Google Drive shared drives: ownership, access, sharing settings and retention
For team leads, office administrators and anyone made a Manager of a Google Workspace shared drive. Prerequisite: 'Google Workspace everyday: Drive, Docs, Gmail and Calendar' (My Drive versus shared drives and basic sharing). This course goes further: choosing access levels so the right people can edit, move and delete; predicting who gains or loses access when files and folders move; setting a shared drive's sharing restrictions and limited-access folders; recovering deleted items within the trash window; and how Google Vault retention rules and holds keep or purge Drive data, which your Workspace administrator controls. Features depend on your Google Workspace edition and your administrator's settings.
- Level
- Intermediate
- Length
- About 105 minutes
- Contents
- 5 lessons · final exam
- Status
- Published · updated 10 Oct 2026
- Google Workspace
Skills you'll practise
- Choose the shared drive access level that fits each member's job, including who can delete files and move folders
- Predict who gains or loses access when files and folders move into, within or out of a shared drive
- Configure a shared drive's sharing restrictions and limited-access folders to match the team's needs
- Recover deleted shared drive files within the trash window and know when to ask an administrator
- Explain how Google Vault retention rules and holds keep or purge shared drive data, and when to involve the Workspace administrator
Course outline
- 1.Choose the shared drive access level that fits each member's jobLesson · 20 min
- 2.Predict who gains or loses access when files and folders moveLesson · 20 min
- 3.Configure a shared drive's sharing restrictions and limited-access foldersLesson · 18 min
- 4.Recover deleted shared drive files within the trash windowLesson · 12 min
- 5.Explain how Google Vault retention rules and holds keep or purge shared drive dataLesson · 15 min
- 6.Google Drive shared drives: ownership, access, sharing settings and retention: knowledge checkKnowledge check · 14 questions
- 7.Google Drive shared drives: ownership, access, sharing settings and retention: practical exerciseKnowledge check · 1 question
- 8.Final exam10 questions · passing it completes the course, so people who already know the material can test out
Sources it draws on
The lessons and questions are written from these references, so learners can go back to the original.
- Google Workspace Learning Center: How file access works in shared drives (access level table, restrictions, moving content)
- Google Workspace Learning Center: What are shared drives?
- Google Workspace Learning Center: Create a shared drive (adding members and choosing access levels)
- Google Workspace Learning Center: Shared drive limits in Google Drive
- Google Workspace Admin Help: Manage shared drives as an admin
- Google Vault Help: How retention works
See it with your own jobs and topics
Tell us about your team and we'll walk you through setup, from choosing jobs to your first skills check.