Shortcut behavior if original deleted

[Evan]

With the expansion of shortcuts replacing multiple copies of the same file, what happens to the shortcuts to a file if the original is deleted? 

[remyburger]

If a file is deleted, all shortcuts pointing to that file still exist. And e.g. in the doclist we tell users that the original file got deleted.

We understand that in some cases, having all shortcuts automatically deleted at the same time would be preferable. But overall we believe that such a product behavior would lead to more confusion when collaborating with others. E.g. not knowing what happened to a file or shortcut as it suddenly disappears.

[icrew]

As @remyburger explained, the shortcuts will still exist. To me, personally, this makes a lot of sense, as it's exactly how Windows shortcuts and macOS aliases work, so it should be pretty consistent and familiar for most folks...

[Aleta]

If a shortcut exists even after its original folder/file is deleted, then it is no longer a shortcut, right?  Is it then just a new "copy" of the deleted original file?  Thanks-

[remyburger]

It's still a shortcut, pointing to a file/folder that no longer exists. It's not a copy of the original item. It never was. It's just a symbolic link (that no longer works when the target item gets deleted).

[Aleta]

Okay thanks.  I think I got it, so the shortcut would remain to exist, but is no longer functional.

[icrew]

Exactly. Just like shortcuts or aliases on Windows or MacOS.

[newman]

The shortcut would now have a trash can icon on it.  If you select the shortcut it will take you to the file in the trash. If the file has been deleted from the trash nothing happens when you select the shortcut.

[OSBERG]

I understand keeping the shortcut so people know that it's been deleted. However, what I don't understand is why I can't delete the shortcut. I now have a dead link in my folder that leads to nothing but more confusion for the other participants. A simple option of deleting the shortcut would make sense. If I'm missing something, I would be grateful for any help.

[remyburger]

You cannot delete shortcuts within a Drive folder that belongs to someone else. This is because shortcuts inherit ownership from their parent folder.

[OSBERG]

Ahh, I see. So, even though I created the shortcut it now belongs to the folder it was placed in and can only be deleted by the owner of the folder. Thanks for the info. I really appreciate it.

[adharris]

If there is a shortcut that points to something that no longer exists, is there a way to see where it was pointing to? We had a disgruntled staff member delete several things and no one knows where the original file was actually saved, they just used the shortcut.

[remyburger]

As an admin, you can use the audit and investigation page to run searches related to Drive log events (https://support.google.com/a/answer/4579696) with the corresponding conditions (actor contains, title contains, event is delete) to check what files the user deleted.

Or a different approach is to use the Drive API to get the file id of the file the shortcut was pointing to (via files.list). We don't expose this information via Drive UI today.