Google Shared Drives (previously called Team Drives) are shared spaces where teams can store and share their files and folder.

Unlike files in My Drive, files in Team Drive belong to the team instead of an individual. Even if members leave, the files stay exactly where they are so your team can continue to share information and get work done.

Google Team Drives is available on G Suite Enterprise, G Suite Business, or G Suite for Education editions. If you can’t use Team Drives, contact your G Suite administrator.

Why use Google Team Drives?

People left organizations. When this happened, a G Suite administrator transferred ownership of Google Drive files from the person leaving to a new owner. These files ended up in a folder stored on the Google Drive of the new owner. If—or when—that person left, the transfer happened again, to another new owner.

Second, people rearranged files. These people moved files from one folder to another. Sometimes they even moved files to the trash. This rearranging of files was all well and good, until someone did it with the files and folders inside shared folders. Then, those files were rearranged for everyone causing mess and confusion.

Team Drives solve both of the above problems for organizations that use G Suite. A Team Drive provides a place to put files owned by the team so that when a person leaves, any files they’ve placed on a Team Drive remain. A Team Drive also allows an administrator to control who may move files, so files remain in expected locations.