In Google Workspace, Shared Drives that become unmanaged or unattended may be considered no longer in use and prepared for deletion.

• Unmanaged Shared Drive: This type of Shared Drive has members but lacks a manager. This situation can arise due to a former faculty, staff, or student manager leaving or a manager being accidentally removed.
• Unattended Shared Drive: This type of Shared Drive has no members or manager.

If a Shared Drive remains unmanaged or unattended it will be classified as "abandoned." Abandoned Shared Drives will be permanently deleted along with all their contents on a recurring basis, following a fixed schedule. Data recovery will not be possible after deletion.

To prevent data loss, please ensure your Shared Drives have active managers and members.

How can I check if a shared drive is unmanaged or unattended?

Here are two ways to check if a Shared Drive is unmanaged or unattended:

1. In Google Drive:
   • Go to your Google Drive.
   • Click on "Shared drives" in the left-hand menu.
   • Look for any Shared Drives that do not have a manager listed in the "Owner" column. These are unmanaged Shared Drives.
   • Click on any Shared Drive that has no members listed in the "Members" column. These are unattended Shared Drives.
2. Using the NC State Google Reports tool:
   • Make sure to access this on campus or using a VPN
   • Visit google-reports.oit.ncsu.edu
   • Click View Abandoned Objects
   • Scroll through the results
     • IN_DANGER- there is only a single Group or Active User with the Manager role and could be subject to abandonment
     • UNATTENDED- There is no Group or Active User with any role
     • UNMANAGED- There is no Group or Active User with the Manager role

Contact the Help Desk with a list of Shared Drive IDs and Names for more support.