Migrating from Google Workspace is often simpler than migrating from Microsoft 365 for email and files, and harder for everything specific to Google: Chat, Sites, Forms linked to scripts, very open sharing. The project is judged on this second list.
In Gmail, a message exists only once and carries zero, one or several labels. Seen over IMAP, each label becomes a folder, and the same message appears in each of them. In addition there are special folders, including “All Mail”, which contains everything, including archived messages without any label. The names of these special folders depend on the account language.
Two opposite mistakes therefore lie in wait. Copying all folders, “All Mail” included, multiplies duplicates. Copying only the labels misses archived messages, which some employees use as their only filing system. The rule is chosen before the first copy: one folder per label, and a catch-all folder for messages without a label, for example. The “Important”, “Spam” and “Bin” folders are generally excluded. Once the rule is set, it applies to all mailboxes, including the second pass.
A Word document stored in Drive remains a Word file and is copied as is. A Google Doc, Sheet or Slides file exists only within Google: it must be converted to an office format to take it out. Conversion keeps the text and data. It loses or degrades the version history, part of the formatting, and Sheets functions that query other workbooks or Google services. Scripts attached to the document do not follow.
A team that co-writes in Docs all day must test the target’s editor for two weeks, on its own documents, before any cutover. If the test fails, staying on Google Workspace is a rational decision. The page Google Workspace compared with a sovereign solution serves this choice, and the overview of European alternatives to Google Workspace helps choose the target.
Imagine a 25-person accounting firm. Email and the calendar move across without surprises. The Drive, however, contains Sheets shared by link with clients, who enter their documents in them every month, and a collection form linked to a script. Migrating these elements is not a copy: it is a redesign of how the firm exchanges with its clients. The firm has every interest in treating it as a separate workstream, with its own schedule, rather than discovering it on the day of the cutover.
During the copy, employees continue to write in Gmail. A second pass, just before the MX change, catches up the delta. Without this pass, the last few days are missing. The general method is the same as for an email service without interruption.
The TTL is lowered in advance because DNS resolvers keep the old answer until the old duration expires. After the cutover, Google still considers itself responsible for the domain: an employee who writes to a colleague from Gmail has their message delivered within Google, without going through the new MX. That is why step 7 closes sending, not just receiving.
The owner of a Drive file is a person. If that person has left the company without a transfer of ownership, the file is harder to recover. Carry out this transfer before the copy. The admin console allows it; the important thing is to do it before deleting the account, otherwise the files it owned disappear with it. Shared drives, on the other hand, belong to the organisation and not to a person: they are migrated team by team.
A file that appears in “Shared with me” does not belong to the user who sees it. Copied mailbox by mailbox, it will be brought over only once, from its owner’s account. If it belongs to a client or an external partner, it will not be brought over at all: this is normal, but you need to know it.
Google groups often serve as distribution lists and as permission lists. Export them. Recreate them on the target. Do not assume that a group of twenty people “will rebuild itself”. The same group can both receive mail for a sales address and grant access to a shared drive: these two roles are recreated separately.
Domain validation (SPF, DKIM, DMARC) is redone on the day of the MX change. Forgetting DMARC results in emails being rejected by correspondents, even though sending “works” in internal tests. The reason is simple: DMARC requires the message to be authenticated by SPF or DKIM in the name of your domain. The target’s records can be published before D-Day (a single SPF record authorising both platforms during the transition, a DKIM key under a new selector); on the day of the MX change, the result is checked on a real message sent externally.
On the workstation side, two cases require attention. On Android, the company Google account is often the phone’s account: add the new account, check email, calendar and contacts, then remove the old one. Employees who used Outlook connected to Google through Google’s synchronisation tool must create a new Outlook profile rather than modify the old one.
The line-by-line detail is in the migration checklist, most of whose points also apply to Google.
Yes, in most copy tools a label becomes a folder. A message carrying several labels is then either copied into each folder or filed in just one, depending on the rule chosen. This choice is made before the first copy and checked on the sample of five mailboxes.
No. This format exists only inside Google. On exit, each document becomes an office file, editable in the target’s editor. The text and data follow; version history and pending comments do not always follow.
Google links stop working when the account or the Drive is closed. Shares must be recreated on the target and the clients concerned informed. It is also an opportunity to close “anyone with the link” shares that no longer have any reason to exist.
No. Keep Google read-only for the duration of the check, then export what needs to be retained before closure. Cancelling too early prevents you from correcting a discrepancy discovered later. The cost of this period is planned in the budget, as explained in how much a migration costs.
Klytic receives email on a Zimbra email service that Klytic operates, hosted in its email architecture, in a dedicated instance or on the client’s premises, and files on a Nextcloud instance dedicated to the customer. Google Docs become files. They can be shared there, edited online alone or with others, and their version history retrieved. It is not the Google editor. Email migration advice is free of charge. Klytic guarantees that no email is lost. The copy carried out by Klytic is quoted on request, after an inventory of mailboxes and volumes.
The email service is accessible via the web, via email clients, on mobile, over EAS and over EWS. Services are purchased separately: you can migrate only email, or only files. Subscriptions are on the Pricing page, separate from the migration quote.
This page describes a method. It does not promise to bring over services specific to Google.
Accessed in October 2026.
Free advice, no email lost. A migration carried out by Klytic is quoted after an inventory.
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