Question

How do I transfer content from one employee’s Google Drive account's My Drive space to another employee’s account - typically because they are separating from the University and the department needs to retain access to certain files

Answer

The transfer process is best when the employee leaving the university does the work or makes the transfer request while still working at the university. 

There are 2 ways to handle transferring content from the person leaving to another employee or departmental account. The employee leaving should discuss with his/her manager to decide to whom to transfer the content. 

1. The employee who is leaving can transfer all work content to another employee. See Option 1 below
2. Follow the below steps in Option 2 to have ALL content transferred from the employee who is leaving to another employee's account

Option 1 - Employee Transfer Ownership

This is a manual process completed by the person who is separating from the university

Option 2 - Transfer all Content

Before an employee leaves the department, make sure to request that all My Drive content in Google Drive be moved from their account to another employee - preferably their manager.

Three important items for your attention:

1. An email thread with the request to your manager and his/her approval is needed. We need manager approval to change ownership of your files - even if the transfer is to your manager. 
2. Be aware that this process can only move all content owned by a person. That includes all collaborative and personal content. There is no ability to pick only specific files or folders to transfer. It’s all or nothing so make sure to remove any personal content before requesting the transfer.
3. 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 this can be done well before they leave the University.

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 (folders/files) where I am listed as the ‘owner’ in my Notre Dame Google Drive account's My Drive space be transferred to <current employee name and NetID>.

Once the transfer is complete, the separating employee, the employee getting the content, and the admin doing the work will all receive email confirmations.

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If the separating employee does not submit the request above before her last day worked, there are still other options available.

1. When an employee has left the university, but approves the transfer when the department contacts them. 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 (folders/files) where I am listed as the ‘owner’ in my Notre Dame Google Drive account's My Drive space 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.

2. If the separated employee cannot be contacted or does not respond to repeated attempt to contact them, then their manager will need to request access to their 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.

When the transfer is complete, what will the separating employee and the person who is receiving the files see in Google Drive?

For the separating employee:

1. 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.
2. The separating employee does lose the ability to login via her Notre Dame NetID. 
3. You should do some access cleanup for the account such as removing the person from Google groups, etc. 

For the account receiving the content:

1. All content transferred will be put in one folder in your My Drive.
2. If you previously had access to some content, you will see that content in its current location as well as within the new folder that is created and placed in your My Drive. It is the same content, not a copy; just accessible from 2 different locations.
3. Our recommendation is to leave the new folder placed in your My Drive where it is. You may want to organize that content in your My Drive to 'hide' it under another folder. See this article on how to organize your My Drive space.