Tech Tuesday - How to Transfer Google Files Easily to an Account Outside Your Workspace/School

What if you retire or get a new job and want to keep some of your Google files?  Google doesn't make it easy when you are in a workspace (like you are at your school), mostly for security issues, but it is possible and it is not too difficult.  It just takes some time.

My best friend is retiring and going to work in a private setting and ran into this difficulty.  She has lessons an activities that she worked hard on, but could not find an easy way to keep them.  There is the obvious download and then reupload to another account, but that could take a long time and sometimes things get lost in the formatting when you do that.

Here's the easy way -  

First: Create a backup Google account to transfer your files to.  For our directions, I'll call the original account "Teacher@gmail.com" and my new account "Backup@gmail.com".  Once that is done, I can move on.

Second: Create a new SHARED DRIVE.  You will see this option on the left hand side of your screen. I will call my new shared drive BACKUP DRIVE.  

Third: Click on BACKUP DRIVE and look in the upper mid-right part of your screen.  You will see MANAGE MEMBERS.  Type in your new account (backup@gmail.com).  Just to the right of that you will see that it is making backup@gmail.com a CONTENT MANAGER.  Change that to MANAGER. This is important.

Fourth: Move whatever files/folders you wish to keep into the shared drive named BACKUP DRIVE.  It will now make the shared drive the owner of these files.

Fifth: Open up the Google Drive for Backup@gmail.com.  Open the BACKUP DRIVE and you will see all the files and folders you moved there.  Now just drag them into your regular drive.  It will alert you that you (backup@gmail.com) are now the owner of these files.  

That's it!  Since you transferred ownership and didn't merely make copies, the actual files are gone from your original school drive and gone from your shared drive.  You now have complete ownership in your backup Google Drive.  Once you get your new school or workplace, you can move them over again.  The whole process doesn't take too long.