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How can I transfer all my files from a google drive account to another google drive account, but from different domain and organisation.

I tried with Transfer Ownership, but I recieve an error when I choose to which user I want to transfer the files.

"Error: Select a user from search results"

This is the message I get

Paul
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2 Answers2

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Transfer of Ownership with Google Drive

It would be important to clarify at first what is possible and the workarounds. First we need to make sure that your organization has enabled the option to share files with outside users or make it public.

The [transfer of ownership][1] is only available or allowed between users from the same organization.

Method 1 (Make a Copy)

The first method that I suggest is to move all data to a folder from your Drive and share that folder directly with the other user. For example the folder would be under user "A" and you would share it with the user from another domain, the user "B".

Login to with user "B" and check under "Recent" option over, it should be on the left of the Drive UI.

You should be able to access the folder that was recently shared or with the link of the folder (I suggest having the user "B" account under an incognito window). You can start from there picking the files and making a copy, the copy would be under the ownership of user "B".

Method 2 (Shared Drives)

If your new organization or domain has Shared Drives, you should be able to add the external users as "Manager", you would need to add user "A". This way the user "A" would be able to move files directly to the Shared Drive, and due to the Shared drives not having owners but "Managers" or other permissions, the file becomes part of the new organization and is available to be moved by the users of the new organization.

Method 3 (Google Takeout)

If none of these options helps you, you can utilize Google Takeout to download all your Google Data.

You can review how it works below: https://support.google.com/accounts/answer/3024190

References

Ricardo Jose Velasquez Cruz
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  • I tried this methods, but it doesn't work. We don't have people associated with the files. – Paul Aug 25 '22 at 09:46
  • If that is the case, it would be due to what I mentioned at the beginning. The organization or domain might have limited what can be shared outside the domain or also applied DLP (Data Loss protection) to avoid the copy and sharing of their organization data. Do you have a screenshot of the error itself that you can edit on the question? – Ricardo Jose Velasquez Cruz Aug 25 '22 at 18:44
  • Done. The image was uploaded. – Paul Aug 26 '22 at 09:42
  • That is expected behavior as suggested by the official documentation. It is not considered an error. Which is why the methods are workarounds when it comes to the limitations of transfer of ownership. I would be editing the response with screenshots when sharing with outside users (Gmail account for example) and making the copy. – Ricardo Jose Velasquez Cruz Aug 26 '22 at 20:01
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In addition to Ricardo's full answer:

Method 2b (automated)

Even if your Google Workspace has no Shared Drives you might use this method with Google Drive add-on or web-app.

IT Consulting
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