Employees leaving and ownership of files in folders and subfolders

[fabmeyer]

Hello all, first post here

In our organization we have a lot of importand folders (projects for example) which are on private (My Drives) of users. And in these folders, other users create new folders for specific projects. And in there other users add files and so on... Which means there are many, many different owners in these folders.

Now we are in the process of removing inactive or former users. Say we have folder A and inside is folder B and inside is file C. If I delete owner of folder B, which is another user than owner of folder A, what will happen to folder B and file C? What is the "preferred" way to solve this issue (removing users and keeping files at the same place)? I know that there are orphaned files also...

We are also in the process of moving these important folders to shared drives, I think it will solve a lot of these problems.

Thanks in advance

[Capitan1 · Accepted solution]

You are correct that Shared Drives will solve most if not all of these issues.  For you specific issue right now the best course of action in my eyes would be to transfer those files to another user before you delete the account using the transfer option when you delete the account or under the Drive App settings.  Once you figure out your Shared Drive migration and move all that stuff to Shared Drive, life will be good again.

If you delete the account without doing this the files and folder may become orphaned and lead to a bit of confusion.

I have done this type of move a few times beware, folders and files not owned by your org in folders you want to move to Shared Drive will be a real pain to work around.  GAM is going to be your friend.  

[fabmeyer]

Hi @Capitan1 thank you for your answer. That's what I also thought, first transfer all files to me and after delete the user.

You said folders and files not owned by your org, is that even possible? I was trying to find out and also asked ChatGPT because it's confusing and it said it's not possible? See here: https://chatgpt.com/share/6750899c-c4f0-800c-93be-daf12712b3af

Because you can only move folders to shared drive if every owner of the folder, subfolders and files is also an owner of the shared drive, this would make things even more complicated.

[Capitan1]

You can not transfer ownership of files or folders from one org to another.

I you shared a folder externally. That external user can add files and folders that they own but not the original org that shared the folder.  It can get super messy. 

With the move it would be best for you do to it as the admin on not allow users to do it. You could do it manually using the UI or do it in bulk via GAM.  Depending on the age of the environment it does has the potential to break files that were able to live in multiple locations prior to Google using shortcuts. 

[fabmeyer]

Ok I see, so files and folders which are owned by external users can't be moved to a shared drive and will become orphaned files? And there's nothing I can do against it?

[Capitan1]

Well first GSD will not let you move those folders and files not owned by your org so depending on the depth and complexity you may be moving these individually.  This is where GAM will become your best friend.

Next external files and folders will become orphaned for the external user and your users if you delete the folder they are contained in.

[fabmeyer]

@Capitan1 @loundy_mark Ok so my "plan" looks like this:

1. Create a new Shared Drive (for example completed projects) 
2. Add everybody from the company as owner to the new shared drive
3. Create a list with all the subfolders of the folder to be moved (with GAM)
4. Loop through the list and move every folder to the shared drive, log everything (with GAM)
5. Go through the logs and copy everything what is left manually to the shared drive (manually or with GAM?) 

What you think?

[loundy_mark]

You can copy them and then move them to a Shared Drive.