From Personal Gmail to Google Workspace: A Migration Guide
For many growing businesses, the journey begins with a free, personal @gmail.com address. It’s simple, familiar, and effective. But as your business matures, the need for a professional identity becomes paramount. Making the switch to a custom domain email address (you@yourcompany.com) through Google Workspace is a critical step in building your brand's credibility.
The good news is that you don't have to leave years of email history behind. Google's data migration service, available in the Admin console, allows you to seamlessly copy all existing emails from personal Gmail accounts into your new professional Google Workspace accounts.
Why Migrate from a Personal Gmail to Google Workspace?
Moving from a personal account to a business platform is more than just a new email address. It’s about building a secure and scalable foundation for your company.
Professional Branding: A custom email address builds trust and reinforces your brand with every message you send.
Centralized Control: As an administrator, you gain full control over user accounts, security settings, and data access, which is impossible with personal accounts.
Data Ownership: Company data created and stored in Google Workspace belongs to the business, not the individual's personal account. This is critical for security and continuity if an employee leaves.
Enhanced Tools & Support: Google Workspace includes a suite of powerful collaboration tools, the power of Google’s Gemini AI integrated into their tools, larger storage quotas, and access to 24/7 customer support.
What You Can (and Cannot) Migrate
It is vital to set clear expectations: this tool is specifically for migrating email only. Other data in the user's personal Google Account will not be transferred.
What's Included in the Migration:
Email Messages: All emails in the user's inbox, sent mail, and other folders are copied, including drafts.
Attachments: Most attachments are included, unless the total message size exceeds 25 MB or the file type is blocked by Gmail (e.g., .exe files).
Labels: The user's existing label structure (including sublabels) is preserved in the new account.
Read/Unread Status: The status of each email is maintained.
Starred Messages: Messages that were starred in the personal Gmail account will appear starred in the new Workspace account.
What's NOT Included:
Google Contacts
Google Calendar events and calendars
Google Drive files
Chat history
User settings like filters, rules, and signatures.
These items must be migrated separately using other methods, such as manual export and import.
Before You Begin
To ensure a successful migration, you must complete these critical preparation steps:
Be a Super Administrator: The migration must be set up and run by a super administrator in the target Google Workspace account.
Create User Accounts: The user on the target account must have a Google Workspace license and have the Gmail service turned on.
Disable Advanced Protection: If a user is enrolled in the Advanced Protection Program, they must turn it off before and during the migration.
Step-by-Step Guide to Migrating from Gmail
The following steps are performed in the Google Admin console of your target Google Workspace account.
Important Note: This migration tool is designed to migrate one user at a time.
Step 1: Request Authorization
First, you must request and verify access to the user's personal Gmail account.
Navigate to Menu > Data import & export > Data Migration (New).
Scroll down to the "Migrate Data from another Google Account" section, and under Gmail, click Migrate.
In the Source email address field, enter the user’s personal Gmail account address and click Request authorization. An authorization request email is sent to the account holder, who must approve it.
To check the status, click Verify authorization. You will see one of the following messages:
Connected: The request has been approved.
The Gmail account owner has not yet authorized your access: The request is still pending approval.
Authorization denied: The request was denied by the user. You must exit the connection before sending another request.
If needed, you can click Resend email to send the authorization request again, but you must wait 24 hours after the previous request.
Step 2: Specify the Target User
For the Target account, enter the email address of the Google Workspace account you want to migrate data to.
Click Save.
Step 3: Select the Migration Settings
Customize what data will be included in the migration.
Click Start date and enter the date from which you want to migrate messages.
Check the boxes to Migrate deleted emails or Migrate spam emails.
To exclude messages with specific labels, check the Exclude specific labels from migration box and enter the label names, separated by a comma.
To exclude a sublabel, use its full path with a forward slash, like Travel/Asia.
Step 4: Start & View the Progress of the Migration
Click Start migration.
The status will change to In progress.
You can monitor real-time statistics, including :
Discovered tasks: Total items to be processed.
Warning: Items migrated but with an issue.
Failed: Items that failed to migrate.
Skipped: Items that were skipped.
Successful: Items migrated successfully.
Emails discovered, migrated, skipped, and failed.
Finalizing the Process: Exiting a Completed Migration
Once a migration is fully complete and you have downloaded any necessary reports, you must formally exit the migration. This is a critical final step.
Important: Once you exit a migration, you can no longer access its configuration data or reports.
You cannot start a new migration until you exit the completed one.
To finalize, click Exit migration and confirm by clicking Exit and delete migration. This removes the service's access to the source account and revokes its OAuth access.
Life After Migration: Important Next Steps
Once the initial migration is complete, there are a few final steps to ensure a smooth transition:
Run a Delta Migration: Run the migration again to copy over any new emails that arrived in the old personal account during the initial process.
Set Up Email Forwarding: Instruct users to set up automatic forwarding from their old personal Gmail to their new Workspace address to ensure no message is missed.
Update Your Business Presence: Change the contact email on your website, social media profiles, business cards, and any other company materials to your new professional address.
Inform Your Contacts: Proactively notify clients, partners, and vendors of your new official email address.
Ready to Go Pro? Cloudasta Can Help.
Making the move from personal Gmail to Google Workspace is one of the most important steps in professionalizing your business. If you need help ensuring the transition is seamless and secure, Cloudasta is here to help. We specialize in guiding businesses through Google Workspace setup and data migration.
Contact Cloudasta today for expert assistance in moving your team to a professional, secure, and collaborative platform.
Cloudasta, Google Workspace Productivity & Migration Experts
Your one-stop partner for seamless migrations, expert advisory, support, and training.
