How to Migrate Emails Between Google Workspace Accounts
As part of your organization's growth or restructuring, you may need to move email data from one Google Workspace account to another. This could be for consolidating domains, handling a merger, or creating a separate archive tenant. While this sounds complex, Google's native data migration service provides a direct, cloud-based tool for this exact task.
Email Messages: All messages, including drafts and sent items, are copied.
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).
Email Status: The read/unread status of messages is preserved.
Labels and Stars: Your organizational system is maintained, as existing labels, sub-labels, and stars are migrated.
Archived & Chat Messages: Archived emails are moved to "All Mail". Messages with the "Chat" label are migrated and given a new "Migrated Chat" label.
What's NOT Included:
Settings: User-specific settings like filters, rules, and email signatures are not migrated and must be recreated manually.
Specific Message Types: Confidential and dynamic emails are migrated but lose their special properties.
Snoozed or scheduled messages are not migrated with those states intact.
Google Groups Messages: Emails from Google Groups are not migrated.
Essential Preparations Before You Begin
Before initiating any email migration with the new data migration service, several foundational tasks must be completed in your new, target Google Workspace account:
Domain Verification: If you are using the Essentials edition of Google Workspace, you must verify your domain before starting the migration. For other editions, domain verification can occur either before or after the migration.
User Account Creation: Each user whose data you intend to migrate must already have an existing user account in your new Google Workspace environment. The service does not create user accounts; it only migrates data to existing ones.
Gmail Service Activation: The Gmail service must be turned on for all users in the target Google Workspace account.
User License Assignment: Users need a license for the new Google Workspace account before they can begin utilizing Google services there.
Who Can Run the Migration?
To ensure security and proper access, only a super administrator can set up and run a migration using this service. Resellers are not authorized to migrate data for their customer accounts.
Step-by-Step Guide to Migrating from Google Workspace
The migration process is performed from the Google Admin console of your target Google Workspace account.
Step 1: Authorize the Connection
First, you must grant the migration service permission to access your source account.
Sign in to your target Google Admin console as a super admin.
Navigate to Menu > Data > Data import & export > Data Migration (New).
Scroll down to the "Migrate Data from another Google Account" section, and under Business Gmail, click Migrate.
Enter the email address of a super administrator on the source account and click Request authorization.
The source admin will receive an email with an authorization link that expires in 24 hours. They must click the link, sign in to their Admin console, and approve the request.
If the request expires, you can click Resend request (you must wait 24 hours to resend).
Once the source admin authorizes, you can click Verify authorization in your target Admin console to update the status to "Connected".
Step 2: Create and Upload a User Migration Map
Next, you'll tell the service which source mailbox maps to which target mailbox using a CSV file.
Create a spreadsheet with two columns: Source GUser and Target GUser.
Under each header, list the full email address of the source user and their corresponding new user account.
The file can contain a maximum of 1,000 users and must be smaller than 128 MB.
Save this file in CSV format.
In the Admin console, click Upload migration map CSV and select your file.
Note: If the CSV file fails to upload, the console provides an optional step to delete the failed file so you can upload a new one .
Step 3: Configure Migration Settings
Here, you define the scope of the migration.
Start Date: Select a date to migrate messages from that point forward.
Migration Options (Optional): You can choose to include deleted and spam emails.
Exclude Labels (Optional): You can check Exclude specific labels from migration and enter label names separated by commas.
Use a forward slash for sub-labels (e.g., Receipts/2024).
CRITICAL: If you add the All Mail label to this exclusion list, the service will not migrate any email messages.
Click Save.
Step 4: Start and Monitor the Migration
Click Start migration.
The status will change to "In progress." You can monitor the progress, which shows detailed metrics in real-time, including:
Discovered tasks: Total number of items (messages, labels, etc.) to be processed.
Successful: Number of items migrated successfully.
Failed: Number of items that failed to migrate.
Skipped: Number of items skipped (e.g., already migrated).
Warning: Items that migrated but with an issue.
Users processed: Number of users whose migration is complete.
Emails discovered, migrated, and skipped .
Keeping Your Data Current with Delta Migrations
After your primary migration is successful, you can ensure that any new or updated email messages are also transferred to your target account by running a delta migration.
What it does: A delta migration specifically focuses on newly added email messages and identifies changes to previously migrated emails (like read status or new labels), updating them in the target account.
Efficiency: It intelligently skips items that have already been successfully migrated and haven't been updated on the source account, marking them as skipped.
Important Considerations
While the new data migration service is comprehensive, there are specific items and behaviors to be aware of:
Confidential email messages migrate, but their verification status is not updated.
Dynamic email messages migrate as standard (simple) messages.
The migration process does not modify sender and recipient IDs (including Bcc and Cc).
Snoozed or scheduled messages will receive the "All Mail" label in the target account, not their original "Snoozed" or "Scheduled" labels.
Messages with the "Chat" label will be migrated with a "Migrated Chat" label in the target account.
Archived messages are migrated to the "All Mail" label, and their archive button remains enabled.
For delta migrations, updated drafts migrate as new drafts, meaning previous versions are not deleted from the target account. If a user sends a draft after the main migration, the sent message will migrate, but the original draft remains. Also, if you change the target user after the primary migration but before a delta migration, previously migrated items will not transfer to the new target user during the delta process.
Exiting a Completed Migration
Once your migration is complete, you can exit the migration.
Important: Before exiting, be sure to export any migration reports you want to keep.
This action deletes the configuration data and reports, removes the client ID, and revokes OAuth access in the source account. You cannot start a new migration until you exit a completed one.
By following these steps and understanding the nuances of the new data migration service, you can efficiently and effectively copy your organization's email messages from one Google Workspace account to another, ensuring a smooth transition and continuity of your communication history.
Let Cloudasta Handle Your Google Workspace Email Transfers
Copying emails from one Google Workspace account to another (or to an archive) can get tricky, especially if you're handling multiple users or sensitive data. At Cloudasta, we specialize in Google Workspace migrations, email transitions, and data protection.
Our team can help you:
Securely copy or transfer user emails
Archive mailboxes for offboarding
Ensure compliance with Google Vault
Implement automated backup solutions
Contact Cloudasta today to get expert support for copying, backing up, or migrating email messages from your Google Workspace accounts.
Cloudasta, Google Workspace Productivity & Migration Experts
Your one-stop partner for seamless migrations, expert advisory, support, and training.
