Transferring files when someone leaves
A complete guide to transferring Google Drive files, email, and calendar data from a departing team member — so nothing is lost when someone leaves.
When someone leaves your organization, their files, emails, and calendar data belong to your business — not to them. But if you delete their account without planning ahead, all that data can be lost. This guide walks you through how to transfer everything safely.
Quick summary
Before deleting a departing user's account: transfer their Drive files to a manager, forward their email to someone covering their role, and download important data if needed. Suspend the account first. Then delete it after 30 days or once everything is confirmed safe.
Why this matters
Imagine an employee leaves and had been managing important client files, contracts, or project documents in their personal Google Drive. If you delete their account without transferring, those files are gone — even if the documents are shared with others, the underlying ownership disappears.
Using Shared Drives prevents this problem entirely (files belong to the organization, not the person). If your team isn't using Shared Drives yet, this is the biggest reason to start.
Step 1 — Suspend the account
Always suspend first. This cuts off the person's access without deleting any data.
See Removing a user safely for the suspension steps.
Step 2 — Transfer Drive files
Go to admin.google.com and sign in.
Click Users, then find and click the departing user's name.
Click More options (three-dot menu or the option on their profile), then look for Transfer data or Data transfer.
Choose the data to transfer. Select Drive and Docs. You can also transfer Calendar and Google+ data if relevant.
Enter the destination user's email. This is usually the person's manager or whoever is taking over their responsibilities.
Click Transfer. The transfer runs in the background. Depending on how many files there are, it can take minutes to a few hours.
What happens after transfer
All files that were in the departing user's "My Drive" are moved to the new owner's Drive, inside a folder named after the former user (e.g., "John Smith's files"). The new owner can then reorganize them.
Step 3 — Handle their email
Gmail messages can't be transferred like Drive files. You have a few options:
Option A — Set up email forwarding
While the account is suspended, you can set up a routing rule so any new email sent to their address is forwarded to someone else. Do this from:
Admin console → Apps → Google Workspace → Gmail → Routing → Add a routing rule.
Option B — Create an alias or group
After deleting the account, create a group or alias at their old email address. New email to that address will go to whoever you put in the group.
Option C — Download their email archive (admins)
If your plan includes Google Vault, you can export the user's email for archiving or legal purposes. Go to vault.google.com and create an export.
Step 4 — Review Shared Drives
If the departing user was a Manager of any Shared Drives, reassign that role to someone else before deleting the account.
In Google Drive, click Shared drives in the left sidebar.
Open each Shared Drive where the departing user was a manager.
Click Manage members, find the user, and change their role to Viewer or remove them.
Add a replacement manager if needed.
Step 5 — Revoke third-party app access
If the departing person used their Workspace account to sign in to third-party tools (like Slack, Notion, or project management tools), revoke that access directly in those tools.
Step 6 — Delete the account
Once everything has been transferred and confirmed, delete the account following the steps in Removing a user safely.
Wait at least 30 days from the person's last day before deleting — just in case something comes up.
Common questions
Related guides
- Removing a user safely
- Recovering a deleted user or files
- Shared drives explained
- Groups & email aliases
Need a hand?
Learn more
Recovering a deleted user or files
How to recover a deleted Google Workspace user account or restore files deleted from Google Drive — time limits and step-by-step instructions.
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