What happens when you leave a Google Apps School?
Part 1: Your Documents
Recently a friend of mine was given one hour to clean his desk out and turn over his computer. Not an uncommon practice in business, but rarely will a school give you an hour’s notice. However when you leave your Google Apps School, your Google Account will eventually disappear.
What does that mean? No access to your GMail, calendars, documents, YouTube Videos, Blogger blogs, Picasa Albums, Google Voice messages, sites you created, group memberships, or anything associated with the “@yourGoogleAppsDomain”. This could also include banking, brokerage, college services, social media such as Facebook or Twitter, anything that you used your school’s email address as part of your profile. For the purposes of this document we will not cover the previous sentence, but seriously, you should not use your business account for your private affairs.
So as you pack your boxes and prepare to leave your Google Apps School, how do you transfer your digital life to a new location?
First find another employer who uses Google Apps, or become your own Google Apps domain. Google will sell you a domain like “lovinglifeinlajolla.com” for $10 a year. Then you can set up a Google Apps account with your new domain and add yourself as one of the users such as bill@lovinglifeinlajolla.com. As of December 7, 2012, Google no longer provides free Google Apps accounts. However a paid account only costs $5 per month per person.
Take it out with Google Takeout.
Google Takeout (https://www.google.com/takeout) allows you to make a digital archive (i.e. download) of your Google+, Contacts, Drive, Picasa Web Albums, Profile, Reader, Voice, and YouTube from any of your Google Apps Accounts. Note: Not GMail or Google Sites.
At Google Takeout, you can select all the services or just the one you want to save.
Takeout will create an archive that you can then download to your computer.
The only Google Docs you can save like this are ones that you own. If you want to save Google Docs that are owned by someone else, you need to download a copy of them too. Here is an easy how to:
Go to your Google Web Drive. Select documents that are “Shared with Me.” Go to the bottom of the list. Since you are looking at a list of items on the web, the page may still be loading. Once you are satisfied that you have the entire list, then select all of them.
Select download from the “More” menu.
This will create a zip file on your computer. You can now access all of the files from your Google Apps that were shared with you.
Another way for grabbing your Google Docs: Rather than using both the above method and Google TakeOut to get all of the Google Docs, go to your Google Docs page. Click on “More” on the left menu.
Then click on “All Items”
It will take awhile for the page to finish loading all of you documents. When it finishes select all the items and as before select all of the files.
Select download from the “More” on the top menu. This will download all of the files you own and are shared with you.
Why not use Google Drive on your computer?
You can use Google Drive for the Mac or PC to create synchronized copies of your Google Docs on the web and your laptop. Change a file on the web and it is automatically changed on all the other devices you want synced. However, if you no longer own the account, the files on your laptop (or mobile device) are useless. You will not be able to open them up.
Using the Google Dashboard
There is a link on the Google dashboard that is usually hidden for educational GApps users. It will allow you to directly move some of your files from one Google Apps account to another. Use the following URL:
Subsitute the MyOriginalAccount@myoldhome.com and the MyNewAccount@mynewhome.com with the correct information.
Using this method you can move the files directly from one account to the other. It is very fast. This method works best if the destination account is empty. It is a good way to move all of your Picasa Web Albums and YouTube videos from one account to another, but it is a one way transfer. This method moves all of the files out of your old account permanently. It will not work for Google Docs or Google GMail.
Next: Switching GMail Accounts
Part 1: Your Documents
Recently a friend of mine was given one hour to clean his desk out and turn over his computer. Not an uncommon practice in business, but rarely will a school give you an hour’s notice. However when you leave your Google Apps School, your Google Account will eventually disappear.
What does that mean? No access to your GMail, calendars, documents, YouTube Videos, Blogger blogs, Picasa Albums, Google Voice messages, sites you created, group memberships, or anything associated with the “@yourGoogleAppsDomain”. This could also include banking, brokerage, college services, social media such as Facebook or Twitter, anything that you used your school’s email address as part of your profile. For the purposes of this document we will not cover the previous sentence, but seriously, you should not use your business account for your private affairs.
So as you pack your boxes and prepare to leave your Google Apps School, how do you transfer your digital life to a new location?
First find another employer who uses Google Apps, or become your own Google Apps domain. Google will sell you a domain like “lovinglifeinlajolla.com” for $10 a year. Then you can set up a Google Apps account with your new domain and add yourself as one of the users such as bill@lovinglifeinlajolla.com. As of December 7, 2012, Google no longer provides free Google Apps accounts. However a paid account only costs $5 per month per person.
Take it out with Google Takeout.
Google Takeout (https://www.google.com/takeout) allows you to make a digital archive (i.e. download) of your Google+, Contacts, Drive, Picasa Web Albums, Profile, Reader, Voice, and YouTube from any of your Google Apps Accounts. Note: Not GMail or Google Sites.
At Google Takeout, you can select all the services or just the one you want to save.
Takeout will create an archive that you can then download to your computer.
The only Google Docs you can save like this are ones that you own. If you want to save Google Docs that are owned by someone else, you need to download a copy of them too. Here is an easy how to:
Go to your Google Web Drive. Select documents that are “Shared with Me.” Go to the bottom of the list. Since you are looking at a list of items on the web, the page may still be loading. Once you are satisfied that you have the entire list, then select all of them.
Select download from the “More” menu.
This will create a zip file on your computer. You can now access all of the files from your Google Apps that were shared with you.
Another way for grabbing your Google Docs: Rather than using both the above method and Google TakeOut to get all of the Google Docs, go to your Google Docs page. Click on “More” on the left menu.
Then click on “All Items”
It will take awhile for the page to finish loading all of you documents. When it finishes select all the items and as before select all of the files.
Select download from the “More” on the top menu. This will download all of the files you own and are shared with you.
Why not use Google Drive on your computer?
You can use Google Drive for the Mac or PC to create synchronized copies of your Google Docs on the web and your laptop. Change a file on the web and it is automatically changed on all the other devices you want synced. However, if you no longer own the account, the files on your laptop (or mobile device) are useless. You will not be able to open them up.
Using the Google Dashboard
There is a link on the Google dashboard that is usually hidden for educational GApps users. It will allow you to directly move some of your files from one Google Apps account to another. Use the following URL:
Subsitute the MyOriginalAccount@myoldhome.com and the MyNewAccount@mynewhome.com with the correct information.
Using this method you can move the files directly from one account to the other. It is very fast. This method works best if the destination account is empty. It is a good way to move all of your Picasa Web Albums and YouTube videos from one account to another, but it is a one way transfer. This method moves all of the files out of your old account permanently. It will not work for Google Docs or Google GMail.
Next: Switching GMail Accounts
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