How to Transfer Google Drive Data to Another Account

There are two ways to transfer your Google Drive data to another account:

• By sharing files and folders.
• By transferring the ownership of the files and folders.

First method: Sharing files and folders

On desktop

First, you have to share the data with the receiving account.

Share your files and folders with the receiving Google Drive account

1. Select the files or folders you want to share.
2. Right-click on the file and click Share from the context menu.
3. Now, enter the receiving Google Drive’s email address, and set the sharing permissions to Editor.
4. Click Send. Files are now shared with the other Google Drive account.Note: This method will allow both Google Drive accounts to have editorial access to the files simultaneously.

Next, you want to import the shared data to the second (receiving) account.

Importing the shared files and folders

1. Log into the receiving Google Drive account. 
2. Create a new folder in which you want to keep the transferred data.
3. Go to the Shared with me tab on the left menu and navigate to the folder shared from the sending account. Open the folder and select all the files inside it. 
4. Right-Click and select Move to from the context menu. 
5. Finally, select the folder you created earlier and click Move.

Google Drive will now copy the shared folder contents and paste them into the new folder you created.

Note: Though this moves the files to the receiver’s Drive, they will still not be the owner. If the sender wants, they can remove their access from the file.

On mobile

First, you have to share the data with the receiving account.

Share your files and folders with the receiving Google Drive account

1. Launch Google Drive on your phone.
2. Select the files or folders you want to share with the other Google Drive account (you can only share one file or folder simultaneously on mobile devices).
3. Tap on the three vertical dots in the top-right corner, and then from the context menu, tap Share.
4. Insert the email of the Google Drive account you want to share the files with. 
5. Set sharing permissions to Editor.
6. Tap Send.

Next, you want to import the shared data to the receiving account.

Importing the shared files and folders

1. Switch to your receiving Drive account on the app.
2. Create a new folder in the Home tab.
3. Tap the Shared tab button on the bottom menu and navigate to the shared folder.
4. Open the folder and select all the folders/files you want to import.
5. Tap the three vertical dots on the top right corner and then tap Move.
6. Navigate to the folder you created earlier and tap Move.

Transferring all data at once

To transfer all of your data in one go:

1. Create a new folder on the sending Google Drive account.
2. Move all of your data inside it. This can either be by copying and pasting the files or simply dragging and dropping them.
3. Share that folder with the receiving account, 
4. Finally, follow the steps above to import the data.

Second method: Transfer ownership of a file or folder to another account

This method transfers complete ownership of specific Google Drive data to another user. This can only be done on a computer.

For individuals

1. Log in to the owner’s Google Drive account.
2.  Right-click on the file or folder that you want to transfer. Then, click Share.
3. Insert the email of the new owner’s Google Drive account and click Done.
4. Right-click on the file again, and click Share. In the pop-up window, click the Down arrow on the right of the new owner’s email address.
5. Select Make Owner from the list of options and click Done.
   Note: if you accidentally transferred the ownership of a file, repeat the same process but this time select Cancel ownership transfer.Once the process is finished, the new owner will receive a confirmation email for the transfer of ownership. Here’s how to accept it:

For organizations

If you’re the head of an organization and want to transfer the ownership of files or folders from one employee’s Google Drive to another, follow these steps:

1. Log in to your Google Admin console (you can only use your administrator account and not your regular Gmail account).
2. Once on the admin console dashboard, navigate to Apps > Google Workspace > Drive and Docs.
3. Now, click Transfer Ownership.
4. On the pop-up dialog, insert the current owner’s email address in the From user section, while the new owner’s email address is in the To user section.
5. Finally, click Transfer Files to get the transferring process started.

Note: This process might take a long time to finish depending on the number of files being transferred. Once done, both the new and old owners will receive a confirmation email.