Transferring Ownership of Google Drive Files

Audience: Staff, Students

Purpose: The purpose of this article is to show how to transfer ownership of files in Google Drive.

Summary: By default, you own any file you create in or upload to Google Drive. You can transfer ownership of your Google files and folders to the Google Account of someone at your work or school.

Notes:

You can only transfer ownership of files to people within your work or school. When you make someone else the owner of a folder, you still own the files inside.
- Files you can transfer:
  - Google Docs
  - Google Sheets
  - Google Slides
  - Google Forms
  - Google Drawings
  - Google My Maps
  - Folders
When you make someone else the owner of a file, you won’t be able to:
- Transfer ownership, even back to yourself.
- Permanently delete the file from Google Drive.

Transferring

When logged into your Google account, Google Drive can be accessed by clicking on the Google Apps icon and selecting Drive.
Locate the document or folder you wish to change owners of and right click on it.
Navigate to Share, and then select Share.
To the right of a person you've already shared the file with, click the drop down menu arrow.
Click Transfer Ownership.

Click Yes.

After you make someone else the owner of a file, you can edit the file unless the new owner decides to change your access.