Shared Drives are a convenient way to share files and project folders between Google accounts. The Miami community uses this Google service to share documents in student organizations, within and between departments, and more. The advantage lies in having a single place to store documents and files, instead of those files being tied to a single member of the community. In this way, when members leave Miami, those files are preserved. This is an important part of our business continuity strategy.

Due to the storage limitations from Google, however, the Shared Drive service will be undergoing some changes along with the rest of our Drive services.

Shared Drives will be limited to faculty and staff

The Shared Drive service will be limited to faculty and staff. As of May 15, 2023, students are no longer able to create Shared Drives.

Faculty and staff retain the ability to create Shared Drives, and may invite students to participate in those drives. Faculty advisors for student organizations may create a Shared Drive for their charges.

Please note: We will not be deleting any existing Shared Drives that are currently being used by Miami students or ones that were previously created by students. The deadline of May 15 is simply when we will be removing the ability for students to create new Shared Drives.

Students continue to collaborate

Even though students are not able to create Shared Drives, the strong culture of collaboration and sharing continues on. Everyone is still able to share files created and stored in their My Drive (personal Google space).

Students are still able to share files out of their My Drives and collaborate out of Shared Drives that have been previously shared with them.

Why the change?

We implemented this policy to eliminate orphaned data created as students leave Miami. As students create Shared Drives and then matriculate away from Miami, their Google accounts will be deleted, effectively abandoning those Shared Drives. This leaves a good amount of unattended data in our domain. Removing the Shared Drive service from student use will resolve this issue for future generations of graduated students.

I am a student. How does this impact me?

We did not delete any existing Shared Drives managed by currrent Miami students. You may continue to use any Shared Drives you have created prior to May 15; you simply won’t be able to create any new drives. However, when you are no longer affiliated with Miami, we will delete those drives. You will receive advance notice of this deletion.

It is recommended that you remove personal files from any Shared Drives you manage. If you are the owner of a Shared Drive associated with a student organization, please make sure that when you leave Miami, there will be a current Miami community member (current student or faculty advisor) in charge of the Shared Drive.

Shared Drive Storage Quotas

For Faculty and Staff members, upon creation, Shared Drives will have a quota of 100GB. Upon request, higher quotas will be available. There will be a documented process for requesting an increase of your Shared Drive space. It will be shared here when it becomes available.