Method to change ownership of Drive folder and all contents recursively

There's a few options to transfer ownership a users entire drive contents ie through the Data Transfer API: https://developers.google.com/admin-sdk/data-transfer/

However there's no way to transfer ownership of a specific folder and the contents recursively.

For example

If you have a structure like the following:

My Drive

>> Folder1

>>>> Folder2

>>>> Folder3

Changing drive ownership in Folder1 leaves all files and folders underneath with their original owners. The data transfer API transfer the entire drive contents. Would like to add a feature request for some middle ground where we can transfer a specific folder and it's contents.

Details

Email Migration and Synchronization (POP/IMAP),A Google Workspace admin,gsuite_enterprise

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All Replies (6)

Sunil - Tech Groupz

Gold Product Expert

May 24, 2019

Hi Jackson,

Google currently does not have a way to do a recursive File Transfer. However you may take a look at https://github.com/davidstrauss/google-drive-recursive-ownership to see if it helps. However please note the above link is a third party tool and is not supported or managed by Google.

Thanks

Bill Claxton

Nov 24, 2019

The lack of a feature to transfer folders and the files within them is so disheartening. The product signup should contain a warning to new users. The feature to transfer ownership of a folder should also contain a warning that file ownership is not transferred. The support information on how ownership transfer is implemented is confusing and misleading too.

Honestly, the workaround of download and upload is an ugly hack. It results in everything being converted to some non-Google format (eg- MS Office). If the user wanted MS Office output, they wouldn't be using the Google product. And of course all the collaboration information is totally lost in the process.

mr crag

Dec 9, 2019

No recursive permissions?! What a joke. It's no wonder people prefer other storage companies.

Alexander P. Pavlov

Dec 9, 2019

Hey mr crag.

Please keep in mind that if you have any suggestions regarding features and/or settings you'd like to have with your G Suite Account you can always submit a Feature Idea and suggest the setting to be added to the Service. Provided it receives enough votes it may be added to future updates to the Service. You can check this Google Help Center article on the steps to submit a Feature Idea.

Hope this helps.

CristianE

Dec 9, 2019

Seriously? This has been a request for quite some time, yet nobody from Google bothered listening. Google resembles more and more to Microsoft everyday,... and that's not a good thing.

Ivan Rojas 8611

Dec 9, 2019

this is really bad for business, im checking if I can migrate to dropbox, is imposible, i have too many folders