3 Ways to Migrate Google Docs and Drive Data to Google Workspace

Moving Google Docs and Drive data into Google Workspace can be tricky. Ownership, sharing permissions, and folder structure need care, especially when shifting from personal accounts or between Workspace domains.

We’ll outline three options: transfer ownership within Drive and shared drives, run an admin-led migration with Google Workspace Migrate, or export and import with tools like Google Takeout and Drive for desktop. Then we’ll guide you step by step.

Table of Contents

• Use Google Workspace's UI
• Use Torii
• Use Google Workspace's API

Use Google Workspace’s UI

Here, you’ll use the Google Admin console to move a user’s Drive files and Google Docs to another account inside your organization. This is the built-in, admin-led path, and it’s covered in Google’s docs titled “Transfer Drive files to a new owner” and “Transfer a user’s data to another user.”

Before you start

• Make sure both accounts are active and in your organization.
• Check storage: the destination user needs enough space for what you’re moving.
• Know what transfers and what doesn’t:
  • Files owned by the source user in My Drive transfer.
  • Files in Shared drives don’t transfer, because the Shared drive owns them.
  • Files the user only has access to (not owner) don’t transfer.
  • Items in Trash typically don’t transfer. Restore anything important first.

Start the transfer from the Admin console

• Sign in to admin.google.com with an admin account.
• Go to Directory, then Users.
• Open the profile of the user you’re moving files from.
• Click More options, then Transfer data. In Transfer data:
• Choose Drive and Docs.
• Select the destination user.
• Start the transfer.

What happens next:

• Google creates a top-level folder in the destination user’s My Drive and places the transferred files there.
• Sharing settings on files are kept. The new owner replaces the old one.

Alternate path: use Drive and Docs > Transfer ownership

If you prefer the Drive service control:

• In the Admin console, go to Apps, Google Workspace, Drive and Docs, then Transfer ownership.
• Enter the source user in “From” and the new owner in “To.”
• Click Transfer files.

This does the same ownership move and is described in Google’s “Transfer Drive files to a new owner.”

If you’re deleting the user now

• From Directory > Users, open the user, click More options, then Delete user.
• In the delete flow, choose Transfer data and set the destination user for Drive and Docs.
• Complete the deletion. Google’s “Delete a user and transfer data” explains the prompts you’ll see.

Track progress and timing

• Large moves can take hours or longer. You can leave the page; the transfer continues in the background.
• Check the destination user’s Drive for the new folder and spot-check a few files.

Clean up and handoff

With the destination user:

• Open the new folder and confirm critical docs are accessible.
• Move content into the right My Drive folders or a Shared drive, if that’s your long-term home.
• Update any bookmarks or internal links that pointed to the old owner’s My Drive paths.

Common limits to watch

• Shared drives: Content there won’t move, because the drive, not the user, owns it. Add managers to those drives instead.
• Permissions: If the source user owned a folder that included files owned by others, only the items they owned will transfer. Folder structure can change.
• External sharing policies: Ownership can’t be moved outside your organization using these tools.
• Storage quota: If the destination account is out of space, parts of the transfer may fail. Free up space and retry.

For full details and edge cases, see Google’s docs “Transfer Drive files to a new owner” and “Transfer a user’s data to another user.”

Use Torii

Instead of working in Google Workspace directly, you can use Torii, a SaaS Management Platform, to move docs and drive data in Google Workspace. SMPs let teams manage SaaS subscriptions and integrations from a single place, making it simple to programmatically on/offboard users, view subscription details, and more.

Rather than performing manual steps in Google Workspace, Torii enables full automation, so the action runs automatically whenever a trigger is met. Triggers might include a new hire, an employee offboarding, a contract renewal, and more-saving time if this task repeats often.

To transfer docs and drive data in Google Workspace right from Torii, follow these steps:

1. Sign up for Torii

Contact Torii, and request your free two-week proof-of-concept.

2. Connect your Google Workspace account to Torii

Once your account is live, connect Google Workspace to Torii (assuming you already have an account). Here are the instructions for the Google Workspace integration.

3. Create a Torii workflow for Google Workspace

In Torii, you can build automated workflows to transfer docs and drive data in Google Workspace. Go to the Workflows tab, define a trigger, and then add an action that will transfer docs and drive data in Google Workspace. From then on, whenever the trigger conditions are met, Google Workspace will be updated.

Use Google Workspace’s API

Here, you’ll use the Admin SDK Data Transfer API for bulk moves and the Drive API for file-level ownership changes.

Set up auth and scopes

You need OAuth 2.0 with domain-wide delegation, impersonating a super admin for the Admin SDK. Use a service account or another secure server-side flow.

Required scopes:

• https://www.googleapis.com/auth/admin.datatransfer
• https://www.googleapis.com/auth/drive

All calls below assume you have an access token in $TOKEN and you’re sending Authorization: Bearer $TOKEN.

Find the Google Drive application ID

The Data Transfer API needs the application ID for Google Drive.

Example curl is:

curl -s -H "Authorization: Bearer $TOKEN" \
"https://admin.googleapis.com/admin/datatransfer/v1/applications?customerId=my_customer"

Look in the response for the application with name like “Drive and Docs” or “Google Drive” and note its applicationId.

Start a bulk transfer from one user to another

Create a transfer job that moves Drive files owned by the source user to the target user. Using both PRIVATE and SHARED covers all owned files.

Example curl is:

curl -s -X POST -H "Authorization: Bearer $TOKEN" -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
"https://admin.googleapis.com/admin/datatransfer/v1/transfers" \
-D '{
    "oldOwnerUserId": "[email protected]",
    "newOwnerUserId": "[email protected]",
    "applicationDataTransfers": [
        {
            "applicationId": "DRIVE_APP_ID_HERE",
            "applicationTransferParams": [
                {
                    "key": "PRIVACY_LEVEL",
                    "value": ["PRIVATE", "SHARED"]
                }
            ]
        }
    ]
}'

Notes:

• OldOwnerUserId and newOwnerUserId can be the user’s primary email or immutable user ID.
• The source user must exist and own files.
• Cross-domain transfers are blocked unless your org policy allows ownership changes across domains.

Monitor the transfer job until it finishes

The insert call returns a transfer id. Poll it until the status shows completed or failed.

Example curl is:

curl -s -H "Authorization: Bearer $TOKEN" \
"https://admin.googleapis.com/admin/datatransfer/v1/transfers/TRANSFER_ID_HERE"

Check these fields in the response:

• overallTransferStatusCode: inProgress, completed, or failed
• RequestTime and expirationTime
• ApplicationDataTransfers[].applicationTransferStatus for per-app details

If the job fails, you’ll get an error status and you can retry after fixing the cause, like a suspended target account or a policy block.

Verify results with the Drive API

List files now owned by the new user. Impersonate the new owner or use delegated credentials.

Example curl is:

curl -s -H "Authorization: Bearer $TOKEN" \
"https://www.googleapis.com/drive/v3/files?q=trashed=false&fields=files(id,name,owners(emailAddress))"

You can also search by owner explicitly with Drive query syntax:

q='owners in "[email protected]" and trashed=false'

Transfer ownership of specific files with the Drive API

When you don’t want a bulk move, change ownership per file using the Permissions method with transferOwnership.

Example curl is:

curl -s -X POST -H "Authorization: Bearer $TOKEN" -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
"https://www.googleapis.com/drive/v3/files/FILE_ID/permissions?transferOwnership=true&sendNotificationEmail=false" \
-D '{
    "role": "owner",
    "type": "user",
    "emailAddress": "[email protected]"
}'

Tips:

• This works for files in My Drive. It does not change ownership of folders.
• Files in shared drives don’t have individual owners. If you need to move content into a shared drive, use files.update with addParents and supportsAllDrives=true, but ownership remains with the shared drive.

Common constraints and errors to expect

• Only super admins can create Data Transfer jobs.
• Ownership of folders can’t be changed. Move or recreate folder structures as needed.
• Transfers can take time for large accounts. Keep polling until completed.
• If ownership transfer is restricted by policy, the API returns 403. Update policy or keep transfers within the same domain.