Making a Copy of a Google Drive File (Not a Copy of a Shortcut)

Making a Copy of a Google File, Office File, or New Google Site

1. Open a file in Google Drive and find the Make a copy option:
   1. For Google Docs/Slides/Sfheets/Excel/PowerPoint/Word, near the top left, click File and then click Make a copy
      
   2. For Google Forms, click the Three Dot Menu ⋮ and then click Make a copy near the top right.
      
   3. For New Google Sites, click Three Dot Menu ⋮ and then click Make a copy near the top right
      
2. If in the Copy document window if you see Folder, click the folder “button” and choose a location for the copy:
   Tip: Select a Shared Drive so that the Shared Drive owns it, not any one person (but note that you cannot put Google Forms with file-upload questions in Shared Drives)
3. So that no one looses access, check the box for ☑︎ Share it with the same people
4. Optionally, check the box for ☑︎ Copy comments and suggestions and ☑︎ Include resolved comments and suggestions to keep active comments and the history of comments

5. Click Make a copy 

   
6. For Google Forms with Responses you want to keep, also make a copy of the Responses Spreadsheet:
   1. In the original Google Form, near the top center click Responses
   2. Near the right, click the green View Responses in Sheets or Create Sheet button, and the Sheet of responses will open
      
   3. Copy the Google Sheet of responses following steps 1-2 above
      Tip: Create a folder in the copies' new location to put the Form and responses Sheet together
7. For New Google Sites, in the Copy site window
   1. For Folder, click Change and choose a location for the copy and click Select
      Tip: Select a Shared Drive so that the Shared Drive owns it, not any one person
      
   2. Check the box for ☑︎ Share with the same editors
      Tip: If you check this box, the copy is only shared with site Editors. If your published site is shared Restricted (so only specific people can view the published site) those with Published Viewer are not copied. Make a note of who has Published Viewer access, and when you're ready to publish the site copy, re-add them.
      
   3. Select Entire site to copy the whole site
   4. Click OK
8. The Copy opens

Making a Copy of Non-Google Files (pdfs, images)

1. Right-click on the item OR click ⋮ near the top right of the list of files
2. Select Make a copy
   
3. The new item will have the same name of the original file with Copy of added to the title
4. Your copy will be placed in My Drive and not organized in a folder. To search for the file, in the search bar type “Copy” and press Enter on your keyboard
5. The copy just made should appear at the top of the list
   
6. To be sure no one loses access to the file, move the file to a Shared Drive so that the Shared Drive owns it, not any one person.
7. Repeat steps 1-3 for additional files as needed 

Avoid Making Copies of a Shortcut

Drive Shortcuts are links to files. You can copy a shortcut, but if the original file is deleted, the shortcut will break. Instead, you want to copy the file, not the shortcut.

Identify Shortcuts

1. In Google Drive, shortcuts have a curved arrow over the file icon and when you hold your mouse over the file/folder, the helper text will read “Google Drive shortcut: [file name]”

1. When you right-click on a shortcut in Google Drive, you may see "Make a Copy".
2. When you right-click on a shortcut you will see Original file and Shortcut options menus. If Make a Copy is under Shortcut options, clicking it will copy the shortcut. Instead, if available, under Original file, click Show file location, which will show the original file. From there, right-click to Make a copy of the original.