Find Google Files You’ve Shared With Others

Overview

In many cases, you may need or are required to transfer ownership of files in Google Drive. However, it’s not always easy to find the files you own and have shared with specific people. ITS has created a tool to assist the university community with this task. This document provides instructions for using the tool to find these files so you can address them as needed.

Important: It is critical that you work with your department/unit as part of offboarding to have ownership of university business-related files you own transferred to another individual at U-M or, preferably, a Google shared drive owned by the unit before you leave. This document will help you find your owned files so that you can easily transfer ownership. For more information regarding U-M Google offboarding, refer to Google: Accounts for People Who Leave U-M.

Find Files You’ve Shared

  1. Go to the ITS Data Reclamation Tool - People You Share Your Google Files With page.
  2. Log in to U-M Weblogin with your uniqname and UMICH (Level-1) password, and authenticate with Duo two-factor authentication if prompted.
  3. The page you land on will list all individuals with whom you've shared files you own in Google Drive.
  4. Click an email address from the table to view the affected files for that individual. You will be taken to Google Drive, where you will have the opportunity to transfer ownership.
  5. You can repeat this process for every individual on your list by returning to the tool.

Once you have determined which files should be transferred to the shared individual, refer to Transfer Ownership of Files and Folders in Google Drive for instructions on transferring ownership.

Note: The sharing list does not refresh automatically. You have to refresh the list yourself to obtain the most up-to-date information. You can find when your list was last refreshed beside “This list was last refreshed on:” above your list. Click the Refresh Your Sharing List button and refer below for more instructions.

Refresh the Sharing List

Because the tool’s sharing list does not refresh automatically, you will have to refresh the list yourself.

To refresh the list:

  1. Go to the ITS Data Reclamation Tool - Refresh Your Sharing List page.
  2. Click the Refresh List Now button to begin the refresh.

After clicking the button, you must wait about 30 minutes for the refresh to complete. (If you have a lot of files in Google Drive, it can take longer.) 

You will not receive a notification when it completes. You can check if the refresh is done on the People You Share Your Google Files With page beside "This list was last refreshed on:" at the top.

Tags: 
Google
Last Updated: 
Tuesday, August 8, 2023