Earlier this month, some folders in the OLF shared Google Drive space were inadvertently removed. A user modified the folder structure without realizing that the changes affected everyone. We now need everyone’s help to put back the folders and files into the shared folder.

As you may have found, the files themselves have not been deleted. You can get to a file directly if you have the Google Drive URL, and in many cases you can search for the file and find it. The files are now “orphaned” from the folder structure. It is now up to the creators of the folders and files to orphans back into place. Google offers documentation on finding orphaned folders and files: https://support.google.com/drive/answer/1716222#not_deleted

The steps to restore folders and files are demonstrated in this screencast:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1-CRbGEyvmTgOYIy6WK6kQItpU3Y9rX1U/view

The steps are:

1. Search Google Drive for orphaned folders. The search string is is:unorganized owner:me type:folder

2. For each folder, right click on the folder name then select “Add to My Drive”

3. Select “Organize” then navigate the folder structure to the correct location and select “Move Here”

Once the folders are in place, remove the type:folder from the search string and repeat these steps for the files.

The OLF projects are investigating the steps of moving from a shared folder (as we are using now) to a shared Google Drive, which will give the project more protection from these inadvertent changes.

Thank you for your assistance in restoring access to the shared documents.  If you have any questions, please contact Anne Highsmith at hismith@email.tamu.edu.

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