Question: How can I manage the content in the My Drive section of Google Drive?

Context: Google Drive

Answer: When storing files and folders in My Drive, organization is key to being able to easily find your files.  There are two easy ways to organize your My Drive content to help clear the clutter or decrease the number of folders and files you see at the top level.  

1. Moving a folder from My Drive to another folder in My Drive

The 3 key points to organizing your folders in My Drive are:

• You organize how you see content at the My Drive level
• You create a Private Folder(s) in My Drive; and
• You move the folder(s) and/or file(s) from your My Drive to the Private Folder(s) that exists in My Drive.

Note: My Drive is also known as the top-level in Google Drive

If you follow these 3 key points, how you organize your content in My Drive will not affect how others see and work with the folders and files you collaborate with them

Not following these three key points could result in sharing folder and sub-folder content with people that you do not intend to share this content. It could also result in collaborators losing access to content.

Note: You should NOT move a sub-folder from a collaborative folder to a personal folder in My Drive. If you do, you will impact all the collaborators for this sub-folder. You will be removing all collaborators access to share all the sub-folder’s content. Sub-folders need to stay in the current file structure.

You have to move the whole folder (i.e. the top-level folder in My Drive) for there to be no impact to the collaborators for the folder and sub-folder. Moving a sub-folder on its own will create issues.

Another way to think about this is - you need to move the entire folder tree. To organize your My Drive, you would need to move the Main Folder (see image below) which would move the entire folder tree. Moving only parts (sub-folder(s)) of the folder tree will cause issues.

An example:

1. Please be sure that you are in My Drive before following the steps in the example (see screenshot below). Verify that:
   1. My Drive
   2. Only My Drive listed in the the Breadcrumbs menu.
      
      
2. Create a personal folder at the My Drive level. In the below screen, a personal folder is created (i.e. All My Current Projects Folder.)
   
   
   
   
3. Next, we want to move an existing folder, the McCourtney Hall Building Folder, to the All My Current Projects Folder. You can see below that both folders exist in My Drive.
4. Right-click on the McCourtney Hall Building Folder and select Move To. Reminder, the folder you want to move must exist at the top-level in My Drive to avoid issues.
   
    
   
   
5. After selecting Move To, a new window appears. This is where you organize where the McCourtney Hall Building Folder will be moved. Select the folder (All My Current Projects Folder) and click the Move button. Reminder, you must move the folder to a folder that exists at the top-level in My Drive.
   
    
   
   
6. Next, notice that the McCourtney Hall Building Folder is now a sub-folder within the All My Building Projects Folder. There has been no change to any of the collaborators access to the McCourtney Hall Building Folder.
   
   
   
   
7. Finally, notice that at the top-level in My Drive, the McCourtney Hall Building Folder no longer exists at this level. It is now a sub-folder within the All My Current Projects Folder. You now have one less folder sitting at the My Drive level.
   
   
   
   

2. Moving a file(s) in My Drive to a folder in My Drive

As for individual files that exist at the My Drive level, the same principle applies - you can create a new or use an existing personal folder(s) and move the individual files to personal folders without affecting the access permissions for the file(s).   

The individual files that exists in My Drive level belong to one of two categories; either you created them or someone else created them and shared them with you (and you moved them to your My Drive from the Shared With Me space). You can tell which is which by looking at the owner column. One way to organize these individual files could be to create 2 folders at the top-level in My Drive: Individual Files I have Created; Individual Files Shared with Me by Others.

Oops!

What happens if I move a folder at the top-level in My Drive level to the wrong My Drive folder or I move the wrong My Drive folder - can I undo this action?

Yes, you can undo this action immediately if you have not done any other action in Drive.  A pop-up window appears after you move the folder. You can click the Undo button to move the folder back. The pop-up windows lasts about 10 seconds.

If you miss the ability to undo via the pop-up window, you can just drag or move the folder you moved back to your My Drive. This will not create any issues with sharing unless someone else looks at the content between the time you accidentally moved it to the wrong folder AND before you move it back to your My Drive.