Moving dozens of mailboxes and files to a new Google Workspace

Why standard migration tools were unavailable

A medium-sized company used Google Workspace for business email, documents and employee files. It bought its subscription through a reseller. Restrictions affecting that reseller left the company without access to Google's standard migration tools.

The company needed to move its data to a new Google Workspace environment: several dozen business mailboxes containing years of correspondence, plus documents and files. The total ran to hundreds of thousands of emails and files. These records represented years of business activity, so preserving them was critical. I handled the migration from tool selection and preparation through testing and the main transfer.

Choosing a migration method

This was more than copying content between accounts. I needed an available way to access the data and configure it to transfer the company's email and documents at scale.

With Google's standard migration tools unavailable, I selected third-party software that used a different API, one not originally designed for migration. The challenge was not simply using the API, but transferring the volume of data while accounting for its structure.

The tool had many settings, and its documentation did not fully explain them. Before the main migration, I had to understand its capabilities and configure it for the company's data.

Accounting for folders and file ownership

Documents needed a separate analysis. In employees' individual Google Drives, a folder and the files inside it can have different owners: one employee creates the folder, while others add their own documents. This company had a complex folder hierarchy and ownership spread across employees.

Transferring file content alone was not enough. File locations and ownership needed to carry over to the new Workspace. Otherwise, employees would have to search through a changed folder structure, and some documents could end up assigned to the wrong people.

I analyzed how the folders were organized and who owned the files, then used that information to prepare the migration around the original structure and ownership. Document migration was a distinct part of the preparation, not just an add-on to the mailbox transfer.

Testing before the main migration

I ran a test migration before the main transfer. It let me check how the software worked through the API and handled the complex folder structure and file ownership without affecting active mailboxes or files.

Testing provided a chance to identify and correct preparation errors before they affected employees' work. I proceeded with the main migration only after validating the approach.

Migration result

Several dozen business mailboxes, including years of correspondence, were moved to the new Google Workspace, along with documents and files organized in complex folder and ownership structures. The total was hundreds of thousands of emails and files.

The migration was completed with minimal loss despite the lack of Google's standard migration tools. The work depended on selecting suitable third-party software, understanding the data structure, and validating the approach with a test migration.