colleagues will lose their access to the documents you shared with them when your account is closed. 1.2. Team Drives Team Drives are most closely equitable to shared K:drive folders. However, Team Drives can be shared with anyone (they don t have to be in your team). The Team Drive does not belong to a single individual, so the information is not dependent on any one individual s account being kept open. In general, access is controlled at the Team Drive level and cannot be refined at the folder or document level. 1.3. Shared with Me This is where you will see documents or folders, which sit within other people s My Drive, but which have been shared with you. It is possible (even desirable) to file these shared documents under category folders in your own My Drive, for ease of finding them. However, filing them in My Drive does not make them yours. They remain under the control of the sharer s My Drive account. You can tell whether you are looking at a shared file, because you will not be shown as the owner. 2. Managing My Drive 2.1. Deleting a document or folder that you own and haven t shared Right click the item you wish to delete and select Remove. This will move the item (and any other items nested below it in My Drive) to your Bin. It is important to note that, unlike Team Drive Bins and Mail Bins, the My Drive Bin will not be automatically emptied after 30 days. This means that, if you do not pro-actively empty the My Drive Bin, any files you have removed from My Drive will remain in the bin indefinitely, where they will be subject to data protection and freedom of information legislation, so may have to be disclosed. 2.2. Deleting a document or folder that you own, but have shared If you have shared the item, the process is the same as outlined at 2.1 above. However, once you have removed the item from My Drive, if anyone with whom you have shared the item tries to access it, they will get a one-time only prompt to create a copy of the item for themselves. The options they will be given will vary depending on the level of access you gave them: VIEW access can take a copy of the item COMMENT access can take a copy and also copy across any comments EDIT access can take a copy, including comments and choose to share the item with the same people with whom you had previous shared it 2 P a g e
Therefore, you should be mindful that removing a shared My Drive document or folder does not necessarily guarantee its removal from Google. If anyone with whom you have shared the item opts to take a copy, the item will still exist in their My Drive and will be subject to data protection and freedom of information legislation, so may have to be disclosed. 2.3. Declaring a document which has become a record from My Drive, into a corporate system Right click the document and select Download. This will download the document to your computer and, where applicable, convert it from a Google format to a Microsoft format (e.g. Google Doc to MS Word). If conversion takes place, it is advisable to open the converted file to check that no formatting has been lost or altered in the conversion process. Once you are happy with your downloaded file, you can drag/drop it into the erecords system or import it into another corporate system, as appropriate. It is now declared as a record. Once the document is safely declared as a record it is important to go back and delete both the copy downloaded onto your computer and the original in My Drive. The only exception to this rule would be where you are constantly updating the document in My Drive and declaration is merely capturing a periodic (weekly or monthly) snapshot in time for our records. However, in such a case, it is strongly recommended that you use a Team Drive for such documents, not My Drive. 2.4. Transferring My Drive documents into a Team Drive To move a document from My Drive into a Team Drive you will require either Full Access or Edit Access to the Team Drive. If you do not have this, you can request to be given this level of access from a member who does have full access. To find out who has full access to your Team Drive, right click the Team Drive title and select View Members. Once you have the correct permissions, simply drag/drop the document from My Drive onto the Team Drive title. It can then be moved around inside the Team Drive in the same way. Please note that transferring a document to a Team Drive will replace any existing access permissions on that document with the default access permissions for the Team Drive. Therefore, you should check to ensure that it is appropriate for those with access to the Team Drive to see the content of your document before you transfer it. 2.5. Transferring ownership of a record to a colleague If you are leaving the University and have documents in My Drive which will be required by your colleagues after you leave, there are several things you should consider: First, is your document actually a record? If so, then you should declare it into the appropriate corporate system (see 2.3 above). If your document is not a record, would it be better held in a Team Drive? Generally, if more than one other colleague needs on-going access to it, the answer would be yes, so please follow the advice given in 2.4 above. Please note that if you need to set up a new Team Drive to hold your documents, then you should always ensure that at least one other colleague is given Full Access to the Team Drive, or they will be unable to manage the files once you have left. If neither of these options is appropriate for your document, you can transfer the ownership to another individual. To do this, right click the document title, select Share and then Advanced. You will then be able to add the individual and change their access permissions to Is The Owner. You will get a message to confirm that ownership will be transferred and you will no longer be able to manage the document. 3 P a g e
You can transfer multiple documents at once by using ctrl + left click to highlight more than one document, then right click the highlighted area and follow the transfer process above. However, please note that if you transfer a folder to a new owner, it does not automatically transfer ownership of the documents within the folder. Ownership of these would need to be transferred separately. 3. Managing Team Drives 3.1. Deleting a document or folder from a Team Drive where I have Full Access If you are a member of the Team Drive with Full Access you can manage the documents and folders within it on behalf of the other members. Right click the title of the item you want to delete and select Delete for Everyone. This will move the item to the Team Drive Bin, where it will remain for 30 days before being permanently deleted from Google. During this time the items are still subject to data protection and freedom of information legislation, so may have to be disclosed. As a member with full access you will be able to view the Team Drive Bin from within you own Bin, by using a drop-down menu to switch between your available bins. 3.2. Deleting a document or folder from a Team Drive where I do not have Full Access If you do not have full access to the Team Drive, you will not have permission to delete items. Therefore you will need to request that a member who does have full access deletes the items that the team no longer requires. To find out who has full access to your Team Drive, right click the Team Drive title and select View Members. 3.3. Declaring a document which has become a record from a Team Drive, into a corporate system Right click the document and select Download. This will download the document to your computer and, where applicable, convert it from a Google format to a Microsoft format (e.g. Google Doc to MS Word). If conversion takes place, it is advisable to open the converted file to check that no formatting has been lost or altered in the conversion process. Once you are happy with your downloaded file, you can drag/drop it into the erecords system or import it into another corporate system, as appropriate. It is now declared as a record. Once the document is safely declared as a record it is important to go back a delete both the copy downloaded onto your computer and the original in your Team Drive. The only exception to this rule would be where you are constantly updating the document in your Team Drive and declaration is merely capturing a periodic (weekly or monthly) snapshot in time for our records. 3.4. Closing a Team Drive If you no longer require your Team Drive, you must close it down. This can be done by any member of the Team Drive with Full Access. To find out who has full access to your Team Drive, right click the Team Drive title and select View Members. The first step in closing the site is to decide whether any of the documents within it need to be declared as a record (see 3.3 above). Once you have declared any records, you will need to delete any remaining documents and folders so that the Team Drive is empty. At this point, right click on the Team Drive title and select Delete Team Drive. If this is still greyed out, then you have not fully cleared the Team Drive. 4 P a g e
4. Managing Items Shared with Me 4.1. Deleting my access to a document or folder that was shared with me If you no longer require access to a document or folder that has been shared with you, right click the title and select Remove. This will remove your access to that item, but it will not delete the item from Google. Only the owner can do that. 5 P a g e