This article outlines the steps required to migrate direct messages in Google Chat between Google Workspace tenants. This article assumes that you have already followed the steps in the below article to set up a Google Workspace to Google Workspace project and added your users migration batch.
Google Workspace to Google Workspace Migration Guide
What is migrated?
- Direct message Google chat spaces between internal users in the migration list.
- Messages within the migrated spaces.
- Message attachments.
- Message reactions.
- GIFs
- Quoted messages - these will appear with manual quotations at the destination due to API limitations.
- Message created date.
What is not migrated?
- Direct message Google chat spaces from users not in the migration list.
- Messages within non-migrated direct message Google chat spaces.
Watchpoints
There are a few things to consider when planning this type of migration.
- When migrating bold text formatting, if there is a trailing or leading space around the bolded text, both the text and the space may lose their bold formatting at the destination, appearing as follows:
- *text *
- * text*
- Once the migration has been finalised, you can not run any further migrations to that chat space. This will result in an error. Make sure that you only finalise the migration during your last migration.
- Import mode can last up to 90 days. However, we recommend finalising the destination space before the 89th day to avoid having the destination data purged by Google, which would require you to remigrate all of the source data.
Enable and Configure the Google Chat API
You will need to follow the steps in the below article at both the source and destination to enable the Google Chat API.
Enable and Configure the Google Chat API
Adding Items to Migrate
When preparing to migrate users to corresponding accounts at the destination, follow the format below:
- Export Type: User
- Export Name: Source primary email address
- Import Type: User
- Import Name: Destination primary email address
- Given Name: User's first name at the destination (leave blank if the user already exists at the destination)
- Family Name: User's surname at the destination (leave blank if the user already exists at the destination)
For each user entry, select the specific items you wish to migrate. Make sure the 'Migrate' option is enabled for all users included in the migration.
General Settings
In the General Settings section, ensure all domain mappings are configured correctly to facilitate replacing the source domain with the destination domain during the migration.
Date range filters cannot currently be applied to this migration type.
Source Settings
For this type of migration, it is recommended to keep the source settings as default.
For more detailed information on each available source setting, please review the below article.
Google Workspace - Source Settings
Destination Settings
For this migration type, you will need to modify the below settings.
- Chat -> Initialize Spaces import mode migration: Enable this to ensure import mode is used during the migration. This will result in the destination Spaces being unavailable at the destination during the migration.
- Chat -> Finalize Spaces import mode migration: Enable this to ensure the spaces are finalised after the migration. This will take the spaces out of import mode leaving them accessible in the destination. No further migrations can be run to the destination space after finalisation.
For more detail on additional destination settings, please review the below article.
Google Workspace - Destination Settings
Advanced Settings
For a straightforward user-to-user migration, most advanced settings can remain at their default values. However, consider the following:
-
Address Replacement: It is highly recommended to upload an address replacement CSV that maps source users to their corresponding destination users. This ensures permissions are correctly migrated. For more information, please refer to the Address Replacements article.
Additional settings are outlined here: Advanced Settings
Migration Process
The settings described above apply to a single pass migration. If you need to execute multiple migration passes to transfer additional data during a delta, ensure that the Chat -> Finalize Spaces import mode migration destination setting is enabled only for the final migration pass.