Transferring Google Workspace Content with Google Takeout

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Overview

For students graduating or leaving the university, Technology Services recommends that you download or transfer your Google Workspace contents to keep important files after your university account is disabled per our Accounts Policy. In accordance with our Backup and Retention Policy, your university Google account and data will be deleted after a minimum retention period at which point we may be unable to assist you with retrieving any data.

For faculty and staff, Google Takeout is not enabled in order to protect university-owned data. Confidential information, such as FERPA-protected data (student records) or personally identifiable information, should not be copied to personal accounts or devices. For more information, please review the Education Records Policy, Information Use & Security Policy, and Policy on Intellectual Property Rights. If you have a legitimate business need to use Takeout, you may submit a service request to enable it.

Transfer Gmail and My Drive Data to Another Account

If you have a personal Google account that you'd like to copy your email and Google My Drive files to, follow the instructions below or review Google's documentation.

  1. Go to login.pugetsound.edu, log in, and click on Google Drive.
  2. Go to takeout.google.com/transfer.
  3. Enter the email address of your personal Google Account where you want to copy your email and documents.
  4. Click Get code.
  5. In a new window or tab, check your personal Gmail inbox for an email from Google. In the email, select Get confirmation code.
  6. Return to the "Transfer your content" page, enter the confirmation code, then click Verify.
  7. Choose the content you'd like to copy, then click Start transfer.
  8. Wait for the files to copy. You will receive an email when the process has completed.

The process generally takes a few hours but may take longer depending on how much content you have. The copied content will be labeled with your university email address and the date you initiated the copy process. The original emails and files will still be in your university account; however, the copied files are not synced.

Downloading Your Google Data

If you have data in your university Google account in addition to Gmail and My Drive that you'd like to save, you can export and download data from various Google products. Follow the instructions below or review Google's doucmentation.

  1. Go to login.pugetsound.edu, log in, and click on Google Drive.
  2. Go to takeout.google.com.
  3. Select what data to include in your export by unchecking or checking the boxes next to each product. For some products, you can customize the file format(s) for your export. TS generally recommends clicking Deselect all and only checking the boxes for items that apply to you. The most common services are described below:
    • Calendar - event data
      • If you subscribed to other calendars, click All calendars included, click Deselect all, check the box next to your email address, then click OK. 
    • Chrome - browser bookmarks, history, and settings
    • Classic Sites - page content, images, and attachments of sites you created and are the owner of
    • Contacts - address book contacts
      • By default, the format for export is vCard which is compatible with MacOS and iOS. Click vCard to change the format to CSV which is compatible with Microsoft and Google.
    • Drive - files and documents in My Drive
    • Google Photos - photos and videos (separate from media files stored in My Drive)
    • Keep - notes and related attachments
    • Mail - email messages
    • YouTube - video content created by you and watch history
  4. Click Next step.
  5. If desired, change the Destination, Frequency, or File Type. TS generally recommends to "Send download link via email" and to "Export once" as a ".zip" file. Depending on how much data you are exporting, you can increase the File size to avoid having the export split into multiple files.
  6. Click Create export.
  7. Wait for the archive file to be created. You will receive an email with a link to download the export when the process is complete.

The process can take minutes to days depending on the amount of information being exported. Be sure to download your files promptly once you receive an email from Google. You will only have one week to download the data via the link.

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