Migrate from Google Workspace Drive to Zoho WorkDrive
With Zoho WorkDrive's improved file management and collaboration, teams can work together more efficiently. If you're currently using Google Workspace (formerly G Suite) Drive and want to migrate your data to Zoho WorkDrive, this migration guide will help.
Important Questions
Which plans support the migration?
All WorkDrive Team plans (Starter, Team, and Business) support the migration. WorkDrive's Individual plan does not support the migration.
Who can manage the migration?
For Google Workspace: Super Admin
For WorkDrive: Admin or Super Admin
How can I start the migration?
The Super Admin or an Admin of the WorkDrive account can start the migration by themselves from Admin Console.
Note : The Super Admin or an Admin who initiates the migration will become our point of contact for all migration-related activities and notifications.
What will happen to my data in Google Workspace Drive after migration?
We don't delete any data during the migration, so all your data in Google Workspace Drive will remain intact afterwards.
What's migrated
- All data from your My Drive and Shared Drives will be migrated.
- Share permissions of individually shared files and folders from your My Drive will be retained.
- When a shared resource is added to a user's My Drive in Google Workspace (through Add to My Drive), that particular file will be migrated to both the file's owner and the shared user. In this case, both will have a copy of the same file.
- All Shared Drives in Google Workspace will be migrated as private Team Folders in the first migration. You cannot migrate any Shared Drives later.
- Roles of Shared Drives will be replaced with corresponding Team Folder roles in WorkDrive.
- At least one member—either admin or member from a Shared Drive—must be mapped to WorkDrive to migrate that Shared Drive to WorkDrive.
If an admin from Shared Drive is mapped, they will become the admin to the corresponding Team Folder in WorkDrive. If only a member of a Shared Drive is mapped, the Shared Drive will be migrated to WorkDrive with the Admin role assigned to the user who has created the migration.
Limitations
General Limitations
- Each user can only be migrated once per service.
- Any data added to Google Workspace Drive post-migration cannot be migrated again to Zoho WorkDrive.
- Duplicate entries will not be allowed for migration in both Google Workspace and Zoho WorkDrive. For example, data from multiple Google Workspace accounts cannot be migrated to a single WorkDrive account, and data from a single Google Workspace account cannot be migrated to multiple WorkDrive accounts.
Note: If you wish to move data from one Google Workspace user to another, you can transfer ownership of the user's files before migrating from Google Workspace to WorkDrive. Reference: Transfer ownership of Google Workspace Drive files - Migrating your data to WorkDrive is not possible if there are more than 2,50,000 (2.5 lakh) folders (including subfolders) in your Google Workspace account.
- External sharing permissions from files and folders will not be retained in Zoho WorkDrive.
- Users from different domains who migrate later will not retain sharing permissions on any files and folders migrated earlier, but sharing permissions on their personal files will be retained for the users migrated earlier.
- If users in Google Workspace did not join or were inactive in Zoho WorkDrive at the time of migrating their shared files or folders, they will no longer have access to those shared files or folders, even after joining or becoming active later in WorkDrive.
- Comments, revision history, and groups will not be migrated.
- File size more than 25 GB will not be migrated.
- Google native files (Docs, Sheets, and Slides) more 10 MB in size will not be migrated.
- A user's deleted and trashed files and folders will not be migrated.
- Files and folders synced to Google Workspace Drive from your computer via Backup and Sync will not be automatically migrated to WorkDrive.
You can move subfolders from the section "Computers" to "My Drive" to migrate them to WorkDrive. To do this, open the folder tree in the left side of Google Drive, then drag and drop the subfolders from "Computers" to "My Drive." Learn more on Google Drive
Note: You cannot move primary folders from "Computers" to your "My Drive." - Mime types like `application/vnd.google-apps.map`, `application/vnd.google-apps.form`, and `application/vnd.google-apps.site` are not supported in WorkDrive—these are primarily Google Maps, Forms, and Sites data respectively.
- A folder cannot contain files with the same name. In such cases, WorkDrive will append filename (1).extn, at the end of the file.
- Filenames without an extension cannot be previewed in WorkDrive.
- If you've created shortcut links for a file or folder in multiple locations within your Drive account, the file or folder alone will be migrated to one of the locations in a random manner. Shortcut links will not be migrated.
Shared Drive Limitations
- Sharing permissions of files and folders in Shared Drives will not be retained.
- If no member from a Shared Drive is mapped, the Shared Drive will not be migrated to WorkDrive.
- Deleted Shared Drives will not be migrated to WorkDrive.
Migration Prerequisites
To initiate the migration process, you'll need to first complete a few actions in Google Workspace and WorkDrive.
In Google Workspace
i) Create your own Google Cloud app
Users can create their own app or API client with Google to get access to data in Google services like Workspace Drive. This app or client can be used to access and migrate data from Workspace Drive to WorkDrive.
- Go to console.cloud.google.com.
- Click the Activate cloud shell
icon.
- Click CONTINUE.
- Copy-paste the following code and press Enter.
wget -cO - https://workdrive.zohoexternal.com/external/0169e2af0f56be8c78ebabc6830b56bbbc0f56ddf9b55e11177f07f4c0860160/download?directDownload=true > "gcp_app_creator.sh";sh gcp_app_creator.sh
This will transfer the WorkDrive file (Google app script) to the Google Cloud platform and execute it. - Type a unique project ID and press Enter. You'll get an error message if the project ID you specified was already taken.
- Click AUTHORIZE. Once the authorization is done, you'll be shown a download dialog.
- Click DOWNLOAD to download the .p12 extension file.
ii) Get a service account email address and OAuth 2 Client ID
- Go to console.cloud.google.com.
- Click on the Select a Project button/current project name at the top of the page.
Select a project dialog box will appear. - Navigate to the All tab and select your Project ID (The project ID you entered when creating your Google Cloud app).
- Click the Hamburger
icon in the top-left corner.
- Select IAM & Admin > Service Accounts.
- Select the required service account for your project.
- Copy the service account email address and OAuth 2 Client ID.
iii) Manage domain-wide delegation
Authorize the service account to access your organization data without your users having to give their consent individually.
- Visit admin.google.com.
- Go to Security > Access and data control > API controls.
- Under Domain wide delegation, select MANAGE DOMAIN WIDE DELEGATION.
- Click Add new to add a new client ID.
- Paste the OAuth 2 Client ID of the service account taken from the service account.
- Add the scopes (comma-separated) given below:https://www.googleapis.com/auth/admin.directory.user.readonly,https://www.googleapis.com/auth/drive,https://www.googleapis.com/auth/spreadsheets,https://www.googleapis.com/auth/userinfo.profile
- Click AUTHORIZE.
iv) Export Google Workspace users
- From your Google Admin portal, go to Users.
- At the top of the Users list, click Download users.
- Choose to download all users.
- Download the users list as a CSV file.
Reference: https://support.google.com/a/answer/7348070?hl=en
v) Update the exported CSV file
If you wish to map some Google Workspace users with different email addresses or users to WorkDrive, follow the steps below:
- Open the CSV file exported from Google Workspace in a spreadsheet app.
- Copy the Email Address column and paste it in a new column at the end.
- Name the new column's header as " WorkDrive Email Address ".
- Make necessary changes in the column, like the change of domain name or user name in the corresponding users' email address field.
- Save the changes and download the file to your computer in CSV format.
In Zoho WorkDrive
vi) Invite Users to WorkDrive
Only active users in WorkDrive can be migrated. An active user is the one who has joined a WorkDrive account and is not in a suspended or deleted state.
The Super Admin or the Admins in WorkDrive must invite all or required Google Workspace users from the exported Google Workspace users or updated Google Workspace users list in the CSV file, respectively, to join their WorkDrive account.
- If you forgot to add any Google Workspace users to WorkDrive before the migration, and wish to add them later, you'll need to perform a new migration for those users.
- Sharing permissions granted to such users will not be retained on any files and folders migrated earlier.
Migration Steps
Important: Before you proceed to the migration steps, make sure you have covered the prerequisites in Google Workspace and WorkDrive.
2. Click Admin Console in the bottom-left corner of your WorkDrive account.
The Admin Console page will open in a new tab. Dashboard will be selected by default.
3. Click the Migration tab in the left panel to open the Migration screen.
4. Under Google Workspace, click Migrate From Google Workspace. A new screen will open.
5. Under Migration Details, enter a migration name for reference.
6. Enter the service account email address. This is the email address of your service account in Google Cloud (IAM & Admin > Service Accounts).
7. Enter the Google Workspace super admin email address.
8. Import the downloaded .p12 file. This is also known as the service account key, which is used to authenticate with Google APIs.
9. Click CONTINUE.
10. Click Browse to import the required CSV file containing the exported Google Workspace users or updated Google Workspace Users list.
11. Click CONTINUE to open a new screen for user details. The Mapped Users tab will be displayed by default. You can view the list of users from Google Workspace and their corresponding WorkDrive details.
Click the Unmapped Users tab to see a list of any unmapped users, along with their reasons.
- To map all users, make sure all users from your Google Workspace account have joined and are active in WorkDrive.
- If the email address for a user in WorkDrive is different from their Google Workspace account, then make sure the WorkDrive email address is correctly updated, corresponding to its Google Workspace email address in the CSV file. Refer Update the exported CSV file.
12. Click PROCEED . A new screen for Migration Settings will open.
13. To migrate sharing permissions on files and folder, check Enable sharing data to migrate . Uncheck it if you don't want to migrate the sharing data. Remember, this setting cannot be changed later.
Files in Google format (Docs, Sheets, and Slides) will be automatically converted to its corresponding WorkDrive format (Writer, Sheet, and Show).
Files in other formats, such as .docx, .xlsx, and .pptx, will be saved to WorkDrive in their original formats. These files can only be previewed. To edit these files, you'll need to convert them to WorkDrive format (Writer, Sheet, or Show), which will create a copy of the original file.
14. Mark the required checkbox to send an email just to yourself or to all members once the migration is completed, then click CONTINUE . A new screen will open.
15. Select Users or Team Folders , then click START MIGRATION.
All mapped users from the imported CSV file or all Team Folders in your team will be automatically selected for migration.
You will see the status of migration on your screen as it happens. This includes:
- Which users or Team Folders are being migrated
- Number of files migrated
- Total files
- Size of the migrated files
- You cannot individually select and migrate users or Team Folders.
- Click the Refresh icon on the right side to get the live status of migration.
Click View report next to a user's or Team Folder's migration status. (The report link will appear once their migration is complete.)
The user's or Team Folder's report will show you the following:
- Total files
- Migrated files
- Failed files
- Total folders
- Migrated folders
- Failed folders
- Total size
In case any files have failed to migrate, they will be listed under Migration Failures. You can view the file name, its Google Workspace link, and the failure reason.
Some common failure reasons include:
- File is marked as spam/virus.
- File is not available in the source service.
- No permission on the file. Contact the file owner for access.
- Download restricted in the source service. Contact the file owner for access.
Select the required files and click RETRY FAILED FILES. Alternatively, you can manually download these files from Google Workspace Drive and upload them to WorkDrive.
Once migration is completed for all users and Team Folders, you can download the overall migration report.
Click DOWNLOAD OVERALL REPORT at the top of the page.
The migration report will give you a complete log of the migration activities.
- The migration report will be uploaded to the My Folders of the user (Admin or Super Admin) who initiated the migration. The report will be saved with the name "Migration report for <Migration name>" and shared with all team admins.
- If you have left some users out of this migration, you can create a new migration to migrate those users at any time later.
Click Create New Migration at the top-right corner and follow the same steps from 5 to 17 given above.
You can switch between migrations you have done so far by clicking the respective migration name at the top of the page.
- For single migration, you must upload the CSV file containing all your users (from exported Google Workspace users or updated Google Workspace users).
For teams with users from different domains, single migration can be the only option to retain share permissions on files and folders. The uploaded CSV file must have all users compiled from the different domains. - For multiple migrations, you must upload a new CSV file for each migration containing only the required users (from exported Google Workspace users or updated Google Workspace users).
You can only create a new migration after the successful completion of a previous migration, (i.e., all mapped users and available Team Folders must be migrated first to create a new migration).
Troubleshooting unmapped users
Here are the usual reasons for users being unmapped and their fixes:
- User's email address is invalid: Upload a new CSV file with the corrected email address and try mapping again.
- Duplicate entries found for the user: Upload a new CSV file with duplicate entries removed and try mapping again.
- Migration already completed for this Zoho/Google Workspace user (email address): Migration cannot be done again for the user.
- User is not part of Zoho: Make sure the user has signed up for Zoho and joined WorkDrive, then try mapping again.
- User is not a member of this WorkDrive team: Make sure the user is active in your team and try mapping again.
Role mapping (for reference)
Know the different types of folders and roles available in Google Workspace Drive and Zoho WorkDrive. This will help you use WorkDrive well after you migrate from Google Workspace Drive.
Roles | Google Workspace Drive | Zoho WorkDrive |
File Access | Owner | Owner |
Edit | Share/Edit | |
Comment | View and comment | |
- | View and fill | |
View | View | |
Folder Access | Owner | Owner |
Organize, add, and edit | Organize/Edit | |
View | View | |
Shared Drive/Team Folder Roles | Manager | Admin |
Content Manager | Organizer | |
Contributor | Editor | |
Commenter/Viewer | Viewer | |
Team Roles | Super Administrator | Super Admin |
Administrator | Team Admin | |
Member | Team Member |
If you have any questions or experience any trouble in your migration process, please contact WorkDrive support for more details.
WorkDrive support info:
- EU region: support@eu.zohoworkdrive.com
- All other regions: support@zohoworkdrive.com
Also read: Frequently asked questions on Migration
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