Migrate Google Shared Drives Between Tenants, to OneDrive or S3

What is Google Shared Drive?

Google Shared Drive (formerly Team Drive) is the team-owned storage space inside Google Workspace — files in a Shared Drive belong to the team, not to any individual member. When an employee leaves, their My Drive ownership creates an admin headache; their Shared Drive contributions just keep working because no individual ever 'owned' them. Available on every Workspace plan with pooled storage (Business Standard and above), Shared Drives draw from the organization's pooled quota — there's no separate per-Shared-Drive billing. Each Shared Drive can hold up to 500,000 items (files, folders, shortcuts, trash combined), supports up to 50,000 members (individuals + groups), and accepts files up to 5 TB each.

What makes Shared Drive migration distinctly different from My Drive migration is the permissions and ownership model. To migrate a Shared Drive, the connecting account needs at least Content Manager role (5 roles available: Manager, Content Manager, Contributor, Commenter, Viewer — only Manager and Content Manager can move/delete content). After migration, sharing permissions don't carry across providers — that's a Workspace constraint, not CloudsLinker's — but file content, folder hierarchy, modification timestamps, and member-display names do. CloudsLinker connects to a specific Shared Drive via OAuth, and runs server-to-server transfers respecting Drive's per-user 750 GB/day upload cap.

Key features of Google Shared Drive

Files team-owned, not user-owned

Shared Drive content belongs to the team. When an employee leaves, files stay accessible — no owner-transfer headaches that My Drive migrations require.

Default 100 GB cap, admin-raisable

Default storage limit per Shared Drive is 100 GB — easy to hit fast. Workspace admins can raise this up to the org's pooled storage limit.

500,000 items per Shared Drive

Hard ceiling on item count: 500,000 items total (files + folders + shortcuts + trash). Beyond this, the drive becomes read-only until items are deleted. Item count, not storage size, is the binding limit on flat-folder structures.

50,000 max members

Each Shared Drive supports up to 50,000 individual members (counted via groups + individuals). Practically unlimited for most orgs.

5 roles: Manager → Viewer

Manager: full control. Content Manager: add / edit / move / delete content (CloudsLinker minimum required). Contributor: add / edit only. Commenter / Viewer: read-only variants.

5 TB per file cap

Same as My Drive — 5 TB max single file. Files larger than 750 GB cannot be server-side copied (they'd need re-upload, which CloudsLinker handles via chunked upload).

Why connect Google Shared Drive to CloudsLinker

CloudsLinker connects to Google Shared Drive through Google's OAuth 2.0 flow with Drive read/write scopes. After authorization, you select the specific Shared Drive to scope the connection (Workspace accounts may have access to many Shared Drives). Transfers run server-to-server using the Drive API — the same engine that powers My Drive migration, but scoped to the team-owned namespace rather than personal My Drive. Common destinations: tenant-to-tenant Shared Drive migration during M&A, off-site backup of critical Shared Drives, or migration to SharePoint / Box / S3 when consolidating off Google Workspace.

What you can do with Google Shared Drive on CloudsLinker

Shared Drive scoped migration

Migrate a specific Google Shared Drive to a different Workspace tenant, OneDrive / SharePoint, Box or S3 — without touching personal My Drives in the same Workspace org.

Tenant-to-tenant Shared Drive moves

Connect both source and destination Workspace tenants via OAuth, then run Shared-Drive-to-Shared-Drive copies during M&A. Far cheaper than enterprise Google Workspace migration consultants.

Scheduled & incremental sync

Hourly / daily / weekly schedules. Useful for keeping a Shared Drive mirrored to a SharePoint library or an immutable S3 bucket as backup.

Filter by folder, type, size

Migrate only <code>/Marketing/2026</code>, exclude files > 100 GB, or sync just Google Docs / Sheets / Slides. Stack rules to handle multi-TB Shared Drives precisely.

Common Google Shared Drive transfer scenarios

M&A: tenant-to-tenant Shared Drive migration between Workspace orgs

When Company A acquires Company B and both run Google Workspace, every Shared Drive needs to migrate between tenants. Manual export/re-upload would take weeks. CloudsLinker connects both source and destination tenants via OAuth (admin needs at least Content Manager on each Shared Drive), then runs Shared-Drive-to-Shared-Drive copies in parallel. Audit log per file. Multi-TB tenant migrations complete in days, not months.

Off-site 3-2-1 backup of critical Shared Drives to S3 / Wasabi

Workspace's own retention is not a backup — admin deletion or ransomware via account compromise can wipe Shared Drives faster than support can restore. Schedule a CloudsLinker nightly incremental from key Shared Drives to Wasabi ($6.99/TB) or B2 ($6/TB) with Object Lock immutability. Critical Shared Drive (e.g. Legal team) backs up for ~$7/month.

Migrate Shared Drive → SharePoint when consolidating on Microsoft 365

Companies that switch Google Workspace → Microsoft 365 need every Shared Drive's content moved to a SharePoint document library. CloudsLinker copies the folder tree preserving structure and modification dates. Native Google Docs / Sheets / Slides convert to .docx / .xlsx / .pptx on the way across.

Cold-archive completed-project Shared Drives to S3 Glacier

Most Workspace orgs accumulate old Shared Drives from completed projects that nobody opens but still consume pooled storage. Use CloudsLinker filters (modified-before-date) to migrate cold Shared Drives to S3 Glacier Instant Retrieval ($0.004/GB) — typically 95 % cheaper than the pooled-storage cost on Workspace Enterprise.

Cross-organization B2B partner Shared Drive sync

Two companies collaborating on a long-running project sometimes share a Shared Drive across orgs. CloudsLinker can mirror a Shared Drive in Org A to a Shared Drive in Org B on a schedule — ensuring both sides have identical content without manual sync.

How to connect Google Shared Drive to CloudsLinker

Google Shared Drive uses standard OAuth 2.0 — same auth as Google Drive (My Drive), with a key difference: the connecting account needs a Shared Drive role, not just personal account access.

Before you start

Confirm the account you’ll use for OAuth has at least Content Manager role on the target Shared Drive(s):

Open https://drive.google.com.
Click Shared drives in the left sidebar.
Open the target Shared Drive → click the gear icon → Manage members.
Verify your account appears with Manager or Content Manager role.
For tenant-wide migrations (Workspace admin), use a service account or a Workspace admin account with Shared Drive access to all relevant drives.

If your role is Contributor or lower, ask the Shared Drive Manager to upgrade you to Content Manager — Contributors can add files but not delete or restructure.

Connection steps

In CloudsLinker, click Add Cloud → choose Shared Drive (Google).
The browser redirects to Google’s OAuth page (accounts.google.com). Verify the domain before signing in.
Sign in with the Workspace account that has Content Manager (or higher) role on the target Shared Drive.
Review the requested scopes — CloudsLinker requests Drive read/write access. Click Allow.
Select the specific Shared Drive from your account’s available Shared Drives.
The connection appears in your cloud list, scoped to that Shared Drive.

Workspace admin pre-approval

Enterprise tenants with strict admin-consent workflows may require the CloudsLinker app to be approved at the Workspace level before users can authorize. Workspace admin: Admin Console → Security → API controls → App access control → search CloudsLinker → mark as Trusted.

Revoke access

To revoke CloudsLinker’s OAuth access later: https://myaccount.google.com → Security → Third-party apps with account access → find CloudsLinker → Remove Access. For tenant-level revocation (Workspace admin): Admin Console → Security → API controls → mark CloudsLinker as Blocked.

Google Shared Drive upload & download limits you should know

Shared Drive limits are a mix of Google’s universal Drive limits + Shared-Drive-specific caps:

Default Shared Drive size: 100 GB. Admin-raisable up to the org’s pooled storage limit.
Maximum items per Shared Drive: 500,000 (files + folders + shortcuts + trash combined). Beyond this, the drive becomes read-only until items are deleted.
Maximum members per Shared Drive: 50,000 (individual + group counted).
Maximum file size: 5 TB (same as My Drive).
Files > 750 GB: cannot be server-side copied between Shared Drives (Google constraint). CloudsLinker handles via chunked re-upload.
Per-user 24-hour upload cap: 750 GB — applies to Shared Drive uploads from third-party tools too.
Roles: Manager, Content Manager, Contributor, Commenter, Viewer. Content Manager minimum for CloudsLinker migration.
Pooled storage: Shared Drive content counts against the Workspace org’s pooled quota (Business Standard pools 2 TB × user count).
Drive API global rate limit: 1,000 requests / 100 seconds / user by default; CloudsLinker handles back-off on 429 responses.
Shared Drive availability: included with Google Workspace plans that have pooled storage (Business Standard, Plus, Enterprise; not Business Starter).
Trash retention in Shared Drive: 30 days, then permanent deletion.
Native Google files (Docs / Sheets / Slides): preserved as native format when destination is another Google Workspace; converted to Office formats (Docx / Xlsx / Pptx) when destination is non-Google.

Sources: Google Workspace Help: Shared drive limits, Google Workspace Help: Manage shared drives as an admin, Google Workspace Help: Set storage limits for shared drives, Google Workspace Help: How file access works in shared drives.

Google Shared Drive + CloudsLinker — Frequently Asked Questions

What's the difference between Shared Drive and My Drive?

My Drive: personal storage, files owned by individual user. When the user leaves, ownership must be transferred or files are lost. Shared Drive: team storage, files owned by the team. Member departures don't affect file accessibility. Shared Drives also support more granular role-based permissions (5 roles vs My Drive's binary share/no-share).

What permission do I need to migrate a Shared Drive?

Content Manager role minimum. Content Manager can add, edit, move, and delete files in the Shared Drive — sufficient for CloudsLinker to enumerate and copy content. Manager role is required if you also want to delete the Shared Drive after migration. Contributor / Commenter / Viewer roles are insufficient for CloudsLinker.

What's the maximum file size in a Shared Drive?

5 TB per file, identical to My Drive. Files larger than 750 GB cannot be server-side copied (Google's same-account-copy restriction). CloudsLinker handles them via chunked re-upload — slower but reliable.

What's the 500,000 item limit?

Each Shared Drive can contain at most 500,000 items (files + folders + shortcuts + trash combined). Hit this and the Shared Drive becomes read-only until items are deleted. Item count, not storage size, is the binding limit. Common with flat folder structures (lots of files in a single folder); nested structures don't hit it as easily.

How does Shared Drive storage count against my Workspace plan?

Shared Drive content draws from your org's pooled storage. With Business Standard (2 TB/user pooled), 30 users = 60 TB pooled across all My Drives + Shared Drives + Gmail attachments + Photos. Each Shared Drive has a default 100 GB cap (admin-raisable up to the pool's available capacity).

Are sharing permissions preserved when migrating cross-tenant?

No. Workspace permissions are tenant-scoped — sharing rules don't carry across orgs (a Google constraint). File content, folder hierarchy, modification timestamps, and creator/modifier display names do transfer. After cross-tenant migration, you re-apply Shared Drive member roles on the destination.

Will my migration hit Google's 750 GB/day upload cap?

Yes — Google enforces a per-user 750 GB/day upload cap that applies to Shared Drive uploads from third-party tools too. CloudsLinker pauses when the cap is hit and resumes the next 24-hour window. Multi-TB Shared Drives complete over several days of background transfer.

Are my Google credentials safe with CloudsLinker?

Yes. CloudsLinker uses OAuth 2.0 — your Google password never leaves Google's own login page (accounts.google.com). CloudsLinker only receives a revocable access token. Workspace admins can also pre-approve the CloudsLinker app at the org level via the Admin Console for tenant-wide deployment.

Can I migrate between Google Shared Drive and a non-Google Shared Drive equivalent?

Yes. SharePoint document libraries are the closest equivalent on Microsoft 365. Box has shared folders. CloudsLinker handles the cross-platform conceptual mapping — Google Shared Drive content moves to a SharePoint library or Box folder preserving structure, with native Google file types converting to Office formats inline.

Is this an official Google Workspace partnership?

No. CloudsLinker is a third-party tool that uses Google Drive's public OAuth and REST API. Revoke access anytime from myaccount.google.com → Security → Third-party apps with account access → CloudsLinker → Remove access.

Conclusion

Google Shared Drive is the team-owned storage layer that makes Workspace viable for enterprises — files survive employee turnover, permissions are role-based, and storage is pooled across the org. CloudsLinker handles the parts Google's native tools don't: tenant-to-tenant migration during M&A, off-site backup to non-Google providers, cold archival of completed-project drives. Connect via OAuth (Content Manager role minimum) and run your first Shared Drive migration in minutes.

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