Migration of Staff Google Drive Files

Owned by Megan Clark, created
Last updated: Mar 28, 2024 by Dan Jakubiak
4 min read

The University is discontinuing Google Workspace, and as part of this transition, ITS is migrating Google Workspace data to OneDrive. Staff files in Google Drive are being migrated first. This article provides an overview of the process and experience and provides answers to frequently asked questions.

Staff data migrations have begun! Visit https://its.uconn.edu/google-to-microsoft-365-transition/ to view the timeline.

The Migration Process

  1. During the week of February 5th, a folder named "GDrive" was created in staff OneDrive accounts while ITS prepared to migrate the data. Do not interact with this folder until ITS has notified you the final migration in March is complete.

    image-20240126-185228.png

    Beginning February 5th, staff will also no longer be able to create new Shared Drives in Google Workspace, to ensure we don’t miss any in our migration.

     

  2. ITS migrated an initial copy of data from Google into this GDrive folder. Our migration tool takes a copy of the data in Google, creates a new Microsoft-compatible version, and saves the new version in your Microsoft account; no data is deleted from Google during the migration.

    After this initial migration test, we will send you a list of any files our tool cannot migrate, and why they cannot be moved. This usually happens for one of the following reasons:

    1. The file is larger than 15 GB, in which case you will need to download the file from Google and re-upload it to Microsoft

    2. The file’s path will be longer than 400 characters, in which case you can shorten the folder/file name(s) and ITS will migrate the data to Microsoft in the next migration sweep. (For more information about file path limits in OneDrive/SharePoint, see: SharePoint - File Path Limits Explained - Information Technology - UConn Knowledge Base)

    3. Other error codes: Google Migration Error Codes - Explained

  3. On March 4, we began migrating a final copy of the data from your Google Drive into the GDrive folder in your OneDrive. We will notify you when the final migration is complete and you may safely access the files in your GDrive folder. We will also notify you of any files we were unable to move automatically so you can move them before your account closes.

    Immediately before the final migration, ITS will apply a quota to your Google Workspace account. This prevents creating new files which would not be migrated into Microsoft.

    You will retain access to your Google Workspace until April 30th. You can use this time to verify everything transferred correctly, reference prior sharing permissions, or move any files ITS could not migrate for you.

  4. On April 30th, your account will be deleted from Google.

If you need to collaborate with other organizations that use Google and do not have a personal account you would like to use, you will be able to register for a new Google Workspace account using your UConn email address after April 30th.

Frequently Asked Questions

You may transfer this data to a personal Google account: Transferring data from UConn Google account to a personal Google account

You may export this data to your computer: Using Takeout to Export Google Workspace Data

 

Personal (non-UConn) data should not be moved into OneDrive or SharePoint. If you did not remove the personal data from your storage before the migration, please remove it from OneDrive once you have been notified that your migration is complete.

 

The data in Shared Drives will be migrated into OneDrive. To learn more about the migration of Shared Drives, please visit: Google Shared Drives - Migration

Once the data is in OneDrive, you can move the data to SharePoint (for departmental data), or re-share it from your OneDrive.

 

If you have links in your course(s) to files in Google Drive, you will need to recreate the links in your course(s) after your files are moved to OneDrive.

If you would like help with this process, please reach out to the Technology Support Center at techsupport@uconn.edu.

 

Any alterations to the “GDrive” folder or its contents before receiving the “all clear” from ITS will result in a mismatch between Google Drive and OneDrive and cause subsequent migrations of your files to fail. This will also slow down other ongoing migrations.

 

 

 

 

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