In September, we told you that a new “Content manager” role was coming soon to Team Drives. We also provided an optional role migration to help organizations take full advantage of the new role.
See details of that announcement here.
These changes are now starting to take effect. Along with the new role, we’ll also be updating the names of the existing Team Drives membership roles. This post contains more details on what to look for and what to expect as these changes roll out.
Timeline for changes
For Rapid Release domains, new names for roles in Team Drives will start to roll out on October 10th, 2018. The new role and optional auto-migration will start to roll out on October 15th, 2018.
For Scheduled Release domains, new names for roles in Team Drives will start to roll out on October 17th, 2018. The new role will start to roll out on October 22nd, 2018. The optional auto-migration will start on October 29th, 2018.
New names for roles in Team Drives
The existing roles for Team Drives memberships will get new names:
- “Full access” will now be known as “Manager.”
- “Edit access” will now be “Contributor.”
- “Comment access” will now be “Commenter.”
- “View access” will now be “Viewer.”
- There will also be a new role, “Content manager.” See below for more details.
See our Learning Center to see
more about roles and permissions in Team Drives.
New Content manager Team Drives role
Users with the Content manager role will be able to edit, reorganize, and delete content in a Team Drive, but they won’t be able to modify Team Drive membership or settings. Content manager will replace “Full access” as the default role for new Team Drive members.
We recommend that Drive File Stream users also make use of the Content manager role, as it will make it easier to manage Team Drive files through their computer’s file system or the Drive web interface. See our initial announcement for
more details on the Content manager role.
If opted in, auto-migration starts soon
If you previously opted in, the migration to change users from “Edit access” to “Content manager” will take place soon. When the migration happens, users and admins will not be explicitly notified, but will be able to see the different role description when they look at their Team Drive membership. As a reminder, the migration will mean:
- All individual users and groups in your organization who are members of Team Drives with “Edit access” will become “Content managers.”
- External users who are members of Team Drives in your organization will not be migrated, unless they belong to a group that also contains internal users. If they belong to a group that also contains internal users and that group is a member of a Team Drive with “Edit access,” the group will be migrated and as a result those external users will have the Content manager role.
Note: The window to opt in to the migration has now closed, and we can’t accept any additional migration requests.
Update to the latest software versions to get the new features
To make sure you get these features on all of your devices, make sure your apps are up to date. You should be using the following versions:
- Google Drive app on Android - use version 2.18.372 or above.
- Google Drive app on iOS - use version 4.2018.40 or above.
- Google Drive File Stream - versions 27.1.49.1806 or above on Windows and 27.1.49.2230 or above on OSX.
Launch Details
Release track:
For Rapid Release domains:
- New names for roles in Team Drives will start to roll out on October 10th, 2018.
- The new role and optional migration will start to roll out on October 15th, 2018.
For Scheduled Release domains:
- New names for roles in Team Drives will start to roll out on October 17th, 2018.
- The new role will start to roll out on October 22nd, 2018.
- The optional migration will start to roll out on October 29th, 2018.
Editions:
- Role management in Team Drives is available to G Suite Business, Enterprise, Education, Nonprofit, and Enterprise for Education editions only.
- G Suite Basic users can create and access Team Drives if they’re invited by a user or organization that has Team Drives (see details), so users may see their role change.
Rollout pace:
Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility)
Impact:
All end users
Action:
Change management suggested/FYI
More Information
Learning Center: Get started with Team Drives
G Suite Updates blog post: New Content manager role coming to Team Drives
Launch release calendar
Launch detail categories
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