What cloud service are you exporting data from?
Click here to open OneDrive in a new tab and follow the instructions below:
Click here to open Google Drive in a new tab and follow the instructions below:
Choose this option if you wish to backup data from Google Chrome, Gemini, Chat, Earth, Meet, Photos, Keep, Maps, or YouTube.
Click here to open Google Takeout in a new tab and follow the instructions below:
OneDrive
- Sign in to OneDrive:
- Click here or Open a browser (Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Edge) and navigate to https://office365.colorado.edu/.
- Sign in with your identikey@colorado.edu and identikey password, you may also have to approve a MFA/DUO request.
- Click on the square of 9 dots on the top left of the page.
- Click on OneDrive or Search for it if you do not see it listed.
- On the left side bar, click My Files
- Locate the files/folders:
- Navigate to the location of the files or folders you want to download.
- Select the items:
- When you hover over a file or folder an empty circle appears to the left.
- Click the checkbox next to each file or folder you want to download.
- Initiate the download:
- Click the "Download" button in the top toolbar.
- Save the file(s):
- Your browser will prompt you to choose a location to save the downloaded file(s).
- Download as .zip:
- If you selected multiple items, they will be downloaded as a single .zip file.
- File name:
- If needed, you can rename the downloaded file(s).
Google Drive Only:

- Download Files from Google Drive:
- Sign in to your Google Drive account.
- Select the files or folders you want to transfer.
- To select multiple items, hold ctrl (win) or cmd (mac) while you select each item.
- To select all, click one item and then press ctrl+a (win) or cmd+a (mac).
- Right-click and choose "Download".
- Save the .zip file to your computer (usually in the Downloads folder)
- Extract Files, if necessary:
- Locate the downloaded .zip file on your computer.
- To extract, right-click the .zip file
- Select "extract all"
- Choose the folder location you wish to extract the files, the default is the current location of the .zip file
- This can be changed to an external drive or shared folder if necessary
- Click “Extract”
- The files will appear in the location specified in step a-iii.
- Locate the downloaded .zip file on your computer.
All Google data via TAKEOUT:
- Open Google Drive:
- Sign in with your Google account, if not already.
- On the left side bar, at the bottom, take note of how much storage is being used.
- Open Google Takeout:
- Sign in with your Google account, if not already.
- Select Data to Include:
- Click on “Deselect all”
- Scroll down and check the boxes next to the Google apps you wish to download data from.
- Customize Data Selection for Google Drive:
- Click on "All Drive data included" to select specific folders if needed.
- Click on "All Drive data included" to select specific folders if needed.
- Scroll down and click "Next step".
- Choose file type, frequency & destination:
- In the "Destination" dropdown, select “Send download link via email”.
- In the “Frequency” section, select “Export once”.
- In the “File type" dropdown, select “.zip”.
- In the “File size” dropdown, select the amount that is greater than the amount of storage being used in step 1b.
- If your storage exceeds 50GB total, select "50GB" in the dropdown. It will create multiple zipped files until all data is included.
- Click “create export”.
- Check email for download link, open the link “Manage Google Takeout request”.
- Verify google login.
- Click “download”.
- A .zip file will download, you may keep this as a .zip file or extract it to access all the files:
- To extract, right-click the .zip file.
- Select "extract all".
- Choose the folder location you wish to extract the files, the default is the current location of the .zip file.
- This can be changed to an external drive or shared folder if necessary.
- Click “Extract”.
- The files will appear in the location specified in step 3.c.iii.
Are you sharing your files with a supervisor?
Follow the instructions below:
Congrats! You have completed the guide.
Sharing files with your supervisor
via CU Large File Transfer
- Click here or Open a browser (Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Edge) and navigate to https://filetransfer.colorado.edu/.
- Sign in with your identikey@colorado.edu and identikey password, you may also have to approve a MFA/DUO request.
- Click compose new message.
- In To: [Your supervisor's email address].
- In Subject: Type “Departing Employee - [Your Name] - [OneDrive files or Google Drive files]”.
- If you are sharing a .zip file, click the attach file button.
- If you are sharing a folder you already extracted, click the attach folder button.
- Type a message to your supervisor letting them know these are the files from your [cloud service] account.
via External Hard Drive/USB Drive
- Connect your external drive or usb drive to the computer you downloaded your [cloud service] files to.
- Open File Explorer (Windows), Finder (Mac).
- Find the .zip file you downloaded above or the folder you extracted from the .zip file.
- Right-Click the file/folder and copy it.
- Find the external drive/usb drive on the left side bar, click to open it.
- Right-Click the file/folder and paste it.
- Give the external drive or usb drive to your supervisor before your last day at CIRES.