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Google Drive provides an easy way to create, edit and share documents.
Tools include word processing, spreadsheets, presentations and forms.
Drive is offered in addition to Microsoft Office, and supplements your personal and shared filestore. There may be some situations where Google Drive is not suitable - see Guidance below.
Google Drive and Google Docs are provided as standard to all members of the University as part of their account registration.
Google Drive gives you the ability to store files in the cloud and access them from a wide variety of devices.
It is also possible to share files, and folders of files, with others. Any type of file can be stored in Google Drive, or Google Docs can be used to create documents there directly…
Google Docs is Google's web-based document suite, and is integrated with Google Drive. It enables you to create and edit word processing documents, spreadsheets, slideshows (presentations) and forms.
Google provide apps for mobile devices to support viewing and/or editing of your documents.
Your University account provides unlimited storage for Google Drive, Gmail and Google Photos. Each individual file stored on Google Drive can be up to 5TB.
Additional information on file size limits and supported file types can be found on Google's support page:
While Google Drive is an excellent tool, the following issues should be considered:
Please note: If you're using sensitive data supplied as part of a research contract, ensure that you are aware of the requirements of the data provider, who may not agree to datasets being stored or shared via Google Drive.
Emailing documents
Note that if you attach a document to an email, its default settings will make it public to anyone with the link. If that's not what you want, use the Share and Send options when prompted to restrict access.
We don't recommend Google Docs for producing a final thesis, as a thesis will often include features that are either not supported in Google Docs or are better supported in Word. For more information read the Getting Started Guide for Google Documents.
For more information read the Getting Started Guide for Google Sheets.
For more information read the Getting Started Guide for Google Slides.
For more information read Google's support pages for Forms.
Help from Google
Help from IT Services
If you're having problems using Google Drive, get in touch with the Library & IT Help Desk.
Service status | Live and supported service. |
---|---|
Hours of service | 24/7 |
Service support | For help and support with this service, contact the Library & IT Help Desk. |
Hours of support | Help from the Library & IT Help Desk is available 9am to 5pm, Monday to Friday. |
Target availability |
General IT Services targets: |
Service Level Agreement | |
Our performance |
Our service standards have been produced in consultation with our customers, and monitor the quality, timeliness and access to facilities and services: |
Complaints procedure |
If you wish to give us general feedback on this service, please see our Feedback page for ways to get in touch. If you wish to make a complaint, please see our complaints procedure. |
We expect you:
Backup and Sync (available for Windows and Mac) is an application from Google which offers:
This tool replaces the old Google Drive for Mac/PC app, which will stop working on Saturday 12 May 2018.
Backup and Sync creates a 'Google Drive' folder on your computer. By default this is under Users\your username\Google Drive - this can be changed in the Backup and Sync preferences, if needed.
Using Backup and Sync, you can opt to make only a specific folder (or set of folders) accessible to your computer. This has the advantage that it reduces the amount of data that could potentially be affected by file corruption or ransomware. We recommend you do not synchronise your entire Google Drive with your computer unless absolutely necessary.
Backup and Sync does not support synchronising your Shared drives with your computer.
More information on using Backup and Sync can be found on Google's help page:
Backup and Sync can be installed on managed PCs through Software Center and will appear under the Utilities folder in the Start menu.
If you still have the old Google Drive for Mac/PC app installed then this will be replaced by Backup and Sync.
Backup and Sync can be downloaded directly from Google:
If you still have the old Google Drive for Mac/PC app installed then this will be replaced by Backup and Sync.
Google also introduced a second tool which offers the synchronisation of your Google Drive Files with your computer - Drive File Stream. However, we have encountered a problem where if anything goes wrong (eg your computer crashes) this tool may inadvertently delete files from your Google Drive and remove sharing settings in a way that is very difficult or impossible to reverse.
For more details, please see:
In view of this, we recommend that you use Backup and Sync instead. If you're already using Drive File Stream, you should consider carefully whether you wish to continue using it, particularly if you have access to large numbers of shared Google Drive items. If you decide to switch to using Backup and Sync instead, we provide advice on how to do this: