Google Drive

Now that the firm has retired Gmail, we are also leaving  all the other features included in Google's G Suite.  Aside from email, the most commonly used feature is Google Drive.

The firm has determined that it will NOT be converting the contents of Google Drive to Box.  Too many people have too much junk in Drive that is not necessary to bring into Box.

That said, if you have information in Google Drive that you want to save, you have several options.  First, if you only have a small number of files, you can download them yourself.  You can download a file for older from your Google Drive and convert it to Microsoft format if currently in Google format.  This will allow you to continue to work on the documents using another program.

If you are using Google Drive (which includes Google Docs, Google Sheets, and Google Slides) to extensively to download a few documents yourself, Google also offers an option called Google Takeout.

Takeout allows you to download the entire contents of your Google Drive, or select features.  It will also convert your Google files to a convenient format.  If you want to use Takeout, do the following:

1. Go to https://takeout.google.com/settings/takeout
2. Click on "Select None" to turn off all the various Google features.  
3. Scroll down to Google Drive and select only that category.
4. If you don't want to download everything, click on "all files" and then on "select files and folders".  Check only those folders you want to download.
5. Scroll to the bottom and hit "next"
6. You then have the option to select different save formats.  The default "zip" is probably best.  You can also create a maximum size.  I recommend selecting a very large size.  This will ensure everything goes into one download file instead of multiple ones.  
7. Click on "start download"
8. Depending on how many files you have selected, Drive can take minutes or hours to complete. When it has created the download file, you will get an email with a link.  Use that link to download your files.
9. That should be it for now.  Save that zip file in a safe place.  You can open it if you need to use any of the files now.  Otherwise, hang onto it until you go live on Box.com.  Then, you can upload the files into Box.

Of course, if you need assistance, contact the help desk.  We are a little overwhelmed these days, but if you send us an email, we will get your request on our task list and get to you as soon as possible.

Please do not put off this task for too long.  When Google shuts down, we will no longer have access to this data and will not be able to retrieve it.  Google will only remain available for a few more weeks.  It will be going away before most of our offices are up and running in Box.  That is why it is important to save the documents locally before we can make them available to you in Box.