Overview
When an employee leaves Franklin & Marshall College, their active collaborations don’t have to disappear. While their account is eventually deactivated, files they previously shared with you remain accessible in your "Shared with me" view for a period of time. To ensure long-term access and team continuity, you should move these documents into a Shared Drive.
Before you get started
- You must have Manager or Content Manager access to the destination Shared Drive.
- This process applies to Google Drive files (Docs, Sheets, Slides, etc.).
- Ensure you perform these steps before the departed employee's account is fully deleted by ITS.
How to
Follow these steps to secure important departmental data by transitioning it from individual sharing to a collective Shared Drive.
Locating Files Shared by a Specific Person
- Open Google Drive and click on Shared with me in the left-hand navigation pane.
- In the Search in Drive bar at the top, type the name or email address of the departed employee.
- Select Specific person and select Owner.
- Click Search.
Moving Shared Files to a Shared Drive
- Highlight the files you wish to preserve. (Hold Ctrl or Cmd to select multiple files).
- Right-click on the selected files and choose Organize, then select Move or Copy.
- In the pop-up menu, click the All locations tab.
- Navigate to Shared drives and double-click the name of the destination drive.
- Navigate to the specific folder where you want the files to live and click Move.
- A warning may appear stating that ownership will change; click Move to confirm.
Note: Moving a file to a Shared Drive changes the "Owner" from the departed individual to Franklin & Marshall College, ensuring the file stays put even after the original creator's account is removed.
Watch This
Important Notes
- Ownership Shift: Once moved to a Shared Drive, the college owns the file. This prevents "orphaned" files.
- Permissions: Check the members of your Shared Drive after the move to ensure the right people still have access.
- Shortcut vs. Move: Avoid clicking Add shortcut to Drive. Shortcuts do not change ownership; if the original owner's account is deleted, the shortcut will break. You must Move the file.
- Large Folders: If the departed employee shared an entire folder, moving the folder to a Shared Drive will require "Manager" permissions on that drive.