Getting Started With Google Takeout Transfer

Overview

Google Takeout Transfer is a tool developed by Google that allows you to transfer a copy of all email/labels in Gmail, all Drive files you own, and all photos/videos/albums you own in Photos in your U-M Google account to another Google account (e.g., personal @gmail.com account). (If you are looking for the other Google Takeout service, refer to Getting Started With Google Takeout. For a comparison of the two tools, refer to Google: Takeout and Takeout Transfer Tools.)

Important: Google provides this service "as is" and without administrative support. ITS has no ability to diagnose or assist with problems you might encounter.

Considerations and Recommendations

Note: ITS tested Google Takeout Transfer in 2024 for Drive and Gmail. The ability to transfer Photos was added in 2026 and has not been tested as extensively by us. Be aware that some minor things may have changed in how Google transfers this data compared to what is documented below. Refer to the Google Help Center for the most up-to-date information.

  • Google Takeout Transfer only supports Gmail, Drive, and Photos.
    • You can only copy all of your mail, Drive, and Photos content, not a sub-selection (unlike the regular Takeout tool).
    • The following doesn't transfer:
      • Google shared drives in Drive
      • Shared files in Drive and shared albums in Photos that you do not own
      • File permissions/sharing settings
      • Contacts, chats, or tasks in Gmail
      • Photo comments, album descriptions, Face Group names, and other information related to your photos/videos in Photos
      • Photos and videos in Trash, Archive, or Locked Folder in Photos
      • Whether a photo/video is in your Favorites (Starred)
  • You must ensure you have enough storage space available in your personal account, or the transfer will fail.
    • If you exceed the storage of your personal account, there is no way to stop the transfer. You will need to delete data until there is enough free space to complete the transfer. ITS cannot help you with this, even if Google Support tells you to talk to your administrator.
    • A failed transfer can result in duplicate files, emails, and photos in your personal account. If this happens, you should delete all copied content in your personal account and restart the transfer.
  • The process can take up to a week, especially if you have a lot of content or a slow internet connection. In our testing, we've noticed that copying large files (100GB+) significantly slows down the process.
    • We recommend breaking the transfer into three parts: one transfer for Gmail, one for Drive, and one for Photos.
  • You cannot stop a transfer once it starts. You can always check the status of your transfer, but it won't show any progress until it's complete.
  • Copied files, mail, or photos might appear in batches on your personal account during the process. It is important not to access the mail, files, or photos in either your U-M Google account or your personal account during the transfer to avoid potential issues.
  • Your data organization (folder structures, email labels, and photo albums) is retained.
    • In Gmail, whatever labels your emails have (e.g., Inbox, Example Label, Test, etc.), Takeout Transfer will maintain those labels when it copies them to your personal account. Email attachments are also retained.
  • Your data sharing and permissions on files, folders, and photos are not retained. Because they are copies, your personal account is now the owner, and anything you want to retain sharing on will need to be reshared.
  • We tested (in 2024) the following in Drive to determine what would and wouldn’t transfer over:
    • Locked files - The tool unlocks the copy in your personal account but leaves it locked in U-M Google.
    • Files with the “Viewers and commenters can see the option to download, print, and copy” setting unchecked - The tool doesn’t transfer these files.
    • Google Sites, of which you are the sole owner - The tool copies the site and leaves it unpublished. The published site in your U-M account remains published.
    • Google Forms - The tool doesn’t transfer Forms.
    • Google Drawings, Microsoft files, ZIP files, videos, and photos - The tool transfers all these files.
    • Shared folder structures where you own folders and/or files within it:
      • You own the shared parent folder
        • The tool moves the folder. However, the following occurs:
          • It copies everything you own in the folder structure (folders, files) and keeps the structure intact.
          • It only copies subfolders created/owned by others collaborating on the shared folder. It does not copy any files that other people own within the structure, only their folders.
        • As a note, when you delete a shared folder you own, all files/folders owned by other people within the structure will move back to their respective My Drives.
      • You don’t own the shared parent folder
        • The tool doesn’t copy any files you own that live within a shared parent folder owned by someone else.
    • File comments are copied, but revision/version history is not.
  • In Gmail, because archived mail doesn’t have a label, these emails will only appear in the special labels Takeout Transfer adds. Also, emails in your Trash do not transfer.
  • You should complete your transfer well ahead of your last day of employment or examinations if you’re graduating. Transfers in progress when your account is suspended will not finish.
  • When trying to use Takeout Transfer, you receive the message: "Transfer Your Content is only available to authorized G Suite for Education Accounts. Please contact your administrator, or sign in with another Google Account."
    • This error is caused when you are logged in to more than one Google account in your browser. Log out of all Google accounts, log in to your U-M Google account only, and then try again. Use an incognito window in your browser to log in to your personal account.
  • Google Takeout Transfer, like the regular Takeout tool, can be buggy and not work 100% of the time. In testing, we’ve found that it may create additional copies of the same file or share files from your U-M Google account to your personal account in addition to making copies of those files.

Start the Transfer

To start your transfer request:

  1. Ensure you have a non-UM Google account created with enough storage to hold everything you’re copying. Remember, free personal accounts only come with 15GB of storage.
  2. Go to Google Takeout Transfer while logged in to your U-M Google account.
  3. Enter the email address of your personal account in the field under “Enter a destination account.”
  4. Click SEND CODE.
  5. Go to your personal account and log in to check your email. We strongly recommend opening an incognito window in your browser to log in to your personal account to avoid any issues or errors.
  6. Find and open the email from Google in your personal account. The subject line should be similar to “Verify your account.”
  7. Click the Get confirmation code button in the email to open a new window/tab.
  8. Copy the code from the window/tab that opens.
  9. Navigate back to the Google Takeout Transfer page where you’re logged in as your U-M Google account.
  10. Paste the copied code in the field under “Verify destination account” and click Verify.
  11. Toggle which content you want to copy to your personal account - Drive (only files you own), Gmail (all email), Photos (photos, videos, and albums you own).
  12. Click START TRANSFER to begin the process.

You won't receive an email confirming your transfer request immediately. You will receive an email to both your personal and U-M accounts when the transfer finally begins (which may be hours or days later). When the transfer is complete, you'll receive a confirmation email sent to your personal account (but your U-M Google account will not receive any notification). The confirmation email will be from [email protected]. If you don’t find the email, check your Spam folder or check the status of your transfer to figure out if it’s complete.

After the Transfer

You should always compare your Google Takeout Transfer data with the original data still in your U-M Google account to ensure everything has been copied properly before you delete it. If Takeout Transfer fails or data is missing, either try the transfer process again or use Google Takeout to export your data to a ZIP file.

There are a few ways Google denotes transferred items/structures:

In Gmail, the tool applies two labels to all mail copied to your personal account (in addition to any user-created labels already applied):

  • School/work email address (“[email protected]”)
  • Moved [DATE] (“Moved 2024-03-26 10:44”)

In Drive, the tool places all copied files into a folder in your My Drive named “school/work email [DATE]” ("[email protected] 2024-03-26 10:44").

In Photos, the tool appends "school/work email [DATE]" ("- [email protected] Moved 5/21/2026") to the end of every album transferred. Your photos will appear in chronological order alongside your existing personal account photos. You can check the "Recently added" section in the left navigation to view all the photos that were transferred.

Google Takeout does not delete the data you transferred from your U-M Google account to your personal account. You will need to go back to your U-M account and manually delete all of the data that is no longer needed in Google.

Last Updated
Friday, May 22, 2026