Change ownership in drive

[Siggi]

I've had a personal @@gmail account since forever. I recently upgraded my Google Workspace and now have an @mydomain address. I have a bunch of work-related things in Google Drive with my @gmail as the owner, and I'd like to change that ownership to @mydomain. 

Everything I find when I Google the issue tells me you can only change ownership between people in your organisation. But surely there's a workaround? 

[icrew]

There is one, yes, involving Shared Drives. Here’s what you do:

1) On your @example.com account, create a Shared Drive

2) make your @Gmail.com account a manager of that Shared Drive

3) Log into your @gmail.com account 

4) Move the files you want to transfer to the shared drive. Note that you’ll only be able to move files, not folders. The files will now be owned by the example.com Shared Drive

5) On your @example.com account, either leave the files where they are in the Shared Drive, or move them from the Shared Drive into MyDrive. 

There’s also a somewhat simpler technique involving importing accounts into a Workspace instance, but that requires permanently giving up the gmail.com account and address, which it didn’t sound like you wanted to do. 

And yes, Google could certainly make this a bunch easier—it’s been broken in this way for many years for reasons I don’t quite understand.

Hope that helps,

Ian

[StephenHind]

@Siggi there is a workaround but it is  involved.

1. In Google Workspace configure a forwarder for a non-existent email address, e..g transfer-files@example.com to your normal account - see: Forward Gmail emails to another user
2. Create a personal Google Account for that forwarding address (in this example transfer-files@example.com) and Google will consider this as a personal Google Account, like a Gmail account
3. Sign in to your Gmail account to transfer ownership of the files and folders to the transfer account (e.g. transfer-files@example.com)
4. Use Google Workspace's Transfer Tool for unmanaged users to transfer the transfer account (e.g. transfer-files@example.com) to become a Google Workspace user
5. Then you can sign in as the transfer user as a Google Workspace user and then move the files, including the folders, to a Shared Drive or another user within your Google Workspace or use the transfer ownership tool in the admin console to transfer all the files at once.

This will require paying for a licence for the transfer account for however long you need it (or for the rest of your contract if you're on a commitment).

[kim_nilsson]

Ohhh, that's a clever workaround, using the Unmanaged Users tool!

Nice, @StephenHind !

[michael12]

Hi @StephenHind , 

I'm a bit confused on step 2. Would a personal Google Account you mention be a gmail address? Or with a custom domain? The only way I see to use a custom domain is with Google Workspace which then makes it impossible to transfer folder ownership to that account. (I'm looking to transfer ownership of folders, not just files).

Thanks!

[kim_nilsson]

You are allowed to create a Personal Google Account using a Workspace address, without creating a gmail_com address.

[StephenHind]

@michael12 

@michael12 

You can make a personal Google Account for any email address and this will not create the Gmail account, but you need to make it for an email address not used in Google Workspace.  If you try using the email address of a Google Workspace account it will tell you the account already exists.

Let's say your normal Workspace account is 
michael12 at yourdomain dot com
you can't make a Google Account for that email address but you can for 
doesNotExist  at yourdomain dot com.

I hope this helps.

[mgstauff]

This is FANTASTIC! I've been looking around for a solution to this issue (that doesn't involved a 3rd-party app that needs full control over my whole google accounts) and THIS WORKS! I have a large hierarch of intermingled folders and files owned by workspace domain accounts and personal accounts. I'm very happy. I was just starting to developing some messy app scripts to make the complicated process of moving everything into a shared drive, but this is MUCH easiser. Thank you!!

[Demir_Aydemir]

Here is the workaround.

Compare plans here
https://workspace.google.com/intl/en/pricing.html

You need Business Standart. Shared Drives is the solution to change the
ownership between a personal Google account and domain based Google
account.

Once you invite your personal account to your shared drive, you can move
your files to shared drive section, then remove your personal account from
this shared folder. Ownership will pass to domain based Google account.

[StephenHind]

@Demir_Aydemir look back at the solution I gave as there are no Shared Drives required and you're transferring ownership of everything in Drive potentially.

Also Google has changed Business Starter to now include Shared Drives - see:

• Bringing pooled storage and shared drives to Business Starter