Tongfamily (Richtong.com Sync)

OK, so we have Google Drive for sharing things and man has it gotten complicated. The problem is that sharing is more restricted now and the default is that you cannot share things with non-workspace members. It is confusing because when you try to share with someone, you set it and then it doesn’t take, rather than giving an error message. So in this modern hackable world here is what you should do.

The basic confusing thing is that you have to do most of this at the Google Workspace Console. This stuff is not available on the Google Drive web page.

Make sure Google Drive sharing is restricted

You need to go to the Google Workspace and make sure that your main organization has Drive sharing turned off

1. Sign in to Google Workspace Console
2. Go to Apps > Google Workspace > Drive and Docs > Shared settings > Sharing Options and click on edit and set Sharing outside of your <organization> and choose “OFF” and allow users to receive files
3. Click on the organizational unit on the left that is your organization name, this is the
   “root”

This makes sure the default is no sharing at all outside your organization

Create an External Organization and allow sharing

Now you want to let certain people share away, the easiest way is to create a new organizational unit, call it say, External:

1. Go to workspace console
2. Then go to the left pane > Directory > Organizational Units > Create organizational unit called External Allowed
3. Now to Apps > Drive and Docs > Shared Settings > Sharing options and click on `ON – Files owned by users or shared drive in External Allow can be shared outside of tne.ai
4. You can then click the “Warn” button so you know what you are doing. And if you are doing sales and things, you want to click on “Allow users or shared drives to share items with people outside of your organization who aren’t using a Google Account
5. Finally, you can enable, “What sharing outside of TNE.ai is allowed, users can make files and published content visible to anyone with the link

Then there are some safety things to check:

1. Access Checker: Recipients only, suggested target audience or public
2. Distributing contents outside of tne.ai. Ok, this is a big one, if it’s sales you probably want to allow “anyone” to distribute content, but make sure that you have tight controls on the. Shared Drives. See below.

Now add the right people in your organization to that organizational unit:

1. Go to Directory > Users or Directory > Groups if you manage groups. With a small organization, I like to do users, so you know exactly who is allowed
2. The click on Users from all organizations, and then you will see a list of users. click on each user you want to add
3. Then in More Options > Change organizational unit, and you can move those users to your “External” group

Set up the Shared Drives to allow access

OK, now you go to

1. Google Workspace > Drive and Docs > Manage shared drives
2. Change the ownership of the groups so that all the of the privates are owned by your organization
3. Create a shared drive called “External” and make it owned by the special organizational unit by choosing “Change Organizational Unit” at the top
4. While there, you should clock on Manage Members and make sure it all makes sense. Typically you want some people to be managers and then all@your roles to be able to access it.
5. Then you should go to the Shared Drive Settings and make sure that the allow users outside to access is set correctly

Cleaning up your Shared Drives

Ok, if you have some legacy drives, you can copy them to an archive, but you also want to delete them. You can do this from the administrative console if you aren’t a manager you can do this:

1. Go to Console > Menu > Apps > Google Workspace > Drive and Docs > Manage Shared Drives.
2. Then you check the drives you want to delete
3. Choose More > Delete and confirm