Troubleshoot shared drives for your users

As an administrator, you can help your organization’s users with shared drive creation, access, and sharing issues.

First, have them review Troubleshoot issues with shared drives, where many common issues are addressed. If those solutions don’t help, try the solutions in this article.

Issues creating or managing shared drives

• User can’t create shared drives
• Manager can't change sharing settings
• Admin can't change sharing settings
• A shared drive has no manager
• A shared drive has no members

Issues accessing files and folders in shared drives

• User can’t access a file in shared drives after it was moved
• User can’t comment on or edit a file in a shared drive
• User can’t access a shared drive, even though they’re a member

Issues moving folders into or out of shared drives

• User can’t move a folder into a shared drive

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Issues creating or managing shared drives

User can’t create shared drives

If a user can’t create shared drives, their license might not support shared drives or that option might be turned off for their organizational unit and not overridden by a configuration group. To check their status:

1. Sign in to your Google Admin console.

   Sign in using your administrator account (does not end in @gmail.com).

2. In the Admin console, go to Menu  DirectoryUsers.
3. Locate your user in the list. If you have many users, click Add a filter and choose a way to narrow the list, such as by their email address.
4. Click the user’s name.
5. Find the Licenses section and confirm that their license is one of the following:

   Supported editions for this feature: Business Standard and Business Plus; Enterprise Standard and Enterprise Plus; Education Fundamentals, Education Standard, Teaching and Learning Upgrade, and Education Plus; Essentials, Enterprise Essentials, and Enterprise Essentials Plus; Nonprofits; G Suite Business. Compare your edition

   If their license doesn't support shared drives, you can change their license. Otherwise, go on to the next step.

6. Make a note of the organizational unit listed under their name and any configuration groups that they belong to.
7. At the left, click AppsGoogle WorkspaceDrive and Docs.
8. Click Sharing settingsShared drive creation.
9. Under Drive and Docs, click the user’s organizational unit.

   If the first box is checked, their organizational unit isn’t allowed to create shared drives.

10. If the user should be able to create shared drives, consider how best to give them permission:
    • If everyone in their organizational unit should be able to create shared drives, uncheck the first box and click Save or Override.
    • If not everyone in their organizational unit should be able to create shared drives, find or create a configuration group that has permission to create shared drives and add the user to the group.

Manager can't change sharing settings

If a user with Manager access to a shared drive can’t change its sharing settings, either their license or an Admin console setting might block them. To check their status:

1. Sign in to your Google Admin console.

   Sign in using your administrator account (does not end in @gmail.com).

2. In the Admin console, go to Menu  DirectoryUsers.
3. Click the user's name.
4. Find the Licenses section and confirm that their license is one of the following:

   Supported editions for this feature: Business Standard and Business Plus; Enterprise Standard and Enterprise Plus; Education Fundamentals, Education Standard, Teaching and Learning Upgrade, and Education Plus; Essentials, Enterprise Essentials, and Enterprise Essentials Plus; Nonprofits; G Suite Business. Compare your edition

   If they have a Business Starter license, they can only reset a sharing setting to allow all.

   If their license doesn't support shared drives setting management, you can change their license. Otherwise, go on to the next step.

5. Make a note of the organizational unit listed under their name and any configuration groups that they belong to.
6. At the left, click AppsGoogle WorkspaceDrive and Docs.
7. Click Sharing settingsShared drive creation.
8. Find the Allow members with manager access to override the settings below option. If the box is unchecked for the user’s organizational unit or configuration group, then they can’t change sharing settings.
9. If the manager should be able to override shared drives default settings, consider how best to give them permission:
   1. If every manager in their organizational unit should be able to update the settings, uncheck the first box and click Save or Override.
   2. If not everyone in their organizational unit should be able to update the settings, find or create a configuration group that has permission to update sharing settings and add the user to the group.

Administrator can't change sharing settings

Check your Google Workspace edition. If you have Business Starter, you can only reset sharing settings to their default of allow all. For example, if you downgraded from another edition to Business Starter, your Admin console might reflect the default sharing settings you had set when you had the other edition. However, new shared drives are unaffected by this setting and all sharing is allowed.

A shared drive has no manager

If a shared drive has no manager, some shared drive actions, such as adding and removing members, are only possible in the admin console. This situation can reduce the effectiveness of the shared drive. To address this issue, make someone a manager or add a new person as a manager:

1. Sign in to your Google Admin console.

   Sign in using your administrator account (does not end in @gmail.com).

2. In the Admin console, go to Menu  AppsGoogle WorkspaceDrive and Docs.
3. Click Manage shared drives.
4. Point to the shared drive and click Manage members.
5. Identify a member who should be a manager, update their access level, and click Save. If no current members should have manager access, add a user and give them manager access. For details, see Manage shared drives as an admin.

A shared drive has no members

If a shared drive has no members, access to files and folders in the shared drive is limited to users who the items were shared with directly. This situation minimizes the ability of users to collaborate on files in the shared drive. To address this issue, add at least one member:

1. Sign in to your Google Admin console.

   Sign in using your administrator account (does not end in @gmail.com).

2. In the Admin console, go to Menu  AppsGoogle WorkspaceDrive and Docs.
3. Click Manage shared drives.
4. Point to the shared drive and click Manage members.
5. Add at least one member, either a user or a group. If you give one user Manager access, they can add other users and groups as members. Otherwise, you must add the users and groups who should have access to all the files. For details, see Manage shared drives as an admin.
6. Find the Allow members with manager access to override the settings below option. If the box is unchecked for the user’s organizational unit, then they can’t change sharing settings.

Issues accessing files and folders in shared drives

User can’t access a file in shared drives after it was moved

To access a file in a shared drive, the user must be a member of the shared drive, have the file shared with them directly, or have the folder that contains the file shared with them directly.

• If the user should have access to that file and all other files and folders in the shared drive, make the user a member of the shared drive.
• If the user only needs access to the one file or folder, ask a manager of the shared drive to share the file with the user.

User can’t comment on or edit a file in a shared drive

1. Ask them to confirm that they have at least Commenter privileges in the shared drive.
2. Confirm that their license supports shared drives (for supported editions, see Set up shared drives for your organization). If not, the user can only view files unless the file is shared with them directly. To find what license they have:
   1. Sign in to your Google Admin console.

      Sign in using your administrator account (does not end in @gmail.com).

   2. In the Admin console, go to Menu  DirectoryUsers.
   3. Locate your user in the list. If you have many users, click Add a filter and choose a way to narrow the list, such as by their email address.
   4. Click the user’s name.
   5. Click Licenses.

For details on shared drive access, see Access for users with licenses that don’t support shared drives.

User can’t access a shared drive, even though they’re a member

As an administrator, you have different ways to prevent access to files based on their content or the person trying to access them. These policies override the sharing settings set for a shared drive or a file or folder in a shared drive. For example, if shared drive settings allow sharing with external users, but other policies don’t, then external users can’t access the files, even if they’re members.

Some policies that can prevent access to a shared drive or file in a shared drive include the following:

1. Your Drive sharing settings might prevent access to a shared drive. If the user should have access, you might be able to assign the shared drive to an organizational unit where sharing with them is allowed.
2. If you set trust rules, they can prevent access to a shared drive.
3. If you set DLP rules, they can prevent access to a specific file.

Issues moving folders into or out of shared drives

User can’t move a folder into a shared drive

A user might not be able to move a folder to a shared drive for the following reasons:

• The folder contains too many files that can’t be moved. In this case, you can try moving the folder for them as an admin.
• The folder contains too many files. Ask them to organize the content into sub-folders and move those instead.
• The move would exceed shared drive limits. Consider creating a different shared drive.

For details, see Move files & folders into shared drives.