How to switch account in google drive without losing the shared contents

Question

Please note the shared folder you see isn't limited to my account. It's a shared link open for access to anyone with google account. So whenever I click on the shared link it always open with default account in the browser and you cannot switch to other account without losing the contents.

So my college shared slides folder on google drive. Whenever I click on the link it opens with my default google account. And when I switch to other google account by clicking on the top right corner, the contents do not get carried over to this account instead it just opens google drive for other account in new tab without the shared content.

Answer 1

Since the Other account has never accessed the share, there is no reason it would show in that account's Google Drive. Even clicking on the share link while accessing the Other account's Gmail will not matter, as the link doesn't specify the Other account, and generic links will always follow the Google account associated with the Profile.

Work Around

If the shared document is freely shared to anyone with the link:

1. Sign into your Other Google account in a browser. Don't merely switch to that account in a browser logged into your Current account's Profile.
   ^{Use incognito mode or a different browser if you don't want to add the Profile}
2. Paste a link to the shared folder into that browser Window and access it.

Now the shared folder should be accessible in the Other account's Google Drive even while logged into your Current account's Profile.

Account Switching

Google supports two kinds of account switching in Chrome. The Chrome Profile is tied to a single Google account and that account is the one the browser is logged in to.

You are also able to access Google products for secondary accounts without logging out of the primary account. This is what Google refers to as 'adding accounts' to your browser.

The 'gotcha' is that using these 'added accounts' requires selecting them explicitly when accessing Google Web Apps, and any general URLs will revert back to the account tied to the Profile.

So, if you are in Gmail you can click on one of the added (secondary) accounts and Gmail will switch to that account's Gmail however if you then click on a link in an email you are likely to access the resulting page as the account associated with the Profile.

This can be very confusing for users.

If however, you have two Profiles (one for each account) switching profiles will cause Chrome to spawn a new window and each window will be tied to its respective Profile.

Summary

1. Sign in to multiple accounts at once

   • What you have likely been using.
   • Allows you to switch between accounts when accessing a Google Web app (Drive, Gmail, Docs, etc.)
   • Doesn't change the Profile (default account)
   • Any generic links will default back to the Profile account
   • Instructions to 'Add Accounts'

2. Separate Profiles

   • With Profiles you can keep all your Chrome info separate, like bookmarks, history, passwords, and other settings.

• Switching Profiles spawns a new browser window
• Instructions to 'Add a new Profile'