Know the Difference Between Google Drive & Shared Drive
Many people confuse Google Drive and Shared Drive. How different these two are, and when to use them. I will explain everything by comparing Google Drive vs Share Drive. So, start by understanding both topics.
Google Drive provides youwith two different features: My Drive and Shared Drive. My Drive is for storing personal content that you want to share. ShareDrive is a shared space where an organization or teams own the files, which are shared by multiple people. To understand the features, below I created a table that explains the difference between Google Drive and Shared Drive.
Google Drive Vs Shared Drive – Features Comparison
| Feature | Google Drive (My Drive) | Shared Drive |
|---|---|---|
| Ownership | All the files in My Drive are owned by individual users. | The organization or team owns the files. |
| Ideal For | Personal users, freelancers, and individuals work. | Teams, departments, and businesses. |
| Available On | It is available to all Google accounts: free and Google Workspace. | It is only available in Google Workspace. |
| File Ownership After User Leaves | If not transferred, the file will be lost. | Here, the file remains in the Shared Drive |
| Permission Settings | My Drive uses file or folder-level sharing. | Role-based access is used for permission. Like Manager, Contributor, Viewer, etc. |
| Collaboration | It provides you with limited collaboration. | For ongoing team collaboration, the Shared Drive is good. |
| Data Security | The security measures depend on the user settings. | It gives you centralized security policies. |
| Sharing with External Users | You can easily share with external users. | Only the admin can control or restrict sharing to external users. |
| How to Access the Files? | Through file sharing. | Based on role and membership. |
| Flexibility in Migration | Users can easily migrate personal files. | Need permission to move the files. |
This is the comparative table to help you understand the feature differences between them. To choose which Drive is suitable for you, I have explained the usage of this below.
When to Use My Drive?
For personal cloud storage space, My Drive is perfect for you. If you are working on the files individually, or if you are in these scenarios. You should use My Drive.
- If the files are completely owned by you or under your control. But remember, the files in My Drive may be deleted when you leave the organization.
- For work-in-progress documents that are not yet ready for a wider team or project-wide visibility.
- To organize personal folders and sub-folders that you need to access regularly.
- You can use the Google Drive mobile app to scan the physical receipts or documents directly into My Drive as searchable PDFs.
Scenarios Where Shared Drive is Used
If you are working on team or organization files, the Shared Drive will be the most suitable for you.
- A specific group or department that is working on the long term.
- Those documents that must remain with the company even if the original creator leaves the organization.
- Shared Drive is used when you want to access the project history and relevant files for a new team.
- To store a large amount of data, use the Shared Drive, where you can securely save organization data.
- When you need to control the access level of a large set of data. This Drive will help you.
These points help you to decide which one is better for you Gogole Drive vs Sshared Drive. But, after selecting the correct option, several users, whether from personal or work account face challenges in file management, ownership confusion, etc. To tackle them, I have mentioned the points.
Common Mistakes that You Should Avoid When Using Google Drive or Share Drive
- One of the most common mistakes is that employees keep the important company files in their My Drives. Which is very risky because if the employee leaves, their roles change, or deletes their account. So, keep your business data in the Shared Drive or transfer the ownership to prevent data loss.
- For team collaboration, Shared Drive is the best, but it is not always necessary. Some users move the data into the Shared Drive without thinking. Personal drafts, temporary files, or user-specific documents belong to My Drive. So, move them to resolve clutter, permission confusion, and reduced productivity.
- In some cases, users often move their My Drive data by downloading and re-uploading it. This method is simple, but there are chances of losing your data, issues with data formatting, etc. To prevent these problems, you can use the SysTools Google Drive Migration Tool that can carefully migrate the complete MY Drive data to another without any issues.
- While sharing your file, users ignore the file ownership. This is the most common issue in the sharing procedure. Thus, whenever you are sharing your files, make sure you are the owner of the file.
Conclusion
From this article, you are no longer confused between Google Drive and Shared Drive. Here, I have provided a feature comparison table of Google Drive vs Shared Drive to help you understand. I also provided the scenarios where My Drive is used or Shared Drive. In addition, I also describe the common mistakes you should avoid when using the Drive.