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Video Summary
In this video I’m going to show you how to change the owner of files and folders within Google Drive. Transferring ownership of files and folders in Google Drive is relatively easy. And once ownership is transferred you can both achieve your goals. Your colleague gets control of the files and they no longer count against your Google account quota.
To make the transfer of ownership of your files in Google Drive, just follow these easy tips.
Video Transcript
Hello, in this video I’m going to show you how to change the owner of files and folders within Google Drive. If that’s why you’re here, keep watching…
Okay, picture this, you and a colleague are working on a project together and he creates a Google drive for both of you to store your common files. However, after a few months, something happens, and you are transferred to another team.
Your colleague needs to control all the files in the drive, and it has become a hassle to contact you every single time he needs to change permissions for someone. Plus, you don’t need those files anymore, yet some of the files you originally created and own have gotten rather large, and they’re starting to have a negative impact on your available free space within your Google account.
Well, there’s good news! Since you have no need for these files, you can transfer the ownership to your colleague. Transferring ownership of files and folders in Google Drive is relatively easy. And once ownership is transferred you can both achieve your goals. Your colleague gets control of the files and they no longer count against your Google account quota.
To make the transfer of ownership of your files in Google Drive, just follow the steps that I’m about to show you. As a reminder, you are the owner of the files that you create or upload into your drive or a shared drive.
To be able to change ownership, you must first share the folder or a file with the person to whom you want to give ownership. Instead of trying to describe the process here, let me go to my computer so I can show you step-by-step.
Sharing a Folder or a File in Google Drive
Okay, you need to start off by going into Google Drive at http://drive.google.com/. Then the first step is to find the file or folder that you want to share. So today I’m going to work with Project Details.
So, once you’ve identified the file or folder, there are several ways you can start sharing.
The first way is to simply click on the file or folder and when you do the share icon will appear up here. So I clicked on Important Information, and I’ve got this share icon. If I click on Project Details, it’s very similar, this share icon shifts places a little bit but it’s here in the upper right.
The second option, while looking at this list is to simply right-click on what you want to share. And this menu pops up, and then you would choose the Share item right here.
And the third option, if you’re already in a folder, so let me go into Project Details.. I’m already in here, and now I can just click the down arrow and that will give me this menu and I can choose Share.
So if I want to share this entire folder, I’ll do it this way. But I could just as well pick an individual folder or individual file and share that. So let me start out by clicking Share here. And now I want to share it with my own user, so I’ll put in my email address. And in your case, you would enter the email address of your colleague. Then decide whether or not you want to notify him or her and then click the Share or the Send button.
So if I leave this as checked, which is the default, it’s going to notify the recipient that you just shared something. And then you would click the send button. If you turn that off, then it just creates a share button because it doesn’t do a notification. So I will do that, I will click on Share.
Now we will see that this project is shared, it shows me the two people. And then down the line here we have the share indicator as well. So it has shared everything in this folder.
Transferring Ownership of a Folder or a File in Google Drive
Now after the file has been shared, what you want to do is to click the share button again. This time, you’ll find the name of the new owner, and then click that same Share icon.
But let’s say I don’t want to transfer ownership of the entire folder, but just something inside, I could click on Columbia for example.. Right-click and go back into Share. But this time instead of adding someone new, I will go to my sample user, which is me, and here where it says Editor I’ll click the down arrow and I will click “Transfer ownership”. A new window pops up and I will click “send invitation”.
So that’s your process. You choose the person that you want and then choose to transfer ownership. Afterwards, it says “Pending Owner” beneath that person’s name.
The transfer is not automatic. The intended recipient must first accept that invitation. And so the status remains the same, this user is an Editor up until he accepts the transfer of ownership. At this point, you can just click the Done button to move on.
Meanwhile, that intended recipient, that intended owner is going to receive an email notification about the transfer of ownership and he should accept that. Once that happens, you’re done.
Now keep in mind that once you’ve changed the owner, you will lose control over those files and folders. Although at the point of transfer, you still have access as an editor of these files and folders. If the new owner, however, removes you then you’re eliminated at that point.
And, you should also know that changing the ownership of a folder isn’t the same as sharing a folder. When you share a folder, everything in that folder gets shared. But when you transfer ownership, only the folder or files that you transfer will be shared.
So, what do you do if you have a lot of folders to change ownership of simultaneously or a lot of files?
You can click. So, I want to share Discovery and then I CTRL.. I hold on the CTRL button and Endeavor. And let’s say I want to share or transfer ownership of Read Me, so I click those three. And then I can come into the Share again. The recipient is already the editor here, so I can come into here, choose “Transfer ownership” and send the invitation. And now this person has been invited to take ownership of these three items.
So you can select any number of files or folders by holding down the CTRL button. And after you’ve made the selections you want, transfer ownership of all of them at once.
Well, that’s it!
Once the invitations are accepted, you will have successfully transferred the ownership of your files and folders to your colleague, or friend, or family member, or whomever.
Since anyone can have a free Google Drive account, you can potentially transfer files to anyone. All you need is their email address and their willingness to accept the transfer.
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