Google Drive Overview

With Google Workspace at PSU, you have two Google Drive options: My Drive and shared drives (formerly known as Team Drives). For information about shared drives, go to Google Shared Drives.

About My Drive

To use Google Drive on your computer, navigate to drive.google.com (recommended) on your browser of choice, or access the desktop version via Self-Service Software. To use Google Drive on your Android device, iPhone, or iPad, open the Google Drive application. Once open, you’ll find:

Files and folders you upload or sync
Google Docs, Sheets, Slides, Forms, and other documents you create

You can use My Drive to edit and manage your files online, or to upload or download files in Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, and Excel formats. For more information on how to download files, reference Google’s Download a File support web page. To learn how to work with Microsoft Office files in Google Drive, reference Google’s Work with Microsoft Office Files support web page.

Set Visibility and Access to Files and Folders

My Drive allows you to share your files with others, while controlling their visibility and access levels. You can control these settings for each individual file or for an entire folder. To learn more about visibility and access settings and how to control them, visit the Google Drive Help article Share files from Google Drive.

By sharing a My Drive folder you can share all of its contents, including any items added to the folder in the future. To share a folder with a group of people, we recommend that you use a Google Groups. You can Create or Manage a Google Group to get started. Once you have a Google Group, follow these steps to create and share a folder:

Navigate to drive.pdx.edu.
Select New, then select New Folder.
Name your folder, then select Create.
Share the folder with your Google Group.

For more information, refer to Google’s Share files from Google Drive support web page.

Send an email to your group with a link to the folder and let them know they should use it to access your group files.

If you have an existing folder on your computer that you'd like to share, you also have the option of dragging and dropping that into your Drive. Google Drive will upload the folder and its contents, after which you can share it with your group like any other folder.

Transfer File Ownership

Google My Drive contents are tied to their owner, so before you leave the University, you should transfer any departmental documents that you own to someone else in the department. For instructions, reference Google’s Make Someone Else the Owner of Your File support web page.

If you prefer to transfer all of your My Drive contents, rather than specific documents, you may submit a Employee Google Drive or Calendar Transfer support form to have the entire Drive transferred.

Google Shared Drives are typically better suited for storing departmental documents as files will be retained even if someone leaves the University.

Google Drive vs. Non-PSU Cloud Storage

Security

The content you store in Google Drive at PSU is protected to a greater degree than files saved in consumer Google Drive or other non-PSU services. Your data is protected under the Oregon University System's (OUS) contract with Google, which ensures that it won't be scanned for advertising or other purposes. For more information regarding data security in Google Workspace for Education at PSU, please reference the Google Workspace for Education Agreement.

When you use other cloud storage providers, you agree to their End User License Agreement (EULA), which may not offer data protection similar to OUS's agreement with Google. For this reason, you should keep University-related material stored in Google Drive at PSU. For more information on when to use your PSU Google account, refer to Odin Accounts Overview.

Space

Google Drive at PSU offers 200 GB of storage space , so you have plenty of room to store your documents, images, and other Files You Can Store in Google Drive. For more information about Google shared drive limitations, refer to Google’s Shared Drive Limits support article.

Integration

Google Drive at PSU ties directly into other Google Workspace apps, such as Gmail, Google Docs, and Google Calendar. The documents, spreadsheets, and presentations you store in Google Drive can be quickly linked to emails or calendar events, and shared with other PSU students, faculty, or staff. Additionally, you can work collaboratively as a team or department on Google Docs stored in Google Drive.

Additional Resources

Google maintains its own support resources for Google Drive, found at the following locations:

Infrastructure and Cloud Applications Team