Transfer Google docs from one account to another

Question

My company just changed its domain name, and we all moved our Google apps accounts (say, from adam@old-domain.com to adam@new-domain.com).

We have found sufficient solutions for transferring emails, filters, contacts and calendars. However, we failed to find a proper way to bulk-copy our Google Docs. This is a huge problem for many users who have hundreds of Google Docs used daily.

Is there any workaround? I couldn't find any proper solution in Google's discussion group.

Answer 1

Put every thing into one folder, right click that folder, press share, then add the person you want as the owner. After sharing it with them press the little tab beside their name and click "Is Owner".

Answer 2

Have you looked at Cyberduck? It is available for both Mac and Windows and it allows you to bulk download all of your docs from Google Docs. After that, all you have to do is bulk upload them to your new account.

Answer 3

To transfer ownership of all documents from one user to another:

1. Sign in to the Google Admin panel.
2. Click the Settings tab, and then click Drive and Docs in the left column.
3. Click the Tools tab and complete the Document ownership transfer section:
   • In the From field, enter the user name of the current owner and select the user’s domain.
   • In the To field, enter the user name of the new owner and select the user’s domain.
     
     Tip: If the transfer involves a very large number of documents, you may want to notify the new owner and check that they have enough storage capacity to accommodate the transferred documents. (In the new owner's Google Drive on the web, click the Upload button to see the amount of storage used/available).
4. Click Transfer documents to save.
   
   All of the transferred documents are automatically organized in a single new folder — titled with the previous owner’s email address — in the new owner’s Drive.
   
   The administrator and the new and previous owners receive email about the transfer as soon as the process completes.
   
   If there were any problems with the transfer (e.g. the new owner's quota is exceeded, which prevents the transfer of some documents), the email notification describes what happened. To fix the problem, you might purchase more storage for Google Drive for the new owner, transfer ownership of the documents to a different user, or redistribute ownership of documents one at a time to different users.

Does EXACTLY what you need. Just did it and it worked perfectly.

Source.

Answer 4

This isn't ideal but it appears that you have already exhausted the solutions that can be found within Google Groups:

What about bulk download and bulk upload of files?

This article explains how to bulk download all your Google Documents and this one explains how to batch upload Google Documents

As I said it's not ideal but this rather important feature seems to be severely lacking in Google Docs.

Answer 5

In order to move my files from my school account to my personal Google account, I first share the folders to my personal account, then select all of the files and 'Make a Copy' from the 'More actions' tab.

I then log into my personal account and move the copies into a folder on that account. I can then remove the ownership from the original account and modify them or share them otherwise.

The main issue here is having to rename all the files to remove 'Copy of...'

Answer 6

You might want to keep an eye on http://www.migrationbox.com/. They supposedly are close to releasing a new tool that will perform an automated docs migration for you.

Answer 7

See this Lifehacker article: How to Migrate Your Entire Google Account to a New One

Some of the details are old, but should all still work.

Answer 8

The only way is to either upload the files again to the Google Apps account or share the files with the Google Apps email address of yours. You cannot transfer the Ownership of the files yet (if you have upgraded Google Docs to Google Drive)- this feature will be coming shortly. If you are still using Google Docs, the owner can be changed to the Google Apps Account.