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Wait, what? Are we getting rid of Google Drive?

Home » Wait, what? Are we getting rid of Google Drive?

We’ve been receiving a lot of questions about document storage as the UT System discusses retiring Google apps, including Google Drive. This has raised a common question:

Where should departments store and share documents moving forward?

Why the main website isn’t the answer

While our main website does allow PDF uploads (up to 6MB), it is not designed to be a document storage solution.

  • It only supports PDF files
  • It does not support Word, Excel, PowerPoint, or other file types
  • It is not built for organizing, updating, or managing large sets of documents

(For more details on uploading PDFs to the website, see our separate PDF upload article.)

So if your office needs to store and share multiple documents—or file types beyond PDFs—you’ll need a different approach.

Two practical options

Option 1: Share documents by request

If your documents are requested infrequently, you can ask users to contact your office directly to receive them.

This works, but it often leads to:

  • repeated email requests
  • manual file sending
  • workflow congestion for your staff

For anything with regular traffic, this approach doesn’t scale well.

Option 2: Use a SharePoint site

A dedicated SharePoint site gives your office a controlled, flexible place to store and share documents.

With a SharePoint site, you can:

  • Upload Word, Excel, PowerPoint, PDFs, and more
  • Organize files into folders
  • Link directly to documents from your main website
  • Control who can and cannot access files

Important things to know

  • SharePoint sites are limited to people with university credentials (UTC ID)
  • Users may be prompted to log in before viewing documents
  • External users can be given access, but only:
    • to specific files
    • on a case-by-case basis
    • provided via email links

Step-by-Step: Creating and Using a SharePoint Document Site

Step 1: Create the SharePoint site

  1. Go to https://office.com
  2. Sign in with your university account
  3. Open Microsoft SharePoint
  4. Click Create site
  5. Choose a site type
    • Team site – best for collaboration
    • Communication site – best for read-only content, policies, and resources. Most campus-wide document sites should use a Communication site.
  6. Select Communication site
  7. Choose a layout (Blank is fine)
  8. Click Next
  9. Enter:
    • Site name (clear and official)
    • Description (optional)
  10. Click Finish

Step 2: Add Documents to the site home page

Adding Documents to the landing page makes files easy to find.

  1. Click Edit (top right)
  2. Add the Documents widget
    • Hover where you want the documents to appear
    • Click the + icon
    • Select Document Library (sometimes labeled “Documents”)
    • Choose the Documents library
    • Click Add
  3. Configure the display (recommended)
    • View: All Documents or a custom view
    • Show toolbar: On
    • Folder navigation: On
  4. Rename the section header to something clear, such as:
    • Shared Documents
    • Forms and Files
    • [Dept. Name] Resources
  5. Click Publish or Republish when finished.

Step 3: Upload documents

  1. Go to Documents
  2. Click Upload
  3. Choose Files or Folder
  4. Select files from your computer
  5. Click Open
  6. Files upload immediately and appear on the home page if the library is embedded there.

Step 4: Make documents visible to everyone with university credentials

If documents should be available campus-wide:

  1. In Documents, click the gear icon
  2. Select Library settings
  3. Click Permissions for this document library
  4. Click Grant Permissions
  5. Add:
    Everyone except external users
  6. Set permission to Read
  7. Click Share
    • All files in the library now inherit campus-wide access.
  8. Confirm access
    • Open a private/incognito browser
    • Sign in with a different university account
    • Open a document
    • Confirm no access request appears

Step 5 (optional): Share with external users

When needed, you can share individual files with external people.

  1. Open Documents
  2. Hover over the file
  3. Click Share
  4. Open Link settings
  5. Choose Specific people
  6. Set permission to View
  7. Enter the external email address
  8. Click Send

The recipient will receive a secure email link. Access can be removed at any time.

Final takeaway

If your office needs a reliable replacement for Google Drive—especially for multiple file types and campus-wide access—SharePoint is the right tool.

Use the website for content, and SharePoint for documents. Add the needed links to your website with accompanying copy about University restrictions and workarounds.