How to transfer Google Drive ownership

Transferring Google Drive ownership is essential for maintaining access to important documents when team members leave, and it involves different processes depending on the accounts involved. For Google Workspace administrators, whole Drive contents can be transferred between accounts within the organization using the Admin console. For personal accounts, files and folders must be shared and ownership transferred individually, which can be cumbersome. Transferring ownership within an organization or between personal accounts requires the recipient to have editor permissions, while external transfers in business accounts are limited to granting view or edit access, creating shared drives, or exporting files. Automating Google Drive processes with tools like Zapier can streamline file management, and transferring ownership can also free up storage space as files no longer count against the original owner's quota.