Transfer folder/file ownership with ease
Are you having challenges painstakingly moving your files from one Google account to another (on a folder with nested folders and files in it)? You can now do this with ease using Folgo's Transfer feature.
Reminders about File Ownership in Google Drive
By default, you own any file that you create in (or upload to) Google Drive.
📌 There are important considerations that you need to factor in if you're using a Personal Google/Gmail Account:
You can invite another person with a Personal Google Account to take ownership of your files and folders.
You can’t invite another person with a work or school (Workspace) account to take ownership of your files or folders.
ⓘ Learn about our alternative solution: Move to Shared Drive New.
Move to Shared Drive is a great way for teams (internal & external) to move or transfer files in Google Drive.The person you invite to own the file or folder must accept your request to complete the transfer.
Steps for the Current Folder Owner
(for Gmail & Workspace accounts)
(for Gmail & Workspace accounts)
Before you transfer ownership
Google Drive doesn't have the capability to transfer all of your files in a folder - this is where Folgo comes in.
💡 Tip: If you transfer ownership of a lot of files and folders at once, it may take some time for you to see the changes. Learn more.
1. Initialize the transfer feature
Once Folgo is open > click Transfer / Request Folder owership.
2. Select the Transfer folder
You will see a prompt saying 👈 Select a folder to transfer.
The 👈pointing finger prompts you to choose a source folder within Google Drive (and not in the Folgo sidebar).
ℹ️ Folgo will behave like a file picker at this point.
Navigate/locate and select your transfer folder.
Once selected, the Folgo UI will update and display your chosen transfer folder.
3. Enter the recipient's email address
In the New owner email field, enter the transfer recipient's email address.
⚠️ Note: Transfer ownership is only possible between:
(Personal) Gmail to another (Personal) Gmail account
Google Workspace to another Google Workspace account
That is: Transfers are not possible:
From (Personal) Gmail to Google Workspace accounts or vice versa.
ⓘ Learn about our alternative solution: Move to Shared Drive.
Move to Shared Drive New is a great way for teams (internal & external) to move or transfer files in Google Drive.
4. Supplementary file management options
In this example, we'll leave the current selection (as is) to Folders & Files.
ℹ️ By default, Folgo selects the Folders & files option. Depending on your needs, choose:
◯ Folders only - if you want to transfer only folders.
◯ Files only - if you want to transfer only files.
◯ Folders & Files - if you want to transfer both folders and files.
5. Activate the transfer process.
Click the TRANSFER button to initialize the transfer process.
ℹ️ Once the transfer process is started, you can opt to close Folgo, Google Drive, your browser, or your computer.
This is possible (and safe) because Folgo will process everything using Google servers (operating behind the scenes).
6. Finishing touches
Now that the transfer process is initialized, the Folgo UI will display:
A. Selected transfer folder.
B. Supplementary Process report (Inspection/Audit report) that contains all your files and their metadata
⚠️ Only open this when the transfer is complete.
And do not edit while the transfer is ongoing.
C. The transfer status report (Job progress).
D. The REFRESH button.
(Optional) Click REFRESH if you want to check the current status of the transfer process.
If you decide to refresh the status, this may take a while and the duration will depend on the number of folders/files that are being transferred.
☝️ Refreshing is purely optional since Folgo will process everything on the server-side (see note on Step 5 for more details).
7. Transfer request complete
Once the transfer request is finished, the Folgo UI will:
Prompt you that the transfer request is completed (with timestamp).
Display the total number of folder(s) and files.
You can open the Transfer folder and Process report.
☝️ To see this prompt in the Folgo UI, click the Refresh button when the entire process is done.
📌️ The transfer process is handled differently between a Personal Gmail or Workspace account.
Between 2 personal Gmail accounts):
When you open the Process report, you will see that the status is set to PENDING USER OWNERSHIP ACCEPTANCE.
This is why the Pending Owner needs to accept the file transfer request. See the next section for details.
Between 2 Workspace accounts:
There will be no Pending status for Workspace users since the files are automatically transferred to the New Owner. You will only receive an email notification titled "You're now the owner of <TRANSFERRED FOLDER>".
ℹ️ You will notice that the transfer process is more efficient for Workspace account users.
Want to get more out of Google Drive for work or school? Sign up for a Google Workspace trial at no charge.
After you transfer ownership (between 2 personal Gmail accounts)
When you send an ownership transfer request:
The pending owner is notified by email that if they accept the transfer request, they become the file owner. Until then, you remain the owner.
The pending owner is upgraded to an Editor, unless they’re already an Editor.
If the pending owner accepts, you’re downgraded to Editor. The new owner can remove you.
If the pending owner declines, you remain the owner.
⚠️ Important:
You can’t transfer a file from your personal Google account to someone with a work or school account.
If you send an ownership transfer request to a personal account and that account becomes a work or school account, the pending owner can’t accept the request.
If you send an ownership transfer request and your personal account becomes a work or school account, the pending owner can’t accept the request.
You can cancel the request.
The pending owner can decline the request.
Steps for the Pending Owner
(between 2 personal Gmail accounts)
(between 2 personal Gmail accounts)
You will get an email when someone requests a file transfer. You can accept or decline the invitation. You can also search in Drive for files pending a response to an ownership transfer request.
1. Invitation to own emails will be sent to you
ℹ️️ In Google's effort to protect Personal Google Account (Gmail) users, the Pending Owner (recipient) must explicitly accept all folders/files that were transferred to them. These files/folders will be sent as individual emails titled Invitation to own: "<FOLDER / FILE NAME>"), allowing the recipient to open the folder and files to accept the transfer ownership.
💡 Tip: You don't need to open each invitation to accept or decline them. We will show you a simpler way to do this efficiently later on.
Here's a sample invitation to own email.
2. Display the transfer files in Google Drive
Enter or type this query in Google Drive's search bar:
pendingowner:me
or
from xxxxx pendingowner:me
Where xxxxx is the email address of the current owner.
All files/folders with pending ownership will be displayed.
3. Click the Share button
To start accepting or declining the files with pending ownership, click the Share button (C).
You will also see:
A. Pending ownership alert telling you:
How many ownership requests are there.
To select the files you want to accept.
To click the Share button.
B. All the files with pending ownership.
4. Accept or Decline ownership
In this step, you can either accept or decline the transfer ownership.
But in our example, we will accept the ownership. To do this, click:
a. The Accept ownership? button.
b. Accept.
(Your status will change from Editor to Owner.)
c. Done.
Once you accept transfer ownership
You are now upgraded as the Owner.
The previous owner is downdgraded to Editor.
You can remove the previous owner.
Supported file types in transfers
Personal Google Account (Gmail) users were previously only allowed to transfer Google-native files (Docs, Sheets, Slides, Drawings, Maps, Sites, and Folders). But that restriction has been lifted and it's now possible to transfer any and all file types (as clearly demonstrated in our example above).
📌 Important notes on Sharing settings and File Restrictions
If you have read-access to files or folders, but the file owner restricted their Sharing Settings - preventing you from copying them, then Folgo won’t be able to copy or duplicate them either. The accompanying Process report will indicate whether or not Folgo was able to copy each of your files.
To remedy this, ask the folder/files owner to change the Sharing Settings. Learn more about this in Google’s article on how to Stop, limit, or change sharing.
💡 Tip: For Personal Google Account users (between Gmail accounts), it's recommended to use our copy feature instead of the transfer feature.
ℹ️ The transfer ownership process is best suited for Google Workspace users within the same domain.