Migrate from G Suite Drive to Zoho WorkDrive

Migrate from G Suite Drive to Zoho WorkDrive

With Zoho WorkDrive's improved file management and collaboration, teams can work together more efficiently. If you're currently using G Suite Drive and want to migrate your data to Zoho WorkDrive, this migration guide will help.

Important Questions

Who can manage the migration?
For G Suite: Super Admin
For WorkDrive: Admin or Super Admin

How can I start the migration?
1. The Super Admin or an Admin of the WorkDrive account must raise a request for migration.

2. Once we have the required data, we will enable the migration tool in their WorkDrive account. The Super Admin or Admins will be able to see the migration tool in their Admin Console, and they can start the migration from there.

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 G Suite Drive after migration?
We don't delete any data during the migration, so all your data in G Suite Drive will remain intact afterwards.

Migration Prerequisites

To initiate the migration process, you'll need to first complete a few actions in G Suite and WorkDrive.

In G Suite

Enable API access

Our migration tool will access G Suite through API access. The G Suite Super Administrator must enable API access in the Google Admin console.

Follow these steps to enable API access:
1. Sign in to your Google Admin console as the Super Administrator.
2. Click More controls at the bottom.
3. Go to Security > API reference.
4. Select the checkbox, then click Save to enable API access.

Install the Marketplace app

Install Zoho WorkDrive from G Suite Marketplace, then grant permission to access to your G Suite account.

For server-to-server interactions, a service account will be created. To access user data for users in your G Suite domain, you have to first delegate domain-wide access to the service account. This is sometimes referred as "delegating domain-wide authority" to a service account.

When you use G Suite Marketplace to install an application for your domain, the required permissions are automatically granted to the application by default. You don't need to manually authorize the service accounts the application uses.

Reference:

Export G Suite users

To export users:
1. From your Google Admin portal, go to Users.
2. At the top of the Users list, click Download users.
3. Choose to download all users.
4. Download the users list as a CSV file.

Update the exported CSV file

If you wish to map some G Suite users with different email addresses or users to WorkDrive, follow the steps below:

1. Open the CSV file exported from G Suite in a spreadsheet app.
2. Copy the Email Address column and paste it in a new column at the end.
3. Name the new column's header as "WorkDrive Email Address".
4. Make necessary changes in the column, like the change of domain name or user name in the corresponding users' email address field.
5. Save the changes and download the file to your computer in CSV format.



In Zoho WorkDrive

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 G Suite users from the exported G Suite users or updated G Suite users list in the CSV file, respectively, to join their WorkDrive account.

  1. If you forgot to add any G Suite users to WorkDrive before the migration, and wish to add them later, you'll need to perform a new migration for those users.

  2. Sharing permissions granted to such users will not be retained on any files and folders migrated earlier.

Limitations

General Limitations

  1. Each user can only be migrated once per service.

    1. Any data added to G Suite Drive post-migration cannot be migrated again to Zoho WorkDrive.

    2. Duplicate entries will not be allowed for migration in both G Suite and Zoho WorkDrive. For example, data from multiple G Suite accounts cannot be migrated to a single WorkDrive account, and data from a single G Suite account cannot be migrated to multiple WorkDrive accounts.

      Note: If you wish to move data from one G Suite user to another, you can transfer ownership of the user's files before migrating from G Suite to WorkDrive. Reference: Transfer ownership of G Suite Drive files

  2. External sharing permissions from G Suite files and folders will not be retained in Zoho WorkDrive.
  3. 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.
  4. If users in G Suite 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.
  5. Comments, revision history, and groups will not be migrated.
  6. A user's deleted and trashed files and folders will not be migrated.
  7. Files and folders synced to G Suite 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."

  8. 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.
  9. A folder cannot contain files with the same name. In such cases, WorkDrive will append filename (1).extn, at the end of the file.
  10. Filenames without an extension cannot be previewed in WorkDrive.
  11. When a shared resource is added to a user's My Drive in G Suite (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.
  12. Shortcut links in G Suite Drive will be stored as a copy in WorkDrive.

Shared Drive Limitations:

  1. All Shared Drives in G Suite will be migrated as private Team Folders in the first migration. You cannot migrate any Shared Drives later.
  2. Roles of Shared Drives will be replaced with corresponding Team Folder roles in WorkDrive.
  3. Sharing permissions of individually shared files and folders in Shared Drives will not be retained in WorkDrive.
  4. At least one member—either admin or member from a Shared Drive—must be mapped to WorkDrive to migrate that Shared Drive to WorkDrive.
  5. If an admin from Shared Drive is mapped, they will become the admin to the corresponding Team Folder in WorkDrive.
  6. 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.
  7. If no member from a Shared Drive is mapped, the Shared Drive will not be migrated to WorkDrive.
  8. Deleted Shared Drives will not be migrated to WorkDrive.

Migration Steps

After you have met the migration prerequisites, you can proceed with your migration by following these steps:

1. Log in to your WorkDrive account as an Admin or the Super Admin.

2. Click your team name in the top-left corner, then select Admin Console from the dropdown.

3. Click the Migration tab in the left panel to open the G Suite Drive Migration screen.



The WorkDrive migration tool will only be enabled based on a request from an Admin or the Super Admin of that WorkDrive account.

4. Click GET STARTED at the bottom-right corner. A new screen will open.



5. Under Migration Details, provide a name for the migration, then choose G Suite Drive as the source provider.

6. Click AUTHORIZE.

7. Enter your G Suite Super Admin credentials, then grant access to WorkDrive.

8. Click Browse to import the required CSV file containing the exported G Suite users or updated G Suite Users list.

9. 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 G Suite and their corresponding WorkDrive details.



10. Click the Unmapped Users tab to see a list of any unmapped users, along with their reasons.

  1. To map all users, make sure all users from your G Suite account have joined and are active in WorkDrive.

  2. If the email address for a user in WorkDrive is different from their G Suite account, then make sure the WorkDrive email address is correctly updated, corresponding to its G Suite email address in the CSV file. Refer Update the exported CSV file.

11. Click PROCEED. A new screen for Migration Settings will open.

12. Select the checkbox if you want to convert all files in Google format (Docs, Sheets, and Slides) to its corresponding Zoho format (Writer, Sheet, and Show) in WorkDrive.

Files in Google format (i.e., Docs, Sheets, and Slides) will be downloaded in .docx, .xlsx, and .pptx formats, respectively.

When uploaded to WorkDrive, files in .docx, .xlsx, and .pptx formats can only be previewed. To edit these files, you'll need to convert them to Zoho format (Writer, Sheet, or Show), which will create a copy of the original file in WorkDrive.

Files in other formats will be saved to WorkDrive in their original formats.


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.

14. 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:
  1. Which users or Team Folders are being migrated
  2. Number of files migrated
  3. Total files
  4. Size of the migrated files


  1. You cannot individually select and migrate users or Team Folders.
  2. Click the Refresh icon on the right side to get the live status of migration.

16. 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:
  1. Total files
  2. Migrated files
  3. Failed files
  4. Total folders
  5. Migrated folders
  6. Failed folders
  7. Total size
In case any files have failed to migrate, they will be listed under Migration Failures. You can view the file name, its G Suite link, and the failure reason.



17. Select the required files and click RETRY FAILED FILES. Alternatively, you can manually download these files from G Suite Drive and upload them to WorkDrive.

Once migration is completed for all users and Team Folders, you can download the overall migration report.



18. Click DOWNLOAD OVERALL REPORT at the top of the page.

The migration report will give you a complete log of the migration activities.

  1. 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.

  2. If you have left some users out of this migration, you can create a new migration to migrate those users at any time later.

19. 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.

  1. For single migration, you must upload the CSV file containing all your users (from exported G Suite users or updated G Suite 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.

  2. For multiple migrations, you must upload a new CSV file for each migration containing only the required users (from exported G Suite users or updated G Suite 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:
  1. User's email address is invalid: Upload a new CSV file with the corrected email address and try mapping again.

  2. Duplicate entries found for the user: Upload a new CSV file with duplicate entries removed and try mapping again.

  3. Migration already completed for this Zoho/G Suite user (email address): Migration cannot be done again for the user.

  4. User is not part of Zoho: Make sure the user has signed up for Zoho and joined WorkDrive, then try mapping again.

  5. 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 G Suite Drive and Zoho WorkDrive. This will help you use WorkDrive well after you migrate from G Suite Drive.

Roles
G Suite 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 us at support@zohoworkdrive.com.

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