I’m planning to switch all email accounts from my current domain to Google Workspace. I need a smooth migration process that preserves everything - all old emails, folder structures, and user settings.
I’m also wondering if there’s an automated way to set up users in Google Workspace, similar to how provisioning APIs work with other email systems. Can this actually be done without losing data or causing major disruptions?
Has anyone found reliable tools or methods that make this kind of migration easier? I’m hoping there are existing solutions that handle both the data transfer and user setup parts.
we switched from office365 last year and the migration wizard worked like a charm. it took us about 3 days to move 200+ accounts, but all the shared folders were intact. for user setup, just use GAM (google apps manager). it’s way easier than scripting.
Third-party tools like MigrationWiz or BitTitan are worth checking out if you want more control. I used MigrationWiz moving from a legacy system and it handled sync really well - you can run multiple passes to catch emails that come in during migration. Costs extra but the pre-migration testing saved us from several headaches. For user provisioning, CSV bulk upload through admin console works great if you don’t want to deal with APIs. Just prep all your user data in a spreadsheet and import everything at once - organizational units, group memberships, the works. One thing I learned the hard way: communicate the timeline clearly to users. Some will freak out seeing empty inboxes during initial sync, even though data’s still transferring in the background.
Google’s migration tools handled most of our transition without problems. The Workspace Admin Console has a data migration service that connects straight to your existing email server. We used it to move from Exchange and it kept all our folder structures and old emails intact. For adding users, the Admin SDK API works really well. You can automate the whole user setup - groups, org units, permissions, everything. We wrote a Python script that pulled from our user database and created matching Workspace accounts automatically. Just run migrations in batches during quiet hours. We did 50 users at a time over weekends. IMAP migrations take longer but they’re better at keeping complex folder structures. Watch out for calendar sharing permissions - you’ll probably need to check these manually afterward. And don’t update your MX records until you’ve confirmed all the important data made it over.