Shared Accounts in U-M Box and U-M Google

Topics

• Overview
• Box Account
• Box Best Practices
• Mail Account
• Calendar Account
• Drive Account
• Sharing Behaviors
• Password Changes

Overview

Shared accounts allow schools, colleges, departments and groups to use U-M Box and U-M Google with an independent entity. With their own account and weblogin, they can send and receive email, post events and share calendars, and own files in Box and Drive.

To request a shared account, complete the Shared Account Request Form.

Important: Avoid creating a Google+ identity or profile with a shared account. Create a Google+ page or community instead.

 

Shared accounts have an associated MCommunity group, but do not sync to Box and Google:

• Access is managed within Box and Google, not through MCommunity.
• Anyone with the shared account login and password can access the shared account, even if they leave U-M, get transferred within U-M, or are removed from the shared account’s associated MCommunity group.
• To prevent others who have the password from accessing the shared account, the password must be changed.

 

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Box Account

Log in to the Shared Account

Shared U-M Box accounts are set up with a standard folder that is shared among co-owners. The standard shared folder appears in the co-owners' individual U-M Box accounts, allowing co-owners to manage it without a separate login. Files placed in shared U-M Box account folders are owned by the shared account and not an individual. When your shared U-M Box account is set up, you receive an email and UMICH password for the account. Log in with the UMICH password to:

• create and manage folders at the root of the account.
• invite collaborators with invitations from the shared account.
• transfer ownership of a folder.
• configure notification settings.

 

Note: If you have a Box shared account created before August 1, 2016, and you do not have a UMICH password, contact the ITS Service Center.

Use a shared U-M Box account to:

Distribute files to classes and student organizations

Add your class roster or a student organization as collaborators to a folder or provide them with a link to download files from a folder. There are multiple permission levels on folders so you have options!

Coordinate an event

Embed a folder with event materials on the event website. Coordinators of the event can continue to collaborate in the U-M Box folder while attendees view the event materials.

Work on an important project with a group and get the feedback you need from another group

Create a collaboration folder to bring together the project files you need for that important group project for students or colleagues. With U-M Box, team members can access and work on files through multiple devices and applications. Collaboration can happen through Box's assigning tasks and commenting features, which also allows users to direct comments to specific group members. Collaborators also have version control so nothing will be lost through updates by another collaborator. Once the project is ready, send a collaboration invite link to other students, professors, or colleagues for feedback. It's easy to use folder properties to hide collaborators and ensure that only the folder owner can view the source of the feedback.

 

Remove a Shared Account

Remove shared U-M Box accounts when no longer needed. They can be deleted or inactivated, retaining access to the content. Before deleting, move the files you need to to another U-M Box account, to your local hard drive or to another storage location.

Contact the ITS Service Center with the name of the account to be deleted or inactivated. Indicate if an associated shared U-M Google account should also be removed.

Note: Box Sync is not available for shared accounts, but collaborators with edit or co-owner permissions can sync sub-folders.

Move Content Between Accounts

Move the Folder

1. Create a folder in the destination account for the documents.
2. Make sure the source account that currently owns the files is a collaborator with editor permissions to the folder in the destination account.
3. Log in to the source account.
4. Select the files and folders to move to the destination account.
   Note: The checkbox at the top selects all files and folders.
   Tip: Use advanced search to find the folders or files to move.
5. To move the files, click Move/Copy (looks like a stack of papers).
6. Select the destination folder from the menu.
   Note: If you are moving files to a personal Box account:

   • Files must be less than 250 MB. Download larger files to your computer.
   • To retain access to the source folders or files, ask the owner to invite your personal Box account.
7. Click Move to move the files from the source account to the destination folder. They now belong to the owner of the destination account. The source account has editor privileges to the files as long as you have access to that account.

Note: Disable Box Sync on folders that you would like to move and only move files and folders that you own.

Change the Folder's Owner

1. Select the folder. You must be the Owner of the folder.
2. Click the Collaborator's name in the list of Collaborators in the right pane of the folder.
3. Click Owner from the Role drop-down list.
4. Click Okay to confirm.

Note: Changing folder ownership to a Shared Account causes that folder to appear as a new top level folder in the account.

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Box Good Practices

Notifications

By default, notifications are turned off for shared accounts. If turned on, the notifications are sent to every member of the account's MCommunity group.

To change this, log in as the account owner and use the Notifications tab in the Account Settings. This allows individual collaborators to control notifications they receive.

Use the standard shared folder

Set up with the account, it provides simple account management. Co-owners can add and remove other co-owners.

Note: Even though you are managing the contents of the folder from your individual U-M Box account, the files stored there are owned by the shared account, not your individual account.

Keep permissions simple

Invite collaborators to the standard folder. Creating a sub-folder structure within this folder organizes the files for your collaborators. Permissions applied to a folder apply to all files and folders within it. You can add collaborators to subfolders without giving access to the parent folder.

Note: Sub-folders shared in this way appear at the root of your collaborator's U-M Box account.

Always use the web app to manage the files and folders, not Box Sync

Box Sync is a convenient way to access your own files stored in Box, but it is not recommended for shared accounts. Multiple collaborators syncing the same collection of files increases the possibility of problems with sync.

Always have at least two co-owners

When a co-owner should no longer have the authority to manage the files in a shared U-M Box folder, another authorized person retains the ability to manage them.

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Mail Account

Email is delivered to both the members of the associated MCommunity group and the shared account's mailbox.

Ways to use a shared U-M Google Mail account:

• Add the shared account to your U-M Google Mail account. This allows you to send mail as the shared account without logging into it.
  1. Select Settings from the gear icon.
  2. Click the Accounts tab.
  3. Click Add another email address you own.
  4. Enter the account's display name and email address.
  5. Click Send Verification.

     Note: A verification code is sent to the MCommunity group's owner(s).

  6. Enter the verification code and click Verify.

  When sending email, there is a drop-down list in the From field where the shared account can be selected. The email is sent as the account listed in the From field.

• Log in as the shared account.

  Using a Chrome Incognito window, log in with the account's name and UMICH password to read and send email. A different browser can be used as an alternative to a Chrome Incognito window.

  Important: Avoid using the vacation responder and auto-reply settings for shared accounts.

• Access the shared account’s email as a delegate. Delegates can read, send and delete messages on behalf of the account as well as access the account’s contacts. See Set up a Mail Delegation .

 

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Calendar Account

Create calendars to be owned by the shared account by logging into the shared account first and then creating the calendars. Once created, share the calendar with individuals or synced MCommunity groups, allowing others to manage the calendars from within their own accounts.

• If individuals or groups need to see event details, choose See all event details.
• If individuals or groups need to manage events on the calendar, choose Make changes to events.
• If individuals or groups need to manage access to the calendar, choose Make changes AND manage sharing.

 

Note:

• Be mindful of which events are on the shared account's calendar and which are on your own calendar to avoid accidentally deleting events on the shared account's calendar. For more info on calendar sharing, see Google’s Support page .
• Once a calendar is created and shared, individuals receive an email notification with a link to the calendar. It can also be viewed by entering the calendar ID in the search field under Other Calendars. The calendar ID is located on the calendar settings page. Click the drop-down list to the right of the calendar's entry under My calendars. This is helpful when the calendar is shared with an MCommunity group and new members are added to that group. The new members will not receive an email notification to view the calendar.

 

Ways to use a shared Google Calendar account:

• Shared accounts that you own appear under My Calendars and can be toggled on and off like other calendars. When creating events, the Calendar field is a drop-down list where the shared account can be selected. The event then appears on this account's calendar and not your own.
• Using a Chrome Incognito window, log directly into the shared account with its name and UMICH password.

 

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Drive Account

Shared Drive accounts allow groups and departments to share files. ITS recommends making a shared account the owner of group documents. When a shared account is the owner of the material, there is no need to transfer documents if someone leaves the group/department.

• Manage options and permissions .
• Establish naming conventions .
• Use folders to share collections of files .
• Make a copy of files.
• Move files in a shared folder

  Important: This affects the permissions of the other collaborators.

• Transfer file ownership .

  Note: You cannot transfer ownership of docs created on a UMICH account to a non-UMICH account. You also cannot transfer docs created by non-UMICH accounts to a UMICH account.

 

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Sharing Behaviors

MCommunity Group vs Shared Account

MCommunity Group

All MCommunity groups not associated with a Shared Account are synced to Google by default, however some aspects of the MCommunity group do not sync with Google, including external members. For example, only members with an @umich.edu email address receive access to an item in Drive or Calendar. No external members receive access to the content.

Shared Account

All Shared Accounts have an associated MCommunity group. However, unlike regular MCommunity groups, Shared Accounts are fully-enabled M+Google accounts with access to the Mail, Calendar, Drive and Sites Apps. They can send and receive email, post events and share calendars, and own files in Drive. Users log using the Shared Account’s UMICH uniqname and password as they would their own individual M+Google account.

Only owners of the associated MCommunity group can request a password change and add users to the Shared Account. (Owners can delegate mail and calendar access to others or they can share the U-M login and UMICH password of the Shared Account account.) For more information on managing a shared M+Google account, see Managing Shared Accounts. ITS recommends having more than one owner of the associated MCommunity group. ITS does not recommend creating a Shared Account to provide group permissions to Google content or to establish a Google+ identify or profile. MCommunity groups should be used to grant permissions to groups.

For more information on requesting a shared account, see Creating Shared Accounts, Resources, and Event Calendars. For more information see Managing Shared Accounts.

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Password Changes

Note: This can be complicated. Contact the ITS Service Center for help.

An owner of the MCommunity group associated with the account can change the password using a terminal program.

Tip: See Choosing and Changing a Secure UMICH Password.

1. Connect to the ITS Login Service (login.itd.umich.edu) with a secure terminal program with your own uniqname and UMICH password (not the name and UMICH password for the shared account).

   Note: Dearborn campus, use login.umd.umich.edu.

   • Windows: Use PuTTY.
   • Mac: Use the Terminal program, which is included as part of the Mac OS.
     • If your machine name is your uniqname, enter ssh login.itd.umich.edu
     • If your machine name is not your uniqname, enter ssh [email protected]. Replace youruniqname with your own uniqname.
     • Enter your UMICH password and press Return/Enter.

       Note: Your password does not display. The name of the Login Service machine you are connected to followed by a percent sign displays. This is the prompt at which to enter commands.

2. Enter kpasswd followed by the name of the shared account at the Login Service % prompt, and then press Return/Enter.
3. Enter the current UMICH password and press Return/Enter.
4. Enter the new password and press Return/Enter.
5. Enter the new password again and press Return/Enter.
6. When Password changed appears, enter logout and press Return/Enter.
7. Exit or quit the terminal connection.

Note: This does not change the password used on a mobile device or desktop client. Contact the ITS Service Center to make them the same.