A personal Google Drive ownership request is pending until the recipient accepts it. The sender and recipient have different actions: the recipient accepts or declines, while the current owner can cancel an unaccepted request. First confirm which role you have.
Find requests awaiting your decision
Sign in to the intended recipient account and search Drive for pendingowner:me. Google limits that search to files for which you are the pending owner. Check each file’s contents and current owner before accepting responsibility.
Right-click the relevant file, open Share, and use the Accept ownership action to accept or decline where offered. An unexpected invitation should be verified with the sender through an established channel before you act.
Cancel a request you sent
As the current owner, open the file’s Share dialog and the menu beside the pending owner’s name. Choose Cancel ownership transfer when the request remains pending. Google warns that cancellation is no longer available after the new owner accepts.
Do not send multiple replacement requests while unsure whether the first one completed. Read the current ownership state in the sharing dialog instead of relying only on an old notification email.
Resolve account-type changes
Google documents situations in which a pending personal-account transfer can no longer be accepted after an account becomes a work or school account. The sender can cancel or the pending owner can decline. Workspace same-organization transfers do not use the same acceptance requirement. After any decision, verify the current owner and your remaining role. Accepting ownership is not the same as downloading a backup, and it does not automatically transfer every file inside an associated folder.
References
Reviewed against the linked official product guidance on November 3, 2026. Features, limits, screen labels, and access can vary by account, platform, region, and organization policy.