Quick Summary
Businesses often need to copy files between Google Workspace (G Suite) users due to employee exits, role changes, mergers, backups, or compliance needs. Individual users can transfer files by sharing them in Google Drive and making copies, or by exporting data with Google Takeout and re-uploading it – though these methods don’t preserve ownership or folder structure well.
Admins can use the Google Admin Console to transfer file ownership within the same domain. For large-scale, cross-domain, or permission-preserving migrations, professional migration tools offer a faster, more reliable solution.
Introduction
Billions of people use Google Workspace for its great cloud features. Among them, many businesses use this to improve productivity, collaboration, and communication. Whether you are a small or large organization, G Suite is the backbone of your digital operations. It is a great suite where you can create multiple user accounts and manage them in one place.
Companies often move their data from one user account to another. It is because of several reasons that I have mentioned below.
Reasons to Copy All Files from One G Suite User to Another
- Every year, employees leave the organization or switch departments. This is the common reason why they move their important business data, like reports, project documents, or client files, to another account.
- When a company merges, acquires, or rebranding makes the organization move its files from one G Suite account to another.
- When the project owner leaves, or the role changes, it is required to transfer the files and the ownership of the files to another user.
- For backup and archive purposes, they move their G Suite files to another secure and active account.
- Managing the files of multiple accounts is a difficult task. That’s why, admin moved the data to one account to make the procedure much easier.
- For compliance and audit purposes, users have to copy their files to another Google Workspace account.
These are common instances where one has to move their Google Workspace files from one user account to another. So, without wasting time, let’s find out the ways to transfer the files.
1. Share Google Drive Files to Another Account
All the files of G Suite are stored in Google Drive. And Google Drive allows you to easily share your files with another account. This method is perfect for individual users who can easily migrate their files without using an admin account.
- Open your Google Drive that contains the files that you want to copy.
- Find and select all the files or folders that you want to transfer from My Drive.
- Right-click the selected items and select the Share button.
- Provide the email address of the destination G Suite account.
- Set the permission of your choice and hit the Send button.
- In the destination account, you will get the shared files in the Shared with me section of Google Drive.
- Open this section and select the shared files.
- Right-click the files, choose the Make a copy button.
- Now, your copied files will be present in the My Drive.
If you are sharing large volumes of files, then it takes time. Here, ownership is not transferred. Only you create the copies. Also, the structure of the folder is not properly maintained.
2. Copy All Files from One G Suite User to Another Using Google Takeout
If you want to copy bulk data, then you can use Google Takeout. A free export tool to save multiple Google files. Then, upload the downloaded file to another account.
- To start the process, go to the Takeout page from the browser.
- Log in to the G Suite account from which you want to copy the files.
- Click on the Deselect All button and then scroll down to the Google Drive option.
- Select the Drive option, then scroll down to the bottom, and click Next Step.
- Choose the destination, file type, and format. Click on the Export button.
- The utility downloads the files into ZIP format. Now, extract the files to move to the Google Drive.
- In the Drive, log in to the account where you want your files stored.
- Click on the Upload option and click on the New option.
- Browse the location of your downloaded files and import them to the account.
- Now, make a copy of the files that you have just imported.
The above two options are suitable for individual users who want to move their files from one account to another without any issues. If you are an admin and copy the Google Workspace files to another account. The next method will be easier.
3. Move G Suite Files from One Account to Another Using by Google Admin Console
A Google Workspace administrator has the authority to transfer their file with permission from one user to another. This method is mostly applicable in managing employee exits, department changes, or account deletion. Here are the solutions that you must follow.
- First, log in to the Google Admin Console using administrator account credentials.
- In the Admin Console, go to the Apps >> Google Workspace >> Drive and Docs option.
- Under Drive Settings, navigate to the Transfer ownership section.
- Enter the source email address of the user in the From user field.
- Type the destination email address of the user in the To user field. Ensure that both accounts belong to the same domain.
- Click on Transfer Files. Google will start the process of transferring your files with ownership.
This method only moves the ownership files. Also, you can only move the files within the same domain. If you want to transfer the files and the permissions and migrate files from one domain to another, there is a professional option you can use.
4. Copy All Files from One G Suite User to Another Professionally
In this, I am going to use the Google Workspace Migration Tool by SysTools. It is a great software that can help you transfer your Google Workspace files from one account to another. To move the files, it uses User mapping, where you provide the source ID and destination ID of the users. To know how it works, follow the steps below.
Instructions to Use the Software:
- First of all, download the software and run it.
- Click on G Suite and G Suite as the source and destination.
- Select the Document option and enable the option to transfer the permission.
- You can move the selected file by clicking the date filter option. After that, select the Next button.
- Add the details of your source Google account, like Admin Email, Service Account, and Certificate File. Press the Validate button to ensure the permission.
- Provide the credentials of your destination account on Admin Email, Service Account, and Certificate File. Hit the Validate button.
- Now, add your user, either by choosing Fetch User to automatically fetch the user.
- Or choose Import User for manually adding. Before manually adding the user, click on the Template CSV file, add the User source and destination IDs, and submit to the tool.
- You can set the priority on the user account and click on the Start Migration button.
Conclusion
These methods that are mentioned in this article explain to you how you can easily copy all files from one G Suite User to another. Here, I have provided options for individual users and the administrator. By properly following them, you can easily get your data without any issues.
