Digital Storage Changes for Current Staff and Faculty

All accounts owned by former students, staff, and faculty who are no longer tied to the university are scheduled for deletion beginning October 14, 2025.  After that, account deletions will occur on a rolling basis shortly after each user’s departure from Kent State.

If a file has been shared with you by someone no longer with the university, you will lose access to that document unless you download or move it to your own account before October 14, 2025. 

Here is how to retain access to shared documents: 

1. Log into your Kent State Google account at email.kent.edu.
2. Select Google Drive from the list of applications represented by a square of dots in the upper right hand corner. (Fig. 1)
3. From the side bar on the left of the screen, select the Shared with me option. This will show you all of the files that have been shared with your Kent State Google account. (Fig. 2)
4. Select "Shared with me" in the sidebar of your Google Drive. (fig.1)
5. Find the file(s) from the colleague that is leaving the university.
6. Right-click on a file and select "Make a copy".
7. A copy of the file will be created and saved to your drive (My Drive)
    

Confirm You are Logged in to Your Kent State University Google Account

Since you can sign into multiple Google accounts in one browsing session, it's important to know how to swap between the two. This will avoid accidentally requesting access for something with a personal account or storing a file in the wrong Google Drive. Your Kent State University Google account will have the Kent State University logo next to your profile icon. (fig.1)

How to Change Accounts

• Locate the circle in the upper right hand corner of your Google, Gmail, or Drive page and select it.
• You will then see a drop-down menu that will show all the Google accounts you are signed into. The Google account listed at the top is the account you are currently viewing. To swap between accounts, select the other account.

Permission Errors and Warnings

If you see the following message when trying to access a file shared with you, be sure that you are signed into the correct Google account. You will see the account you are signed in as at the bottom of the message. 

• If the Google Photos page is empty when you are logged in with your Kent State credentials, there is no further action required.  
   
• If there are photos you want to retain personal use of, you need to download them and/or move to iCloud, a personal Google account, or a photo storing service of your choosing. Google Takeout is the recommended method of exporting or downloading Google photos. *Instructions on using Google Takeout are in the next section. 

Visit Google Account Data and Privacy.

• Scroll down until you find the Download or delete your data section.
• Click Download your data.

Scroll through the first section labeled Select data to include and choose which products you want to download. 

• You may have issues if the total photo content is over 100 GB. If you experience difficulties, try downloading the data directly. 

• To help ensure the best transfer, it is also recommended that you delete any unwanted files first to limit the amount of data you are trying to export. 

• Also, ensure that you are not downloading business data to a personal account as it may contain sensitive information. 

• Once you have made your selections, click Next step. 

• Select your preferred Delivery Method, Frequency, and File Type & Size. We recommend choosing the file size of 10 GB. 

• Click Create Export.

This process can take up to several days if exporting large amounts of photos.              

• A box will appear labeled Export Progress, allowing you to cancel the export or create another one. 
• You will receive an email when the process is complete. 

After all needed photos have been removed from your Kent State Google account, you must delete all remaining photos so that Google Photos is empty.