Our first step in the Google Migration is to remove your non-work (i.e, “personal”) files both from your Google My Drive, as well as any Shared Drives. There are multiple ways to achieve this, and we offer the following. 

1. Create a "Personal" folder at the root of your VT My Drive https://drive.google.com and move all non-work content there. This can be done via the web interface or through file manager if your computer is connected to your Google Drive account. Content is updated more quickly if done through the web interface. See https://support.google.com/drive/answer/2375091 for info on moving and copying files using the web interface. 

2. Once all files have been moved, go to My Drive, making sure that you are still signed into your VT Account (icon at top-right). 

3. Go into your My Drive folder and Right-Click on your newly created Personal folder. 

4. Select Download from the provided pop-up menu making sure to save the downloaded file to a drive location that has enough free space to accommodate your download. 

5. The downloaded file will be a compressed Zip file and can now be moved to your personal storage. I recommend leaving the file as a compressed Zip until you have moved it to its final destination to save time and space. 

6. Once the download has completed, you can right-click on the Personal folder from the web interface of your My Drive and select Move to Trash. 

7. Still from the web interface select "Trash" from the sidebar menu. 

8. Click the Empty Trash link contained in the secondary title bar and confirm. *Note that the Trash for both gMail and Google Drives is supposed to auto-purge after 30 days. This has not been the case. You will want to make sure to go into your Trash and "empty Trash" to make sure that the old data is cleaned out and is no longer included in your storage account totals. 

This will likely be a lengthy process for many users. It is for this reason that we are extending the deadline of Oct 30th provided by the College of Engineering to Nov 15th. I highly recommend that “power users” of Shared Drives start this process as soon as possible (vs. waiting until early November). 

STEP 1 - Clean Up Shared Drives and Remove Inactive Members 

1.    Review Shared Drives for non-work personal data (required). 

o    Back up and remove any personal data that you find (recommended). (this should have been completed as part of the Task 1 above).  

o    Notify members of personal Shared Drives that the drives will be deleted (recommended). 

o    Delete personal data and personal Shared Drives from your Virginia Tech Google account (required). 

§  How to Delete a Google Shared Drive - VT tutorial 

2.    Remove inactive members of each Shared Drive. 

o    Use 'Manage Members' to remove people who should no longer have access, especially former Managers and Content Managers. See Instructions 

o    Delete all unneeded Work-related files from each Shared Drive (required). 

§  Working collaboratively with other members of each Shared Drive, delete files and folders that you no longer need, keeping in mind Records Retention Policy 2000. (required). 

STEP 2 - Make a Recommendation for Each Drive in the MyCAT Tool. 

1.    Claim Drives (recommend what to do with a Shared Drive using the VT MyCat tool). (required). https://mycat.ccs.vt.edu 

o    Recommending a Course of Action to Your Organizational Unit Admin for Your Shared Drives 

o    If you are having trouble using MyCat, see this page for an instructional overview. 

o    For now, you should only choose one of the following options: 

§  Keep 

§  Remove 

§  Not Owner 

Notes: You do not need to choose 'Migrate' because your department and IT staff will determine if Shared Drive files are to be left on Google Drive or moved elsewhere. IT will make the final determination of what to do with the drive based on your input. 

* ​from COE IT https://it.eng.vt.edu/articles/google-transition/shared-drives.html , please see the page for additional information. 

“Shared with Me” files have a complex relationship with the users, nested folders, and drives they are shared to and within. The best option is to COPY files that you need a copy of from "Shared with Me" into a folder within your Google My Drive. Only delete what you know is yours and is not needed by others that the files/folders may be shared with. Deleting a folder will also delete the nested content that may also contain files used by other users. If you have a lot of content that is "Shared with Me", I offer the following methods for retaining a copy for yourself. 

1. Log into your VT Google Drive web interface at https://drive.google.com . 

2. In the left side-bar, click on the "Shared with Me" menu item. 

3. You will want to continue scrolling the view window if you have more content than will fit your viewing area. Pause at each screen full, then attempt to scroll again until you reach the end and no more content loads. 

4. Holding the <CNTRL> key tap A and verify that all of your content has been selected and is now highlighted. *Optionally, if you do not want ALL of the shared data you can hold the control key and singularly select each file or folder and confirm that they highlight as they are selected. ​**Only download content that you need in your role; the owners of the shared data will still have the opportunity to migrate the data and regrant your access at its new location. 

5. Select Download from the provided pop-up, menu making sure to save the downloaded file to a drive location that has enough free space to accommodate your download. 

6. The downloaded file will be a compressed Zip file and can now be moved to your personal storage. I recommend leaving the file as a compressed Zip until you have moved it to its final destination to save time and space. 

7. In most cases, the owners of the shared content will need to be the ones to delete their content. To remove from your list of “Share with me”, from the web interface -- right-click at the Folder level and select “Remove” from the pop-up menu making sure not to select “Delete” even if there is not a “Remove” option. Items that do not have a Remove option will only be removed after the owner removes the referenced share. 

If not deleted by Jan. 15, files stored on Google Photos, cannot be accessed and will forever count against your storage quota. Please verify that you have no content there even if you do not believe that you have ever used the service. 

1. Go to photos.google.com and login with your VT ID and Password. Make sure that you are using your VT Account and not a personal account by clicking your icon in the top right corner. 

2. If you do not have any photos or videos, you should see "Ready to add some photos?"  If this is the case, you have no action items and can close out your browser. 

3. After taking care of any files in Google Photos, ensure that any new photos you take do not go to Google Photos 

To make sure new pictures you take with your phone, or photos that have been shared with you aren't being automatically uploaded to VT Google Photos, follow this tutorial: How to Stop Google Photos Backup on Android and iPhone 

4. Export photos and videos: 

Options:

4. • Transfer photos and videos to a personal Google account, another cloud storage provider, or your personal hard drive.

4help Tutorial - Transferring Photos from Your VT Google Photos Storage to a Personal Google Account 

4. • OR Download files to your computer.

4help Tutorial - Migrating Files out of Google Drive 

5. Delete all remaining Photos and Videos from Google Photos.
   Once you have finished migrating all the photos that you want to keep, follow one of these tutorials to delete all photos and videos from Google Photos.
   Google's Tutorial - Delete photos and videos from Google Photos 

  * ​from COE IT https://it.eng.vt.edu/articles/google-transition/remove-photos-from-your-vt-google-photos-app.html