Google Drive Mapping to Desktop Drive

[Padate]

Hello, what are the best practices for mapping shared Google Drive drives to local disks? I know drive for desktop, but we are having some issues implementing it, such as share drive won't be mapped on user if they are not a member but have only folder level access and 'shared with me' cannot be mapped - I just started planning this mapping, the goal is to make it convenient for our users by eliminating the need to open drive on web client frequently. Are there any videos, links, tutorials, or tools? thank you very much

[Marcin_Milewski]

Hi @Padate,

Google Drive for desktop can work in two modes: streaming (only the cache is stored on the computer drive) and mirroring (Drive is mapped, and files are being kept on both Google Drive and the computer drive). You can learn about the differences from this article.

For the deployment of the Drive for Desktop instructions, you can refer to this article. It describes how to enable the service in the admin console and install the client for the end users (incl. silent installation). You might be interested in changing the mapping location or auto-start settings.  For these you can find available advanced options in this resource.

As you mentioned 'shared with me' won't be mapped using this client. However if the user adds a shortcut of the file that has been shared to the personal drive these will start syncing.

Hope this helps,
Best,
Marcin

[Padate]

Hi Marcin,

I'm not really sure if Drive for Desktop will meet our needs because we want to designate our shared drive as a specific department, like M: Marketing, and we want to map it to each user's computer drive so that users can only access certain folders of the shared drive and not all of its files.

Since "My Drive" may be mapped to a computer disk similarly to "Shared Drive," there is now a workaround. As you indicated, we can share the folder to the user so that it goes to their "shared with me" and build a shortcut from "shared with me" to "My Drive."

However, as the number of users and storage space on the drive grow, it will become more difficult to use. In addition, users will need to create shortcuts for all shared folders with them, which will add to the complexity.

Additionally, I tested it and found that in order for them to add and edit files on their computer drive, users needs to have 'Content Manager' access.

I want to know if there are any other options, including third parties.

Thank you

[sydney_bilodeau]

Hi Marcin, 

I'm experiencing this issue but need a shared folder to show up on desktop drive. Shortcuts seem to work for single files, but not folders and for design files I need to have a local folder acccessible via shortcut OR showing up as a shared folder to favorite.

For context, I am working on a mac. Moving the folder to a new drive is not an option as it's shared freelance work. This is a huge issue for version control and accurate communication and workflow.

[PeekyLizard]

Folder shortcuts show up as a ".lnk" file. You can open the folder and see the files inside like any other folder. But it's just that the location of the folder shown is not grouped with the other folders. It's instead placed among the files. You can sort alphabetically and find your folder

[StephenHind]

@Padate 

If you want  to "fake" a network drive with a particular letter to a specific path then you can do this in Windows using the subst command

For example, to map the C:\Folder\Documents folder to the P: drive, you would use the following command:

subst p: \\\localhost\c$\Folder\Documents

[Padate]

@StephenHind 

The same restriction applies; we are unable to map the network drive (Google Drive - Shared Drive), as users are not members because we just need them to have access to a few specific folders.

If you are not a member, the shared drive will not show up on your computer's drive in Google drive for Desktop.

[StephenHind]

@Padate you have two possible solutions to this:

1. Make a Shared Drive to store these folders with looser permissions and then share the Shared Drive and make shortcuts in the original locations to the moved folders in the original Shared Drives
2. The same but the other way around: make a new Shared Drive with shortcuts in to the folders to their current locations.

Either way you will then have a Shared Drive you can give any letter to using the Windows subst command and then the user can navigate ti the shortcut target - here's a screenshot showin exactly that:

As you can see we have a Shared Drive called "Steegle Clients" (top Windows explorer) that offers Shortcuts to various locations in other Shared Drives and the bottom Windows explorer shows it's mapped to X:

The key to using Shared Drives is having lots of Shared Drives rather than a massive, difficult-to-manage folder hierarchy.  With Shared Drives you're replacing clicking through lots of subfolders with scrolling up and down lots of Shared Drives, and shortcuts help you get to the deeper buried folders.