Google Shared Drives FAQ

Update June 27, 2023: The deadline to get under the 100 GB cap is extended to July 11, 2023. We ask that you reduce storage below 100 GB for any Shared Drives you manage by the morning of July 11, 2023, at which time the 100 GB quota will be applied to all Shared Drives. The files in any Shared Drive over 100 GB on July 11, 2023 will become read-only and further uploads and document creation will be blocked until storage in the drive is under 100 GB.

  • Google Workspace Shared Drives have a 100 GB per drive storage limit. If you manage a Shared Drive over 100 GB, you will need to reduce the storage to under 100 GB by June 30 July 11, 2023. Any drive over 100 GB will become read-only at that time.
  • Managers of Shared Drives have a limit of 200 GB across all their Shared Drives. Accounts over the 200 GB limit will not be able to create new Shared Drives until they are back under that cap.
  • Shared Drives are reserved for official university administrative, academic or research data. As such, personal data should not be stored in Shared Drives and should be removed immediately.
  • All Shared Drives must have at least one active (non-suspended, non-alumni) CWRU manager. Members of Shared Drives that do not have an active manager or have a manager not using a CWRU account (e.g. a gmail.com address) will be notified that an active CWRU manager must be set or the drive will be set to read-only in 30 days and deleted in 90 days.

Use the UTech Shared Drive Tool to:

  • See a list of the Shared Drives you can access that do not have an active CWRU manager.
  • See a list of Shared Drives you manage that are over the 100 GB limit. The storage used in each of those drives will be listed.
  • Find out if you manage Shared Drives with a combined storage over 200 GB. If you do, all of your Shared Drives will be listed along with the storage used in each.
  • Go to drive.google.com
  • Click on "Shared drives"
  • Click on a specific Shared Drive to select it
  • Click the information button in the upper right (circle with an "i" in the middle)
  • Click the "Details" tab
  • The storage used will be listed

If you are not able to reduce the storage of a Shared Drive to under 100 GB, there are other similar storage options with larger quotas. The two most similar to Google Shared Drives are institutional folders in Box and SharePoint sites in Microsoft 365. Find out more about other cloud storage options.

UTech can move a Shared Drive to a SharePoint site on your behalf. Contact the UTech Service at 216.368.4357 or help@case.edu to request a consultation on a data transfer.

You can move a Shared Drive to Box using Google Takeout. See our Google to Box migration guide.

If your data is research related, Research Computing has storage options for both active and archival/cold data. Contact the UTech Service at 216.368.4357 or help@case.edu to request a consultation with Research Computing.

If you are a faculty or staff member and need more that 100 GB of storage in a single Google Shared Drive or more than 200 GB across all of your Shared Drives, you can put in a purchasing request at UTech's Google Workspace purchasing request form.

  • Go to drive.google.com
  • Click on "Shared drives"
  • Right-click on a specific Shared Drive and select "View members" or "Manage members"
  • If you have the ability to manage members, a window will open that will allow you to add, remove or change the permissions of people with access to the drive
  • If a Shared Drive no longer has an active manager, contact the UTech Service Desk to request that a manager be added
  • You need to be a manager of a Shared Drive to delete it. If a Shared Drive no longer has an active manager, contact the UTech Service Desk to request that a manager be added.
  • Go to drive.google.com
  • Click on "Shared drives"
  • Double click on a Shared Drive to open it
  • The Shared Drive needs to be empty. Move any files out of the Shared Drive you need to keep (see below) and delete the rest.
  • Once empty, click the down-facing arrow next to the name of the Shared Drive at the top of the page and select "Delete shared drive"
  • Go to drive.google.com
  • Click on "Shared drives"
  • Double click on a Shared Drive to open it
  • Click on files and folders to select them
  • Right-click on any selected file or folder and select "Move to"
  • Browse to the new save location
  • Click the "Move" button

The likely cause is that you are a manager of Shared Drives with combined storage over the 200 GB limit across all drives. Reduce your storage within your Shared Drives to under 200 GB and you will automatically be able to create Shared Drives again. Contact the UTech Service Desk at 216.368.4357 or help@case.edu for further assistance