Key Takeaway: 

Faculty and staff must take action now to preserve data contained in shared drives owned by alumni and former students, which are slated for deletion as part of UCR’s storage reclamation efforts. 

On November 6, 2023, ITS announced new storage quotas in response to storage changes imposed by Google and Microsoft. In light of this change, a cleanup effort is underway to reclaim storage space for active UCR faculty, students, and staff. 

Google shared drives created by alumni and former students are subject to deletion as these groups are not eligible for campus storage beyond their personal Workspace storage quota. It is important to note that members of shared drives do not “own” the data stored within the drive. As a result, the data will be deleted and permanently inaccessible to members if the shared drive is deleted. 

As a best practice, active faculty, staff, and students are encouraged to always make personal copies (or ask to be made owners) of any files or folders that contain important data to prevent data loss. Because ineligible shared drives are slated for deletion, faculty and staff must take action now if they need to continue to access data stored in shared drives that are owned by alumni or former students.. 

Guidance on how to identify, copy, and download shared files can be found in this Knowledge Base article. To transfer ownership of the files you downloaded, you may upload them to your own Google Drive or to an eligible shared Google Drive (see instructions here). If no action is taken, access to data stored in these shared drives may be at risk. 

Contact ITS at (951) 827-4848 or email workspacequestions@ucr.edu if you notice any missing data or have any questions about this matter.