Question
How to bulk transfer content from one employee’s Box account to another employee’s account. This is typically done due an employee separating from the University and the department needs to retain access to certain folders and files.
Answer
Before an employee leaves the department, it is the employee's responsibility to transfer ownership of work content from her box.nd.edu account to her manager or her replacement (that's a department decision). Please see this article for transferring box ownership from one box account to another.
We highly recommend that the departing employee transfer ownership herself. However, if that is not possible, see the below process. Please note that the process below is a manual effort from the box administrator. We much prefer that the departing employee transfer her content; she knows it best.
For Box, ownership is associated with folders, not individual files. This makes the transfer of ownership from one person to another a straightforward process. With Box, you can pick which folders need to be transferred to another account without having to transfer all content at once. Note that individual files listed at the 'All Files' (top-level) in Box will also need to be possibly handled by this process. The files at the All Files level are private to the person who owns the account.
Note that this is also required for this request to be completed:
- When making the transfer request, please get your manager's approval to change ownership of your files - whether to your manager or another person. Include the manager's approval as part of the request. You can attach the manager approval, email approval is fine, as part of the request.
Here is a sample email that the separating employee can send to oithelp@nd.edu:
My name is <your name> and my Notre Dame NetID is <your netid>. I work in <dept> and am leaving the university (or the department) on <date>. I request that all content <or list specific folders> where I am listed as the ‘owner’ in my Notre Dame Box account be transferred to <current employee name and NetID>.
One important item to be aware:
- The separating employee is not removed from the transferred folders and files. Her access remains, but she is now an Editor of the content rather than the owner so the transfer can be done well before the person leaves the University.
Box will not automatically notify you when the transfer is complete. If you need to be notified when the transfer is complete, please include that in your email to the OIT Help Desk and the system admin that completes the process will send you a confirmation.
If the separating employee does not submit the request above before their last day worked, there are still other options available, but they do take more time to complete.
When an employee has left the university but approves the transfer when the department contacts her/him. In this situation, the separated employee can email oithelp@nd.edu with their personal email account. Make sure to CC: your manager in this circumstance because they will have to verify your identity and approve the transfer for the OIT. Here is a sample email:
My name is <your name> and my Notre Dame NetID is <your netid>. I worked in <dept> and have since left the university. I request that all content <or list the individual folders> where I am listed as the ‘owner’ in my Notre Dame Box account be transferred to <current employee name>. My manager, <manager’s name> is included in this email thread and can verify my identity and approve the transfer.
If the separated employee cannot be contacted or does not respond to repeated attempts to contact her/him, then their manager will need to request access to her/his account by submitting a Request Access to Another Account form. This request will be reviewed by Information Security staff and will require approval from several university leaders. Once the request is approved, contact the OIT Help Desk for assistance in transferring the data, including the case number from the Request Access to Another Account.