How to transfer a shared drive to another organization
By Patronum
August 10, 2026
Read Time: 4 mins
You can’t transfer a Google shared drive to another organization. A shared drive belongs to the Google Workspace tenant that created it, and no Admin console control hands it over. What you can do is add members from the other domain, move content across, or copy the drive into the target tenant with a migration tool.
Why there’s nothing to transfer
Google’s Workspace Learning Center puts it plainly: “files in a shared drive belong to the team instead of an individual.” There’s no owner account to reassign, so the usual ownership-transfer path doesn’t apply. The Admin console transfer tool won’t help either: it sits at Drive and Docs > Transfer ownership, moves My Drive only, and Google states you “can’t transfer ownership to or from an external user, such as a personal Google Account or a user in another organization.”
The three things you can actually do
1. Add members from the other organization. Go to Apps > Google Workspace > Drive and Docs > Manage shared drives > Manage members. Google’s guidance: “you can add external people to a shared drive as long as they have an email address associated with a Google Account,” and “Allow users outside your organization to access files in shared drives” must be on. Levels run Manager down to Viewer.
That grants access. It moves nothing.
Warning: adding an external Manager is not a transfer, and it is not acceptable for a divestiture or a legal separation. The source tenant still owns the shared drive, the storage still counts against it, and a super admin there can strip every external member on a Tuesday afternoon. Fine for a joint venture where both sides stay related. Not fine when the other organization has to control the data outright, or when a contract says the data left your control. That needs a migration.
2. Move the content out. Under “Distributing content outside of your organization,” setting “Anyone” lets Managers move files to Drive locations owned by another organization. Fine for one folder, painful for a terabyte, with no record of what moved.
3. Migrate properly. Create new shared drives in the target tenant and copy content across with a migration tool. The real answer at scale.
What happens to the files
Ownership isn’t moved, it’s recreated. Every file gets a new ID in the destination tenant.
Plan around the ceilings too. Google caps a shared drive at 500,000 items and 600 members, of which up to 100 can be groups, with folders nesting 100 levels deep. Near half a million items? Split it first.
Migration planning checklist
Work through this before anything moves.
- File IDs and links change. New IDs mean old share links, embeds and bookmarks still resolve to the source copies. Budget a link fix-up pass.
- Map permissions deliberately. Decide what each source grant becomes in the target directory. Groups, external collaborators and service accounts rarely map one to one.
- Expect version history gaps. Whether revision history carries over depends on the migration tool. Confirm it on a pilot drive before you trust it.
- Review external shares first. Anything shared outside the source organization gets duplicated into the new tenant unless you clean it up now.
- Accept recreated ownership. Files land as new items in the target tenant, so there’s no handover event to point at in an audit later.
- Communicate the cutover date. Freeze edits on the source drive, tell every member when, and say plainly which drive is authoritative afterward.
Common misconceptions
| Belief | Reality |
|---|---|
| “I can change the shared drive’s owner” | No owner exists to change. Files belong to the team. |
| “Adding a Manager from the other domain transfers it” | It grants access only. Your tenant keeps control. |
| “Google Workspace Migrate is available to everyone” | Google lists Business, Enterprise and Education Standard and Plus, plus G Suite Business. It runs on “a group of Microsoft Windows machines” and targets “clients with complicated environments and large corporate data sets.” |
| “The admin file transfer tool will do it” | My Drive only, and not across organizations. |
Where Patronum fits, and where it doesn’t
Straight answer: moving shared drives between tenants is a job for a dedicated migration tool. CloudM Migrate is built for this, offering “Google to Google: Consolidate, restructure or migrate between Google Workspace tenants.” Google Workspace Migrate is Google’s own option.
Patronum handles the work around the move. Beforehand it audits Google Drive sharing, so you know which files are exposed externally and which permissions you’re about to duplicate into a new tenant. Afterward it cleans up sharing you no longer want, on either side, and runs onboarding and offboarding on both domains. For the accounts nobody is migrating, Patronum Archive lifts their mail and Google Vault data out of the source tenant entirely, so you aren’t paying for seats on a domain you’re winding down.
Frequently asked questions
Can you transfer a Google shared drive to another organization?
No. A shared drive is owned by the tenant that created it, and there’s no ownership handover in the Admin console. You add members from the other organization, move content manually, or copy the drive across with a migration tool.
Can people from another domain be members of a shared drive?
Yes, if your sharing settings allow it. Google states you can add external people “as long as they have an email address associated with a Google Account.” They can hold any level up to Manager, but your tenant still controls the drive.
What happens to file ownership when you migrate a shared drive?
Ownership is recreated, not transferred. Files land in the destination tenant as new items with new IDs, so old share links point at the source copies. Whether permissions and version history survive depends on your migration tool.
Do I need Google Workspace Migrate or a third-party tool?
For more than a few folders, yes. Google Workspace Migrate is edition-gated and runs on Windows infrastructure you stand up. CloudM Migrate is the common third-party choice for Google to Google moves.
Audit before you move, clean up after
The migration belongs to a migration tool. The permission mess on both sides belongs to a governance tool, and that’s the part teams skip. Start with Google Workspace management at scale, and see the CloudM alternatives comparison.
Sources
- Learning Center: Shared drives – team ownership
- Google Admin Help: Transfer Drive files – My Drive only, no external transfer
- Google Admin Help: Manage shared drives – members, external access
- Learning Center: Add members – external members, levels
- Google Admin Help: Shared drive limits – 500,000 items, 600 members
- Google Workspace Migrate: Is Google Workspace Migrate right for my organization? – supported editions, target customers
- Google Workspace Migrate: About – Windows machines
- CloudM Migrate – Google to Google migration
- Patronum Archive – Gmail and Vault archiving
