Shortcuts replacing files and folders stored in multiple locations

[UrquiaM]

Dear community, 

I have seen "Shortcuts replacing files and folders stored in multiple locations" but it is not clear if this only applies to My Drive? Or will it also apply to shared drives?. I have seen in some blogs and comments that the changes have been abrupt and some companies have lost documents, information and other negative consequences. We want to know if we can skip this new feature or see how it will affect our master documents and guidelines. 

Thanks in advance for your help. Best, Urquia 

[StephenHind]

@UrquiaM Google never allowed items stored in a Shared Drive to be stored in multiple places (as the Shared Drive is the owner), so if you're worried about files and folders on a Shared Drive they could only be in that one place.

[UrquiaM]

Hi, @StephenHind thanks for your response. If the files are the same but have a copy in the share drive for diffusion within the organization, does this mean that one of the files is being deleted? We have several docs, sheets, slides, etc with a final version on a shared drive and another version with the same name as a draft or backup. I just read that a lot of companies lost their information, backups, or working docs, which would be a major problem for us. 

[StephenHind]

@UrquiaM 

You've already had a good response from @chris_barrow4 but just in case anything wasn't clear I'll address each point:

If the files are the same but have a copy in the share drive for diffusion within the organization, does this mean that one of the files is being deleted?

As mentioned in my first response files on a Shared Drive have never been allowed to be in multiple locations, so you cannot have a file on Shared Drive that's also somewhere else.  If you believe this to be the case then the files are either:

1. Completely separate files
   or
2. One is a file and one is a shortcut (you can tell if it's a shortcut by the shortcut icon overlaid on the file icon

If you're referring to something from My Drive, and not a Shared Drive, then nothing is getting deleted: there is only one file and it may appear in multiple parent folders all that's going to happen is the file will stay in its original parent folder and removed from all other parent folders and in the other parent folders a shortcut to the file is placed instead, so it looks the same but instead of the actual file being in the other parent folders there's a shortcut that points to the file directly.

We have several docs, sheets, slides, etc with a final version on a shared drive and another version with the same name as a draft or backup.

These are completely separate files and unaffected by the upcoming changes to shortcuts.

I just read that a lot of companies lost their information, backups, or working docs, which would be a major problem for us.

Nothing is getting deleted, so nothing can be lost, so if there are reports of files going missing then this means the companies don't know where the file's original location was or the file was never owned by the company and therefore may have lost access, so the company needs to look at how it's using Drive to make sure this doesn't happen as it could have happened in various other ways without Google getting involved.

From your further explanation (a published file stored in a Shared Drive and working drafts elsewhere) these are completely separate files and you will not see any change in how you work with this scenario.

[chris_barrow4]

@UrquiaM to provide some insight on how file storage worked for Google Drive, I will go back in time a bit. Files stored in Drive did not exist in folders in the traditional sense most people are used too, To make it seem like they were in a folder they had a label applied (They used t be called collections) a bit like emails in Gmail where an email can have multiple labels and appear in multiple labels (Folders).

The upshot of this is that you were able to have the same file appear in multiple folders, this is could cause confusion as to where the original location was and what permissions to expect.

What the update has done is to make the original location,  the location of the file and all other locations a shortcut. 

You can still move files to a new location, it that location contains a shortcut to the file you will see both there. However you can delete the shortcut without deleting the file.

Via The Google Admin panel, you can change the behaviour of how shortcuts work for your domain. 

I hope this gives you some insight, the link you have already seen provides some good information on finding files and folders that were replaced.

[UrquiaM]

Thank you both @StephenHind and @chris_barrow4 for your detailed responses. I will discuss this with our teams and hopefully, we will have a clear path.