Google Drive: Transfer Ownership of Google Drive Folder

Ensuring smooth collaboration by managing ownership of Google Drive folders across different domains and Google Drives is crucial. This guide outlines solutions for transferring ownership of Google Drive folders, catering to various needs and scenarios.

Google does not allow transferring ownership across Google domains, and each campus has its own domain. There are a few solutions to transfer ownership of a Google Drive Folder.

In this article:

Solution 1: Use a Google Shared Drive

This option consists of creating a Google Shared Drive and granting another account Manager access. Using a Shared Drive is best for transferring ownership of files across domains/campuses or for transferring ownership of many files.

Notes: 

  • You cannot directly move folders into Shared Drives, meaning that you have to recreate folders within the Shared Drive before transferring files. 
  • Members do need to request for a new Shared Drive if this work is a new project, unless there is already a created Shared Drive. Members will need to fill out a form that requests two managers.
  1. Sign into your Google Drive account.
  2. On the left hand panel of your Google Drive, click on Shared Drives.
  3. Click on the + icon or New button to create a new Shared Drive.
  4. Name the Shared Drive.
  5. Open the newly created Shared Drive.
  6. Click on the Vertical Ellipses or select Manage Members.
  7. Click Add Members and enter the email address of the other account.                           
    Manage members with box below to add people and group.
  8. Set their role as Manager to grant them full access to the Shared Drive.

Once you have created a new Shared Drive, you can transfer existing folders and files to it:

  1. Go to the folder you want to transfer within your My Drive.
  2. Create a New Folder within the Shared Drive with the same name as the original folder.
  3. Select all files and folders within the original folder in your My Drive.
  4. Right click and choose Move to 
    1. or, drag them into the corresponding folder within the Shared Drive.
  5. You can either leave the files in the Shared Drive, or the other person can move the folder from the Shared Drive to their My Drive, which would make them the owner.
  6. If the other person needs to become the owner, they can move the folder from the Shared Drive to their My Drive, effectively transferring ownership across domains/campuses.

Solution 2: Folder Download

This option allows you to download the shared folder onto your computer, and re-upload it into your own personal Google Drive. Members should consider uploading it to a Shared Drive. This option works best if you have shared access to the folder you want to download.

Notes: 

  • All Google file types become their non-Google equivalents. For example, a Google Sheet file will be saved as an Excel file, a Google Doc will become a Word doc, etc. 
  • You may not be able to download the folder onto your computer if your folder is too large and there is not enough storage space on your device.
  1. Sign into your Google Drive account
  2. On the left hand panel of your Google Drive, click Shared with Me.
  3. You will have the option to change the type of files you want to see. Select Folders.
    Shared with Me in Google Drive with the option types changed to Folders.                                                
  4. Right-click on the folder you would like to download onto your computer, and select Download.Folder with right-click options displayed, Download highlighted.
  5. Once the folder downloads on your computer, locate and expand it to view the contents.

Note: If you wish to simply keep the downloaded folder on your computer, then you can stop here. If you would like to upload this folder into your own Google Drive, continue to the next step.

  1. Open up your Google Drive account. 
  2. Click on New New buttonon the left hand panel, and select Folder Upload.
    New menu expanded partially displaying options New Folder, File Upload, Folder upload (highlighted), Google Docs.
  3. Locate the folder(s) you wish to upload and add them to the upload.

Solution 3: Make Copies

This option allows you to copy files that are not in a Shared Drive and move them to a new folder. 

  • Note: There is no need to make copies of files in Shared Drives. Reach out to the Shared Drive manager to modify or copy contents of Shared Drive folders.
  1. Sign into your Google Drive account.
  2. Search for the folder you wish to copy the contents of.       
  3. Open the folder and select the file(s) you wish to copy.
    • Note: You can select more than one file at a time to copy by pressing Command (Mac) or Ctrl (PC) and selecting the desired files. To select all files within a folder, press Command+A or Ctrl+A.
  4. Right click to open file options. Select Make a Copy. This action creates a copy of the chosen file(s) within the current folder.
    File highlighted, with right-click options displayed, Make a Copy highlighted.                                                     
  5. Move the file(s) out of the folder:
    1. Select the file copies.
    2. Right click and select Organize, then Move.
    3. Create a folder to put the copied file(s) into by selecting the New folder icon. Name the folder.
      Google Drive Organize Menu with folder options. New folder icon highlighted.

Last modified

TDX ID

7652