Google Workspace Support Pro: Drive and Shared Drives

What's inside

1. Level 1: Google Drive on One PageFree
   Learners map what the user sees (My Drive, Shared with me, shared drives, Drive for desktop, Docs editors) to what sits behind it (the Workspace tenant, organisational units, licences and Admin console policy), and learn that this course is independent of Google and that every screen, role and limit it names must be checked against Google's current documentation and dated.
2. Level 2: My Drive vs Shared Drives: Who Owns WhatFree
   Learners pin down how ownership and control differ between My Drive, where a person owns each file, and shared drives, where the organisation owns the files and the member access levels (Manager, Content manager, Contributor, Commenter, Viewer) decide what each person can do. They also see why this difference sits behind most leaver, deletion and move tickets.
3. Level 3: The Smallest Admin Role for Each Support Job
   Learners match each Drive support job (reading settings, managing shared drives, transferring ownership, restoring data, reading the audit log, checking storage) to the smallest prebuilt or custom admin role and privilege that allows it, and verify those privileges on Google's current documentation.
4. Level 4: Reading Drive and Docs Settings by OU and Group
   Learners read the Admin console Drive and Docs settings (sharing, shared drive creation, Drive for desktop, features and applications) as support reads them: working out which setting applies to which organisational unit or group, whether it is inherited or overridden, and what effect it has on a given user. All checks are read-only.
5. Level 5: Setting Up Drive for Desktop for a User
   Learners install Drive for desktop and sign a user in on Windows and macOS, choose between streaming and mirroring for each location, and check beforehand whether the tenant allows Drive for desktop and which options it sets for that user's OU.
6. Level 6: Creating a Shared Drive and Its Settings
   Learners create a shared drive for a team (or have the right person create it if policy restricts who can), then read and set the drive's own settings, such as external access, access by non-members and who can download or copy, within the limits tenant policy allows.
7. Level 7: Managing Shared Drive Members and Access Levels
   Learners add, change and remove people and groups as shared drive members, give each the lowest access level that does the job, and understand how membership through a group and file-level sharing combine into what someone can actually do.
8. Level 8: Sharing Files and Folders for Users
   Learners set up sharing on files and folders: people and groups with Viewer, Commenter or Editor access, general access link settings, target audiences, and the per-file options to stop editors resharing or to stop viewers downloading and copying, all within what policy allows.
9. Level 9: External Sharing as Policy Allows
   Learners read the tenant's external sharing policy (allowed, warned, limited to trusted or allowlisted domains, or blocked) for a user's OU, then share with outside people only as that policy permits, including visitor sharing for people without a Google account where it is turned on.
10. Level 10: Transferring Ownership of My Drive Files
    Learners transfer ownership of files in My Drive in two ways: by the owner, through the share dialog's request-and-accept flow, and by an admin, through the Admin console's data transfer for a user. They cover what moves, what doesn't, and where the transferred files end up.
11. Level 11: Handling a Leaver's Files
    Learners follow a safe order for a leaver's Drive data: suspend or keep the account, list what they own and what is shared, transfer files or move them into a shared drive, deal with retention or holds with the right owner, and only then remove the licence or delete the account. Each step has a check that it worked.
12. Level 12: Checking Storage and Pooled Limits
    Learners read a user's storage use across Drive, Gmail and Photos, read the organisation's pooled storage and any storage limits set for an OU or group in the Admin console, and explain which quota a shared drive's files count against.
13. Level 13: Using Version History for Users
    Learners use version history in Google Docs, Sheets and Slides (named versions, restoring a version, making a copy of an old one) and the separate Manage versions feature for uploaded non-Google files, including which versions are kept and for how long.
14. Level 14: Setting Up Office File Editing
    Learners set users up to work with Microsoft Office files: opening and editing them in Office editing mode without converting them, choosing when to convert to Google format, and opening them in desktop Office through Drive for desktop. They also check the tenant settings that affect these options.
15. Level 15: Fault: Access Denied and Request Access
    Learners work the 'You need access' fault from start to finish. Likely causes, in order: the wrong signed-in account, the file was never shared with them, access was removed or expired, a policy blocks access across the organisation or OU, or the file was deleted. The lesson covers the check for each, the fix, how to confirm it worked and what to tell the user.
16. Level 16: Fault: Seeing What Someone Can Actually Reach
    Learners handle 'I can't see what my colleague sees' and 'who has access to this?' tickets, using read-only checks: the share dialog, shared drive and group membership, the Admin console's user and shared drive views, and, where the support role and edition allow it, the investigation tool. From these they work out what a person can actually reach and why.
17. Level 17: Fault: A Shared Link That Won't Open
    Learners diagnose a link that doesn't work. Likely causes, in order: signed into a personal account or the wrong one, the link setting is restricted, link sharing is limited to the organisation, the item was moved or deleted, or a browser or extension is blocking it. Each cause has a check, a fix, a way to confirm and a user reply.
18. Level 18: Fault: External Sharing Blocked
    Learners diagnose 'I can't share this with a supplier'. Likely causes, in order: the OU's external sharing policy, a domain not on the allowlist, the shared drive's own settings, a data protection rule, or the recipient's own organisation blocking access. They learn the check for each and where support's fix ends and a policy request begins.
19. Level 19: Fault: External Recipient Can't Open a File
    Learners troubleshoot an outside person who has been shared a file but can't open it. Likely causes, in order: they are signed into a different Google account, they have no Google account and visitor sharing is off, the verification code has expired, their own tenant has restrictions, or access was limited to a target audience. Each cause has a check, a fix, confirmation and a reply.
20. Level 20: Fault: Can't Edit, Move or Delete in a Shared Drive
    Learners diagnose shared drive members who can't edit, move, delete or save through Drive for desktop. Likely causes, in order: their access level (for example Contributor or Commenter), access only through a group, file-level restrictions, drive-level settings, or a move across drives that needs rights at both ends. Each cause has a check, a fix, confirmation and a user reply.
21. Level 21: Orphaned Files and Lost Parent Folders
    You learn to find files that seem to have disappeared after their parent folder was unshared, deleted or given a new owner, and to put them back where people can reach them.
22. Level 22: Faults After Moving Files Into a Shared Drive
    You learn to work through the faults that follow a move from My Drive into a shared drive, such as a blocked move, access lost after the move and links that stop working.
23. Level 23: Drive for Desktop Sign-in and Account Faults
    You learn to diagnose Drive for desktop when it will not sign in, signs in to the wrong account, or is blocked by device or app policy.
24. Level 24: Sync Stuck, Conflicts and Unsynced Changes
    You learn to handle Drive for desktop when it is stuck syncing, makes conflicting copies, or holds edits it never uploaded, without losing the user's work.
25. Level 25: Cache, Disk Space and Missing Drive Letter Faults
    You learn to fix Drive for desktop faults on the device itself: a cache that fills the disk, a missing virtual drive or drive letter, and offline files that won't open.
26. Level 26: Storage Full and Pooled Quota Faults
    You learn to diagnose 'storage full' errors by telling apart a user's own limit, the organisation's pooled storage and a shared drive limit, and to explain what counts towards each.
27. Level 27: Office File Conversion and Editing Faults
    You learn to troubleshoot Microsoft Office files in Drive: duplicates from conversion, edit mode that won't open, lost formatting and clashes when two people edit at once.
28. Level 28: Recovering Work From Version History and Trash
    You learn to get back overwritten or deleted work yourself, using version history and the user's or shared drive's trash, and to know the limits of each.
29. Level 29: Admin Restore for Users and Shared Drives
    You learn to use admin restore when the trash has already been emptied. That covers restoring a user's Drive data by date range, and restoring a deleted shared drive, within Google's 25-day window as of November 2026.
30. Level 30: Building Evidence From the Drive Audit Log
    You learn to search the Drive log events in Reporting > Audit and investigation to find who changed sharing, moved, deleted or downloaded a file, and when.
31. Level 31: Drive for Desktop Logs and Support Tools
    You learn to collect and read Drive for desktop diagnostics and logs, and to combine them with the Admin console and the user's own checks to show where a fault sits.
32. Level 32: Where the Support Job Stops
    You learn where first and second line work ends: tenant-wide policy problems go to third line, suspected service faults go to Google, and you do not change org-wide settings on your own.
33. Level 33: Writing the Escalation Evidence Packet
    You learn to put together an escalation packet that the next line or Google support can act on straight away, with no back-and-forth.
34. Level 34: Final Challenge: The Drive Ticket Queue Exam
    You work through a queue of realistic tickets covering the whole course (sharing, ownership, leavers, sync, storage, Office files and recovery), and resolve or escalate each one with a written note.

Access

The first 2 levels are free with a free account. Every level, the podcast edition and the AI tutor come with All Access at £4.99/month or any Creator plan — see pricing.

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