Claim Data Owned By Non-Affiliated Google Accounts

Table of Contents

• First Steps
• Make Copies of Individual FILES
• Move FILES to a Google Shared Drive
• Move FOLDERS to a Shared Drive

Overview

It is important to take action on U-M Google accounts of individuals who have left the university and are not affiliated as an alum or retiree. This means data regularly used by active affiliates (i.e., faculty, staff, and students) may need new ownership. (For more information, visit the Storage Management in U-M Google page.)

This document provides instructions to assist U-M faculty, staff, and students with claiming ownership of files and folders owned by non-affiliated accounts in U-M Google.

First Steps

Step 1: Review affected accounts and files

Before claiming files and folders owned by a non-affiliated (NA) account, you should review which accounts and files are affected.

1. Go to the ITS Data Reclamation Tool.
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. You will land on a page ("Owners of Google Drive Data Eligible for You to Claim") that lists all of the NA accounts that own files in Google Drive that you can edit (i.e., you're assigned an Editor).
4. Click the email address of an NA account to view the affected files for that specific account. You can repeat this process for every NA account in your list by returning to the previous page after viewing the list.

Note: The ITS tool will not show you the folders or folder structures owned by an NA account. (It will only show you the parent folder a file is stored under if the same NA account owns the parent folder. Otherwise, it will be blank.) You can find more details about finding folders owned by the NA account and how to address them in the relevant section below. The tool also will not show you any files for which you are only a Commenter or Viewer.

Step 2: Review next steps

Now that you know which accounts and files are affected, there are three ways to claim a non-affiliated account's data, and you may need to use more than one:

1. Make copies of individual FILES

USE CASE: You only want to keep a few files, you may or may not want to retain sharing permissions, and/or you don't need to maintain any shared links to the files (as they will break upon copy).

2. Move FILES to a Google shared drive

USE CASE: You want to move files from a shared folder structure and retain sharing permissions, but maintaining the whole folder structure isn't important.

Caution: Because this method doesn't always work depending on where the file is stored and your access level on the shared folder, we recommend using the file copy or folder move methods instead. Additionally, moving individual files out of a folder breaks the folder structure and may cause some collaborators to lose access.

3. Move FOLDERS to a Google shared drive

USE CASE: You want to maintain a folder structure, its organization, and the sharing permissions on all folders and files in the folder structure.

You can find more details about each option in the sections below.

As a reminder, other Editors on files owned by NA accounts may take action to claim ownership of the files before you do. If that happens, when you search for a specific file in Google Drive, it may already be moved to a shared drive or owned by a different individual's account (and no longer owned by the NA account). It is recommended that you coordinate with other Editors on the affected files (if possible) before taking action to determine the most appropriate path forward for everyone to prevent the duplication of work and data.

Tip: After searching for a file in Google Drive, if you notice that it has a different owner and/or a shared drive icon () besides its name (to indicate that it is stored in a shared drive), that usually means another Editor has already taken action. As long as you still have access to the file and the file owner is not listed as the NA account, it should be safe.

Make Copies of Individual FILES

After reviewing your affected files owned by non-affiliated (NA) accounts in the ITS Data Reclamation Tool, you may wish to proceed with making individual copies of a few files rather than claiming ownership of the originals. In most cases, you would use this option if you don't have a lot of affected files owned by NA accounts, you may or may not want to retain sharing permissions, and there are no shared links that need to be maintained.

To make a copy of a file owned by an NA account, follow these steps:

1. Go to Google Drive.
2. Search for the file by entering its name in the search bar at the top of the page and hitting ENTER. (You can find the file names in the ITS Data Reclamation Tool. If desired, you can also click the file name in the tool to be taken directly to the file.)
3. Right-click on the file and select Make a copy from the drop-down menu. (To copy multiple files simultaneously, hold CTRL/CMD and click each file you want to copy to select it.)

Tip: Alternatively, if you want to select the location where Google will save the copy, you can do so by opening the file. Click File at the top of the page after opening the file and select Make a copy from the drop-down menu. You can then select where you'd like the copy to be saved and whether you would like to keep the sharing and permissions the same.

By default, the copy will:

• Be automatically saved to your My Drive (or the shared folder where the original file is stored).
• Not retain the sharing or permissions from the original file (unless it inherits the sharing from the shared folder it's stored in).
• Remove any existing shared links that the original file had.

If applicable, you will need to reshare the copy with collaborators and create a new shared link. (The only way to bypass this is to open the file instead of right-clicking and making a copy directly from the File menu of the file.)

Move FILES to a Google Shared Drive

After reviewing your affected files owned by non-affiliated (NA) accounts in the ITS Data Reclamation Tool, you may wish to proceed with claiming ownership of them by moving them into a Google shared drive. You can only use this method if the files are stored directly under a shared folder of which you're an Editor.

To move a file to a shared drive:

1. Go to Google Drive.
2. Create a new Google shared drive OR use an existing one.

You must be assigned as at least a Collaborator of the shared drive to move a file into it. (Also, be mindful of your shared drive's storage limit.)

3. Add the NA account to the shared drive and assign them the Content Manager role (if you are a Manager of the shared drive already). (Don't worry, they can't access their U-M Google account, so they can't view anything in the shared drive.)
   1. Open the shared drive in Google Drive.
   2. Click Manage members in the top right corner of the page.
   3. Enter the full email address of the NA account in the sharing field.
   4. Ensure they are assigned as a Content Manager, uncheck the Notify people box, and click Share.
4. Search for the file by entering its name in the search bar at the top of the page and hitting ENTER. (You can find the file names in the ITS Data Reclamation Tool. If desired, you can also click the file name in the tool to be taken directly to the file.)
5. Move the file the NA account owns into the shared drive. (A full walkthrough for moving files is available at the link provided.)  

Repeat this step for all files owned by the NA account you want to move into a shared drive. Remember, this method only works if the files are stored in a shared folder structure of which you're an Editor.

5. Remove the NA account's access to the shared drive once all applicable files have been moved. This will remove them from any of the files you just moved.

All direct (not inherited) sharing and permissions will be retained on the moved files. This includes existing shared links, which should not break. However, the folder structure no longer contains these files, and some collaborators may no longer have access.

Move FOLDERS to a Shared Drive

After reviewing your affected files owned by non-affiliated (NA) accounts in the ITS Data Reclamation Tool, you may wish to proceed by searching for any folders owned by the NA account (which may contain some affected files from your list) and moving them into a Google shared drive to claim ownership.

Google released a feature that allows you to move folders from My Drive into a shared drive. However, due to the feature still being under development and the complexities of how shared folders work in Google, there are several critical limitations that you should be aware of when attempting to move a folder into a shared drive.

To proceed with claiming ownership using a Google shared drive, follow these steps.

Step 1: Review the limitations

Please carefully review the errors and limitations of moving folders from My Drive to shared drives before continuing. If you choose to proceed with moving folders owned by NA accounts into a shared drive, you will likely encounter errors and run into limitations where some files/folders cannot be moved.

If you run into issues not explicitly addressed in this documentation article or our detailed limitations documentation referenced above, contact the ITS Service Center.

The top two issues you can expect to run into are:

1. You do not have the correct permissions.
   1. You aren't an Editor on the file or folder.
   2. You aren't a Manager of the shared drive.
2. The folder structure is too complex.
   1. Folders can't be moved if there are either 25 unmovable items or if 10% of items are unmovable (whichever is smaller).
      1. Items you do not have access to and are "hidden" from you also count as unmovable.
   2. The move can have up to 100,000 items in total. (Shared drives can only store up to 400,000 items, so the move will fail if it surpasses this limit.)
   3. The move can have up to 20 nested child folders within one folder. (This is a shared drive limit, so the move will fail if any folders have more than 20 child folders.)
   4. The items under the folder have many different owners.
      1. You can't move any items owned by an external (non-UM) account.
      2. You can't move internally-owned (U-M) subfolders that are part of an externally-owned (non-UM) folder.

Step 2: Search for folders owned by non-affiliated account(s)

Tip: You can find the parent folder name under which some of the NA account's files are stored using the ITS Data Reclamation Tool in the Parent Folder Name column. This may be helpful in searching for folder structures you would like to claim ownership over. However, the parent folder the file is stored in will only appear in the column if the same NA account owns the folder. If the Parent Folder Name column is blank, this may mean that the NA account does not own the folder or that the file is not in a folder at all.

To search for folders owned by a non-affiliated (NA) account:

1. Go to Google Drive.
2. Click the Search options icon () to the right of the search field at the top of the page.
3. Select Folders from the Type drop-down menu.
4. Select Specific person… from the Owner drop-down menu.
5. Enter the email address of the non-affiliated account for which you're searching in the text field that appears.
6. Click Search.
7. Click the List layout icon () in the top right of the results to make it easier to view all the details of the folders.

Note: Selecting Shared with me from the Location drop-down menu will not provide you with an accurate or comprehensive list of folders owned by the NA account and shared with you. It is recommended to avoid selecting a specific location in your search to ensure your results are as thorough as possible, even if they include folders that aren't relevant.

Step 3: Move folder to a shared drive

To move a folder to a shared drive:

1. Create a new Google shared drive OR use an existing one.

You must be assigned as a Manager of the shared drive to move a folder into it. (Also, be mindful of your shared drive's storage limit. Anything that would exceed the shared drive's storage limit will fail.)

3. Add the NA account to the shared drive and assign them the Content Manager role. (Don't worry, they can't access their U-M Google account, so they can't view anything in the shared drive.)
   1. Open the shared drive in Google Drive.
   2. Click Manage members in the top right corner of the page.
   3. Enter the full email address of the NA account in the sharing field.
   4. Ensure they are assigned as a Content Manager, uncheck the Notify people box, and click Share.
4. Move the folder(s) the NA account owns into the shared drive. (A full walkthrough for moving folders is available at the link provided.)

Repeat this step for all folders owned by the NA account that you want to move into a shared drive.

Tip: If you can't move the parent folder into the shared drive, attempt to move the subfolders owned by the NA account individually into an empty folder structure in the shared drive.

5. Remove the NA account's access to the shared drive once all applicable folders have been moved. This will remove them from any of the files and folders you just moved.

After moving the folder(s), if you don't need the data to live in a shared drive, you can move it back out of the drive and into your My Drive. You will become the new owner of all files and folders in the folder structure, and sharing permissions and shared links should remain intact.