My Drive and shared drive user experience after June 1, 2024.

Please note, the user experience described below only applies to individuals with a UW-Madison Google Workspace account that still has a temporary quota and no action has been taken. 

Learn more about Google My Drive and Google Shared Drive.

Learn more about storage changes at the Google Workspace project page. 

User	Feature	Before June 1, 2024	After June 1, 2024
UW-Madison Google Workspace File/Folder Owner	Quota	Temporarily set to the nearest storage usage.	Reduced to the default 25 GB.
	Access to account	No change	No change
	Edit	No change	Full storage message Cannot modify files
	Upload new files	No change	Full storage message Cannot upload new files
Collaborator (includes UW-Madison Google Workspace accounts and external accounts)	Quota	No change	No change
	Access to account	No change	No change
	Edit	No change	Full storage message Cannot modify files owned by an affected UW-Madison Google Workspace account.
	Upload new files	No change	Full storage message Cannot upload new files to a folder owned by an affected UW-Madison Google Workspace account.

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Full storage banners (read-only state)

Read-only UW-Madison Google Workspace account 

Read-only file/folder

Upload new files to a read-only folder

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Recommendations to troubleshoot a read-only account or read-only file/folder.

1. UW-Madison Google Workspace account or Google shared drive manager

As a file owner, there are three recommended options to address a read-only file:

• Submit a long-term storage request
• Move files to a Google shared drive
• Reduce your storage below 25 GB

a. Submit a long-term storage request

Resolve the read-only state by submitting a request for a long-term exception. Once the request is facilitated, the account is restored access to upload new files and modify existing content owned by the account. 

Reminder: Only current UW-Madison faculty, staff, and students are eligible to request a long-term exception.

b. Move files to a Google shared drive.

If a long-term request cannot be processed immediately, an alternative option would be to move the read-only file to a Google shared drive. This step updates the file owner from an individual My Drive account to the shared drive folder. The shared drive folder is not owned by an individual account and is the recommended location for storing shared/collaborative files for file preservation.

Learn how to move a shared file from My Drive to a shared drive.

c. Reduce your storage below 25 GB

• Move files to Google shared drive and/or to another storage provider.

• Delete items that you no longer need.

  • Reminder: Deleted files stay in your trash for 30 days before being permanently deleted. These files will still count towards your quota during this time. To speed up the process and to see your storage decrease, you can permanently delete the files.

2. Collaborators

As a collaborator, there are two recommended options to address a read-only file:

• Contact the file owner
  • View a file/folder owner/creator
• Move files to a Google shared drive

a. Please contact the file or folder creator for assistance if you see the following:

• Cannot edit a file owned by another account due to a full storage message

• New files cannot be uploaded to a folder owned by another account

The file/folder owner will need to submit a request for a long-term exception to resolve this error. Please note, the UW-Madison Google Workspace team is unable to resolve the read-only state without the file/folder creator’s involvement.

  Steps to view a file/folder creator :

1. On the Google Drive homepage select My Drive or a shared drive and look for the file/folder that is in a read-only state.

   

2. To the far right of the file/folder title, look for three dots.

   

3. Click on the three dots, select File Information, and select Details.

   

4. This will expand details of the file/folder to the right of the screen. On the right-side bar, you may need to scroll down to look for information about the creator.

   

5. If the creator is a UW-Madison Google Workspace account, you can hover your cursor over the name and a pop-up may appear with their email address.

b. Move files to a Google shared drive.

If a long-term request cannot be processed immediately, an alternative option would be to move the read-only file to a Google shared drive. This step updates the file owner from an individual My Drive account to the shared drive folder. The shared drive folder is not owned by an individual account and is the recommended location for storing shared/collaborative files for file preservation.

Learn how to move a shared file from My Drive to a shared drive.

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Support

If you need additional assistance, please contact the DoIT Help Desk.