How to Transfer Google Drive Files to Another Account Without Downloading

When switching Google accounts, moving from a school/work domain to a personal account, or backing up important folders, transferring hundreds of gigabytes of data by downloading and re-uploading is slow, prone to network errors, and requires massive local disk space.

In this guide, we'll cover the most effective methods to move Google Drive files to another account directly in the cloud.

1. Why the Download-Upload Method Fails for Large Data

The traditional way to move files is clicking Download on a parent folder, waiting for Google to zip the files, downloading them locally, and uploading them to the new account. This approach creates several bottlenecks:

• 2GB Zip File Fragmentation: Google automatically splits large folders into separate 2GB zip archives. Decompressing and organizing thousands of nested files is tedious and prone to corruption.
• Double Storage Requirement: You need enough local free space to hold both the downloaded archives and the extracted files.
• Download Quota Limits: Exceeding Google's daily bandwidth quota can temporarily lock file access for 24 hours.

2. Cloud-to-Cloud Transfer Solutions

Method 1: Folder Sharing and Ownership Transfer (Limited)

You can share a folder with your new account and grant Editor permissions. However:

• Google does not allow transferring ownership across different domains (e.g. from a corporate Google Workspace to a @gmail.com account).
• If the original account is deleted or disabled, all shared files inside the folder will become inaccessible.

Method 2: Google Takeout

Google provides Google Takeout (takeout.google.com) to export all account data:

1. Go to Google Takeout and select Google Drive.
2. Choose your export format and destination.

Limitation: Google processing times can take anywhere from several hours to several days for large repositories.

Method 3: Dedicated Cloud-to-Cloud Software — DriveFusion (Recommended)

DriveFusion is a lightweight Windows utility designed specifically to copy and sync data directly between Google Drive accounts:

• Direct Server-to-Server Transfer: Files move across Google's cloud infrastructure without downloading to your computer.
• Preserves Full Folder Hierarchy: Subfolders, metadata, and original file timestamps remain intact.
• Automatic Resume on Disconnect: If network connectivity drops, DriveFusion resumes seamlessly from the last transferred item.
• Built-in Duplicate Filtering: Scans and removes duplicate files during migration to save space on your destination account.

3. How to Migrate Google Drive Files with DriveFusion

1. Download & Launch DriveFusion: Install the application on your Windows machine and activate your license.
2. Authorize Source and Target Accounts: Log in securely via official Google OAuth 2.0. DriveFusion never stores your passwords.
3. Select Folders to Move: Pick the exact directories or files you wish to transfer.
4. Start Migration: DriveFusion executes multi-threaded transfers in the background with real-time speed monitoring.

4. Conclusion

Transferring files between Google Drive accounts doesn't require filling up your local hard drive or waiting days for manual uploads. By leveraging cloud-to-cloud transfer tools like DriveFusion, you can migrate large datasets quickly and securely.