6 Ways: Free Transfer Google Drive to Another Account Manually or Automatically

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• An Overview of Google Drive
• Why Transfer Google Drive to Another Account?
• 3 Manual Methods to Transfer Google Drive to Another Account
• Limitations of the Manual Methods for Google Drive Transfer to Another Account
• 3 Automatic Ways to Move Files from One Google Drive to Another
• Summary
• Further Reading

An Overview of Google Drive

Google Drive, launched on April 24, 2012, is a file storage and synchronization service created by Google. You are allowed to store & access files in the cloud, share files, and edit documents, spreadsheets, images, videos and presentations with collaborators. It is accessible through a web browser on computers or through dedicated apps for Android and iOS mobile devices. 

Google Drive also offers search functionality and integrates with many other Google services, such as Google Docs, Sheets and Slides.As for the storage space, it provides every user with 15GB for free, which is shared across Google Drive, Gmail, and Google Photos. To get more storage space, you have to pay for an subscription.

See more about what you can benefit from Google Drive>>

Why Transfer Google Drive to Another Account?

As mentioned before, Google Drive offers only 15 GB free space for its users. Although it seems more generous than other famous cloud drives such as OneDrive, Dropbox, Box, etc, this space is shared by your files on Google Drive, Gmail, and Google Photos. So, when you run out of space on one of your Google Drive accounts, but don't want to pay for an account upgrade, you might need to move Google Drive to another account. In addition, there are many other possible reasons why you need to do that, including:

• Make a Data Backup: If your current Google Drive account is not working well, performing a Google Drive file transfer to another accout is a great way to make a backup for disaster recovery when necessary.
• Separate Personal and Work Files: If you have personal and work files stored in the same Google Drive account, you may want to transfer your personal files to another Google Drive account and keep them separate for easier management.
• Merge Google Drive Accounts: If you have registered more than one Google Drive account and want to combine them into one, you may want to transfer files from one Google Drive account to another.
• Switch From School Google Drive Account: If you are a student and will graduate from college, you need to transfer school Google Drive files to personal account before graduation, such as some important notes or e-books.
• Change Email Addresses: If you plan to quit your current email address associated with the Google Drive account, it is also necessary to transfer your files to the new account so that you can keep the files accessible.

In this article, we will discuss how to move your data from one Google Drive account to anothe, either in manual or automatic methods. So, just keep reading.

3 Manual Methods to Transfer Google Drive to Another Account

First of all, we would like to share you with how to transfer a Google Drive to another account manually. That is using the "Share" option in Google Drive, utilizing Google Takeout as well as downloading and re-uploading.

Way 1: Use "Share" Feature with Google Drive

If you have Google documents format only on Google Drive, then you can transfer them to your new account by the "Share" feature.

Step 1. Log in your old Google Drive account. Select all files you want to export to another Google Drive account and right-click “Share” button.

Step 2. Add your new account’s email address as a collaborator. Click "Done", then you can set the read and write permissions of this account to the file.

Step 3. Click down the arrow icon and select "Editor" from the drop-down menu and click the "Send" button.

Step 4. Log in your second account and you will find these files are placed under "Shared with me" of your account.

Way 2: Use Google Takeout for Google Drive File Transfer

If you have other file formats on Google Drive and you want to transfer these files from one Google Drive to another, you can download a copy of your data or create an archive with Google Takeout. It is a service offered by Google to help users create an archive of their data so that it can be transferred to other accounts with ease.

If you take this method, files’ formats will be converted to another format. Once your new account has been set up, you can automatically convert all these back by adjusting your upload settings in the drive.

Step 1. Go to the official site of Google Takeout and log in your accounts.
Step 2. Select Google Drive (the old account) to export and click on the "Next step" button.

Step 3. Select a delivery method. Here you need to select “Add to Drive” from the drop-down window. Otherwise, “Send download link via email” will be selected by default.

Step 4. Then click on "Create export" and wait for the process to complete. Then, you should firstly download these compressed files to the local storage, then decompress them, and finally, upload all the files to another Google Drive account.

Way 3: Download and Re-Upload

This method might be the most common one for most users, especially those who does not have enough knowledge of the cloud drive management and transfer.

Step 1. Log in your old account and create a new folder to store all files under the root directory of your Google Drive.
Step 2. Move all files to the new folder. (or you can skip the "new folder creation" process and directly select every single file one by one).
Step 3. Right-click the new folder, click the "Download" button, and wait for the process to complete.

Step 4. Log in your new account, click the "Upload" feature to upload that downloaded .zip file, and wait for the process to complete. If you want to upload compressed files to your Google Drive, you need to unzip it first so you can click "Upload Folder" to upload it to your new account.

Limitations of the Manual Methods for Google Drive Transfer to Another Account

The above manual methods do help you transfer Google Drive to another account, but they are a bit complicated and you have to perform every step individually. Besides that, they comes with the following obvious disadvantages:

3 Automatic Ways to Move Files from One Google Drive to Another

Eager to get rid of all limitations of the above manual methods? Luckily, you have an alternative option: MultCloud. It is a web-based cloud storage manager to put all the cloud storage accounts you have into one place for easy centralized management. It allows you to transfer files across cloud drives directly in one interface without downloading and uploading.

Additionally, you don't need to worry about the privacy security since the authorization system of MultCloud is based on OAuth which is a standard authorization framework that enables third-party applications to access multiple cloud accounts without a username and password required. 

MultCloud is very easy to use and it won’t require you having technical knowledge. To migrate Google Drive to another account, what you have to do is to create one MultCloud account and add both accounts to MultCloud so that you can start the process. Below is how to do it via its 3 different features: "Copy to", "Cloud Transfer" as well as "Share".

Way 1: Transfer One Google Drive to Another with "Copy to"

This method is mainly for the situation where the same user uses different Google Drive accounts.

Step 1. Create an account first. Or you can log in with your Google or Facebook account.

Step 2. Click "Add Cloud" button and select Google Drive from the list to add your old account. Click "Add Google Drive". By clicking this option, you are authorizing MultCloud to access your files in Google Drive.

Step 3. Repeat the above steps to add your new Google Drive account in MultCloud.

Step 4. Move files from one Google Drive to another. Open your old account, click the checkbox next to the "File Name" to select all files.

Step 5. Use "Copy to" in MultCloud. Right-click the blank area, click the "Copy to" feature, and select the second Google Drive as the destination location. Click the "OK" button and wait for the process to complete.

Way 2. Transfer all Google Drive Files to Another Account via "Cloud Transfer"

If you want to copy Google Drive folder to another account, you can make full use of "Cloud Transfer", this function is more suitable for transferring folders or whole clouds, not only files.

Step 1. Click on "Cloud Transfer" on the left side.

Step 2. In the From box, choose the source Google Drive while select the target Google Drive in the To box.

Step 3. Then click "Transfer Now" to move all Google Drive files to another account.

Way 3: Transfer Files from One Google Drive to Another with "Share"

The above method can only transfer the data in the Google Drive account by the same user. When the two Google Drive accounts are not owned by the same person, for example, you want to share the private data in your Google Drive account with friends. In this situation, how to tansfer files from one Google Drive to another easily? Don't worry, the "Share" function in MultCloud can help you complete this assignment.

Step 1. Before data sharing, both you and your friend need to register a MultCloud account.

Step 2. After you and your friend log in to the MultCloud account, you add your own Google Drive account to your MultCloud account, and your friend adds his or her Google Drive account to the MultCloud account he or she created.

Step 3. After both parties have successfully added the cloud drive account, you need to find the file want to share in the Google Drive account, right-click the file and select "Share" in the pop-up window. Finally, choose a sharing mode you like, if it is a private file, you can choose to create a "Private Share".

Step 4. Share the above link and password with your friend. When your friend opens this link, he or she will be asked to enter the password you sent him or her. Then he or she can select "Save to Cloud", and finally select the corresponding target cloud drive to store data.

Summary

Any method above can help you transfer Google Drive to another account, but some of the methods are kinda complicated and require you to perform every step individually. If you want to make it as easy as possible, the MultCloud is a better choice. Besides Google Drive, MultCloud supports other 30 clouds, including Google Photos, iCloud Photos, SharePoint, G Suite, MEGA, OneDrive, Dropbox, Flickr, Google Photos, etc.

Apart from the above mentioned features, MultCloud provides "Cloud Backup", "Cloud Sync" and "Remote Upload" functions. "Cloud Backup" is designed to back up one cloud data to another cloud. If you want to sync two Google Drive accounts, you can make full use of "Cloud Sync". For “Remote Upload”, you can use this feature to directly download files through parsing torrent files or magnet links to cloud drives.

Further Reading: Get More Benefits from Google Drive

1. Store and organize files: Save a variety of files, including documents, spreadsheets, presentations, photos, videos, and more. What's more, you are allowed to organize your files into folders and subfolders. Or you can use labels and assign a color to a folder or a file  so as to quickly identify or locate it among other files. 

2. Add an extra layer protection to your data:  Offer encrypted and secure access to your files. Any files you receive wil be proactively scanned and removed when any malware, spam or ransomware is detected.

3. Collaborate on documents in real time: Share files or folders with specific people or groups and give their different level of access (view only, comment, or edit). You can see who has modified the filles and supercharge the teamwork. 

4. Access files from anywhere: Just with an internet connection, you can access your files from anywhere. If you want to view your files offline, you can download the Google Drive app to your desktop or mobile device.

5. Sync Files between Computer and Google Drive: Synchronize your files and folders from computer to Google Drive, or from Google Drive to computer. Any changes you make to your files on your computer will automatically sync with your Google Drive, and vice versa.