Moving your Google Drive files to a new account can be a hassle, but it’s a common task that many users must perform at some point.
Whether you’re switching to a new personal Gmail address or transferring files for work, it’s important to know how to transfer Drive content seamlessly.
Therefore, in this post, we’ll break down the simple steps to move your Google Drive files from one account to another.
Additionally, Google Drive allows you to easily share files with other users, but did you know that you can also transfer full ownership and access to files to a new account?
Furthermore, this comprehensive transfer process keeps your Drive organized by allowing you to delete files from your old account after successfully moving them. Below we will describe the transfer process step by step.
- First, you’ll need to sign in to the source and destination Google accounts.
- Next, select the files or folders you want to move from your original account.
- Click the “Share” button and enter the email address of the new account owner.
- Next, from the drop-down menu, select “Transfer ownership” instead of just sharing.
- Finally, the new owner accepts the transfer request, completing the process and removing files from the old Drive.
That is the basic process to transfer Google Drive files from one account to another.
How can you transfer Google Drive content to another account (Manually) ?
Initiating the transfer of content from one Google Drive account to another can be accomplished using a variety of manual methods.
Additionally, these include using the “Share” feature inherent to Google Drive, the Google Admin Console Takeout application, the implementation of the Google Takeout or the simple method of downloading and later uploading the content to the desired account.
Use Share feature
To transfer Google Docs from one Google Drive account to another using the Share feature, follow these steps:
- Firstly, access your original Google Drive account. Select all the files you want to migrate to the new account, right-click and select the “Share” option.
- Secondly, enter the email address of your new contributor account. After clicking “Done“, you can adjust the read and write permissions for this account.
- Thirdly, click the down arrow icon, select “Editor” from the drop-down menu, and press the “Submit” button.
- Sign in to your new account. You will find the transferred files in the “Shared with me” section.
Download and Re-Upload
This method is particularly easy to use, ideal for those who are not well versed in managing and transferring cloud drives. Here are the steps:
- Firstly, sign in to your original account and create a new folder in the root directory of your Google Drive to house all the files you want to transfer.
- Secondly, move all files to this new folder. Alternatively, you can skip creating a new folder and select each file individually.
- Thirdly, right click on the new folder and select “Download.” Wait for the download process to complete.
- Lastly, sign in to your new account. Use the “Upload” function to upload the downloaded .zip file.
Note: if you are uploading compressed files to Google Drive, you will need to unzip them first. You can then click “Upload Folder” to transfer them to your new account. Allow the upload process to reach its completion.
Also Check: How to recover a Google Account ?
Google Takeout
For those who have multiple file formats on Google Drive and want to migrate these files to another Google Drive, Google Takeout is a viable solution.
Furthermore, this service, provided by Google, allows users to compile an archive of their data for easy transfer to other accounts.
Additionally, one thing to keep in mind is that using this method will convert file formats.
However, once your new account is established, you can revert all of these files to their original formats by modifying the upload settings on the drive.
Follow below mentioned steps to transfer your drive file using Google Takeout.
- Firstly, visit the Google Takeout official website and sign in to your account.
- Secondly, choose Google Drive (the account you’re transferring from) and click on “Next step”.
- Thirdly, choose a delivery method. In this case, select “Add to Drive” from the drop-down menu. If not selected, “Send download link via email” will be chosen by default.
- Finally, select “Create export” and patiently wait for the operation to conclude. You’ll then need to download these compressed files to your local storage, decompress them, and finally upload all the files to the new Google Drive account.
Google Admin Console
Another method of transferring files from one Google Drive account to another, particularly within the same organization, involves using the Google Admin Console.
Furthermore, this allows you to change ownership to a different Google Drive account while the original owner’s account is still active.
Additionally, once all files and folders have been successfully transferred, the original Google Drive account can be deleted.
Follow below mentioned steps to transfer Google drive files using Google Admin Console:
- Firstly, log in to your Google Admin console with an admin account.
- Secondly, go to Menu > Apps > G suit > Drive and Docs.
- Thirdly, choose “Transfer ownership”.
- Input the email of the current owner in the ‘From user’ field and select the user, then do the same for the new owner in the ‘To user’ field.
- Next, click “Transfer Files”. (Ensure both users meet the transfer criteria to avoid errors).
- In Last, wait for the transfer to complete. Confirmation emails will be sent to both owners and the admin.
Additionally, if many files were transferred, it might take some time for changes to appear. Optionally, you can restore the current owner’s account if it was suspended.
What are the limitations of manual Google Drive transfers ?
Shared drive limits: Google Shared Drive has a limit of 400,000 files per shared drive. There is no way to increase the file limit on a single drive.
Daily transfer limits: Google has a hard and fast upload limit of 750 GB per user per day. This impacts migration times, especially for larger organizational migrations that have a large amount of data on shared drives.
Individual upload limits: Individual users can only upload 750 GB each day between My Drive and all shared drives. Individuals who exceed the daily limit of 750 GB or attempt to upload a single file larger than 750 GB will be unable to add more files for the remainder of that day.
Maximum file size: The maximum individual file size you can upload or sync is 5TB.
Complexity and time consumption: Manual methods can be a bit complicated and time-consuming as you have to perform each step individually.
Also Check: How to exclude words from Google search ?
How to automatically transfer Google Drive content ?
In this section, we’ll guide you through the steps to set up automatic transfers of your Google Drive content.
Use Google Apps Script
Google Apps Script is a scripting language that allows you to automate tasks in Google Drive.
To use Google Apps Script to automatically transfer Google Drive content, you can create a script that copies or moves files from one folder to another, or from one account to another.
Follow below mentioned steps to create a Google Apps Script.
- Firstly, open Google Drive.
- Secondly, click the New button and select More > Google Apps Script.
- Thirdly, give your script a name and click Create.
- Next, in the script editor, paste the following code:
Replace the SOURCE_FOLDER_ID and DESTINATION_FOLDER_ID placeholders with the IDs of the source and destination folders, respectively.
- Finally, to run the script, click the Run button.
You can also schedule the script to run automatically at regular intervals. To do this, click the Triggers tab and click the Add Trigger button. Select a trigger type and specify the desired schedule.
Use a third-party service
There are a number of third-party services that can be used to automatically transfer Google Drive content.
Additionally, these services typically offer a variety of features, such as the ability to transfer files between different cloud storage providers, schedule transfers, and filter files by type or size.
Furthermore, to use a third-party service to automatically transfer Google Drive content, you will need to create an account with the service and connect your Google Drive account.
Then , once you have done this, you can configure the service to transfer files from one folder to another, or from one account to another.
Some popular third-party services for automatically transferring Google Drive content include:
MultCloud
MultCloud is a cloud storage manager that allows you to connect to and manage multiple cloud storage accounts from a single interface.
Additionally, it supports over 30 cloud storage providers, including Google Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive, and Amazon S3.
Zapier
Zapier is a web-based automation tool that allows you to connect your favorite apps and services together. Additionally, it supports over 4,000 apps, including Google Drive, Gmail, Slack, and Trello.
CloudHQ
CloudHQ is a cloud-to-cloud integration platform that helps you connect and manage your cloud accounts from a single place.
Additionally, it supports over 30 cloud storage providers, including Google Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive, and Amazon S3, as well as productivity tools like Gmail, Salesforce, and Slack.
Movebot
Movebot is a cloud-to-cloud data migration platform that helps you move data between different cloud storage providers.
Furthermore, it supports over 30 cloud storage providers, including Google Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive, and Amazon S3.
Which method should you use?
The best method for automatically transferring Google Drive content depends on your specific needs.
If you need to create a custom transfer workflow or schedule transfers at regular intervals, then you should use Google Apps Script.
Alternatively, if you need a more user-friendly interface or want to transfer files between different cloud storage providers, then you should use a third-party service.
Conclusion
In conclusion, transferring files from one Google Drive account to another is a common task that many users need to perform at some point.
Whether it’s a personal Gmail address change or a work-related file transfer, it’s critical to understand how to move Drive content seamlessly.
Furthermore, this article provides a complete guide on how to do this, covering manual methods such as using the “Share” function and downloading and uploading files, as well as automatic methods such as Google Takeout.
Additionally, each method has its own advantages and may be more suitable depending on your specific transfer requirements. By following these steps, you can ensure a smooth and efficient transfer process
Frequently Asked Question’s (FAQ’s)
Yes, it is possible to transfer all the contents of one Google Drive to a different account. This can be done using the Google Drive Share feature, the download and upload method, Google Takeout, the Google Admin Console, or a cloud storage manager like MultCloud.
Yes, you can have multiple Google Drive accounts. However, with the Google Drive website and its desktop app like Backup and Sync, you can only connect one account at a time.
Yes, you can sync two Google accounts by following these steps:
Choose a primary Google Drive account.
Sign in to another Google account (the one you want to sync) and go to Google Drive.
Select the “New” option located at the upper left corner.
Select ‘Folder’ when the dropdown menu appears.
