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 makes the transfer request while still working at the university. See this article for other content a person should consider before the person leaves the university. 

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. You can only transfer the content to one person. You want to create a case with the OIT Help Desk to make this request. Send an email to oithelp@nd.edu with the below information 

Four important items for your attention:

1.  Required - we need manager approval to change ownership of your files - even if the transfer is to your manager.
   
   1. You can get a manager's approval via an email with her/him. Be sure to include that email request and manager's approval when emailing the OIT Help Desk. Please get the approval before making the request. Copying your manage when you open the case with the Help Desk is not the recommended approach. Thank you
2. Be aware that this process moves all content owned by the person who is leaving. 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. The individual's access remains, but the individual is now an Editor of the content rather than the owner so this can be done well before the individual leaves the University. Even though the access will be changed to an Editor for the person leaving, the person will lose access the day after their last day at the university because we inactivate the person's ND NetID (i.e. the person cannot log in to Google or other services using their ND NetID/pwd) 
4. For your personal content that you do not want to be transferred, identify that content and download it. It will download to a zip file (if there is more than one file). You can unzip the file and upload that content to your personal gmail.com or other account. 
   1. Here is a way to find all content in Google Drive that you are listed as the owner
   2. In Drive, in the search box, click the icon in the search box (the advanced search option)
   3. Under Owner, click the drop-down and select: owned by me
   4. Click the Search bar
   5. The results will display below. You most likely will need to scroll to find all content that you are listed as the owner

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 their 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 the individual. 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 attempts 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 the 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. Their access remains, but the person is now an Editor of the content rather than the owner.
2. The separating employee does lose the ability to log in via their Notre Dame NetID. This occurs the day after the person's last work day. 
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.