IMPORTANT! If you're graduating, your Otis issued Google Drive and Otis Email will be accessible until the end of:

 

• August, for Spring graduation
• January, for Fall graduation

 

Give yourself plenty of time before these dates to download and save any files in your Otis Google Drive (http://gdrive.otis.edu) or transfer them to your Personal Google Drive. For more information check out this link

 

While you can simply drag and drop files from Google Drive to your own computer or external drive, Google provides a very useful tool to get your files called Google Takeout.

 

Why Use Google Takeout?

Google Takeout is the official tool for downloading everything tied to your Otis Google account (Drive files, Photos, Calendar, and more) in a single archive.

Before You Begin

• Make sure you have enough free space on your personal computer or external drive to hold your files.
• If you also use a personal Google account, make sure you are signed in to your Otis account before starting.

 

Step 1

1. Go to takeout.google.com. Sign into your Otis Google account if you are not already logged in.

2. You will see a page titled Google Takeout.

3. You may see a message that reads “Unavailable Services — Your data for some services is unavailable for export because your Workspace Admin has disabled them.” You can safely ignore this. The data you need is fully accessible.

Step 2 — Choose What to Back Up

1. To start with a clean slate, click Deselect all at the top of the list.
2. Scroll down and check only the items you want to download. We suggest:

• Drive — Files and folders (we recommend you download everything, but you can specify certain files or folders if you wish)
• Google Photos — your photo library
• Contacts — your address book

3. Scroll to the bottom and click Next step.

Step 3 — Choose Delivery Options

1. Destination: Select Send download link via email. This is the simplest option.
2. Frequency: Select Export once.
3. File type: Choose .zip. It opens on every operating system without extra software.
4. File size: This is the size of .zip archive files Google will create to download. In general, choose 2 GB or 4 GB. If you know you have larger files than that, you can specify an even bigger size here.
5. Click Create export.

How long does it take?

Small exports may finish in minutes. Large exports can take several hours or even a few days (so plan ahead). Google will email you when it is ready, so you do not need to keep the page open.

Step 5 — Download Your Files

1. When you receive the email from Google, click Download your files. You may need to sign in to your Otis account again.

2. Depending on the size of your archive, there may be multiple .zip files saved to your computer’s Downloads folder (or wherever you've specified downloads go).

3. Download links expire after 7 days, so save everything before then.

Once you have everything, make sure to backup your files in more than one place!

 

FAQ

Will my Google Docs still open after I download them?

Yes. By default they export as Word, Excel, and PowerPoint files. You can also choose PDF if you only need to view them.

What about files other people shared with me?

Takeout only exports files you own. If a classmate or instructor shared a file with you and you want to keep it, open it in Google Drive and Make a copy before you lose access, then run Google Takeout.

My export is huge. Do I need to do this all at once?

No. In Step 3, only check the items you want. Later you can run Takeout as many times as you need to get the rest of it - but don't wait too long.

I lost access to my Otis account before I exported. Now what?

Send a message to [email protected] as soon as possible. We cannot guarantee your account will be recoverable, but the sooner you reach out, the better.