G Suite for Government and G Suite for Education accounts can change ownership of any file owned by the current user, including uploaded/synced files suchs as PDFs.

Other Google Accounts such as G Suite for Business or Personal Google Accounts can only transfer ownership of Google files (Docs, Sheets, Sildes, Forms, Drawings, My Maps, and folders).

NOTE: Ownership can only be transferred to members of the same G Suite or Google domain. Ex. @gmail.com can only transfer to other @gmail.com addresses.

NOTE: The Google Drive API does not allow suppressing notifications for change of ownership if the if the new owner does not already have access to the file. However, if the new owner already has access to the file, upgrading their permissions to ownership will not generate a notification.

git clone https://github.com/davidstrauss/google-drive-recursive-ownership
pip install --upgrade google-api-python-client oauth2client six

First, replace the sample client_secrets.json with your own client secrets. Otherwise, authorizations you create will be usable by anyone with access to the sample key (the entire internet).

Next, if transfer.py is contained in a folder listed in your system's PATH this can be run from anywhere. Otherwise it needs to be run from the directory where transfer.py is located.

python  transfer.py  PATH-PREFIX  NEW-OWNER-EMAIL  SHOW-ALREADY-OWNER

• PATH-PREFIX assumes use of "/" or "" as appropriate for your operating system.

  • The PATH-PREFIX folder must be in My Drive section. For shared folders right click and select Add to My Drive.

• SHOW-ALREADY-OWNER "true"|"false" (default true) to hide feedback for files already set correctly.

Windows Example:

python transfer.py "Folder 1\Folder 2\Folder 3" [email protected] true

Mac/Linux Example:

python transfer.py "Folder 1/Folder 2/Folder 3" [email protected] false