Business Starter customers will soon have access to shared drives

What’s changing

Last year, we announced that we’re updating the storage model in Business Starter from per-user storage to pooled storage. Today, we’re excited to share that organizations with Business Starter will officially have access to shared drives starting mid-September.

With this change, Business Starter users will be able to create shared drives and add members, files, and folders. Please note that certain admin-level and security controls—like the ability to control access to the items in a shared drive—will not be included in the fundamental version of shared drives for Business Starter.

Who’s impacted

Admins and end users

Why it’s important

Part of empowering our customers to do their best work means reducing the friction around file sharing and collaboration. Shared drives are a key tool for collaboration—users can store, search, and access their team’s files instantly. Additionally, they offer benefits such as:

Easy discoverability: Less time spent requesting access to files and searching for relevant documents with all of your team’s files in one place. Files are forever: All content stays put — even when collaborators or team members leave, your content won’t. Easy collaboration: Every member of a shared drive can explore and collaborate in the same files. You can also add users outside your team or organization. Accessible anywhere: Regardless of location or device, you can always access the files you need most.

Additional details

When shared drives are made available to Business Starter customers, all users will be able to create shared drives by default. If this default behavior is undesired, admins can update their settings before Business Starter users gain access to the feature starting on September 23, 2024. To restrict this, go to the Admin console > Menu > Apps > Google Workspace > Drive and Docs > Sharing settings > Shared drive creation > turn on “Prevent users in [domain] from creating new shared drives.”

Getting started

Admins: When shared drives are available to Business Starter, admins can use the Admin console to: Add and remove members Change access level of members Restrict moving content externally The following features aren’t available for shared drives in Business Starter: Admins cannot set default settingsBusiness Starter users cannot change settings Visit the Help Center to learn how to set up shared drives for your organization and then allow users to create shared drives. If you need more storage for your organization, consider purchasing additional pooled storage or upgrading your Google Workspace edition to a plan with more storage.Note: Resold customers should contact their reseller to purchase more storage or upgrade their edition. End users: Visit the Help Center to learn more about shared drives.