Google Workspace to Microsoft 365 Watchpoints

This section details specific behaviors and recommendations for migrating email data from Gmail to Microsoft 365 (Exchange).

Gmail Labels to Outlook Folders Logic

CloudM Migrate converts Gmail labels (which can be applied multiple times to a single email) into Outlook Folders (where an email can only exist once) using the following logic:

• Single Label: If an email has one label, it becomes an Outlook folder.
• Multiple Labels: The tool selects the label with the shortest path (fewest sub-levels) to create the folder. Remaining labels are converted into Outlook Categories.
• Tie-Breaker: If path lengths are equal, the first alphabetical label is chosen.
• System Folders: If an email is in Inbox/Sent AND has a custom label, the custom label becomes a sub-folder nested under the Outlook Inbox/Sent items.

Labels Containing a Forward Slash (/)

• Behavior: Gmail labels containing a forward slash (/) will be interpreted as a folder hierarchy in Microsoft 365.
  • Example: A label named "Project/Alpha" becomes a top-level folder named "Project" containing a sub-folder named "Alpha".
• Recommendation: If this hierarchy is not desired, users should rename labels in Gmail to replace slashes with dashes or underscores prior to migration.

Junk/Spam Folder

• Behavior: The contents of the "Spam" or "Junk Email" folder are not migrated.

Email Settings

• Behavior: Personal settings including Rules, Aliases, POP Settings, Canned Responses, Filters, and mailbox customizations are not migrated.
• Recommendation: Users must manually re-apply these settings in their new Microsoft 365 accounts post-migration.

Snoozed Emails

• Behavior: Snoozed emails are migrated, but they lose their "snoozed" status and rule. They will appear in the destination folders immediately rather than reappearing at a set future time.

Microsoft 365 Mailbox Limitations

• Behavior: Microsoft 365 mailboxes have hard limits (e.g., 50GB or 100GB depending on the license, and item count limits per folder).
• Recommendation:
  • Limit the amount of data migrated (e.g., "Past 3 Years" only).
  • If a single label in Gmail has more than 1,000,000 items, you must organize these items into different labels at the source to avoid folder view limits in Outlook.

This section covers specific behaviors related to mail migrations to Google Groups as a destination.

Size Limit and Attachments

• Behavior: Google Groups have a strict 25MB email size limit.
• Outcome: Attachments exceeding this limit are removed and replaced with an empty attachment named [original_name].removed.
• Note: This happens by default via the "Modify Invalid Messages" setting. If disabled, large messages will fail to migrate entirely.

This section details specific behaviors and recommendations for migrating content from Google Drive (My Drive) and Shared Drives to OneDrive and SharePoint.

Shared Drive Permissions (Critical)

• Behavior: Overarching membership/ACLs for Google Shared Drives (Manager, Content Manager, etc.) are not migrated to the SharePoint site level. However, explicit file and folder permissions are migrated.
• Recommendation: You must manually apply site-level membership to the destination SharePoint sites prior to the cutover migration.

Google Forms

• Behavior: Google Forms are not migrated as functional forms (there is no direct equivalent in M365 file formats). CloudM Migrate converts the form into a .zip folder containing an HTML file of the form layout and a CSV of the responses.
• Recommendation: Users must manually re-create forms using Microsoft Forms if continued functionality is required.

OneDrive File/Folder Name Limitations

• Behavior: OneDrive restricts characters like ~ # % & * : <> ? / \ { | }. Leading and trailing spaces are also not allowed.
• Recommendation: CloudM Migrate will attempt to sanitize these characters (replacing them with underscores), but files should ideally be renamed on the source before migration to ensure names remain meaningful.

Document Metadata

During a migration from Google Workspace to Microsoft 365, CloudM handles file timestamps as follows by default:

It's possible to disable this via 

Starred/Pinned Files

• Behavior: Starred status is not replicated. Users must manually re-star or "favorite" important files in OneDrive/SharePoint.

Linked Files and Hyperlinks

• Behavior: Hyperlinks to other Google files will break because the destination files have new URLs. Embedded charts and objects will still point to the source domain.
• Recommendation: Use the Document Mappings feature to generate a report mapping original IDs to new IDs to assist with manual link updates.

Version History

• Behavior: Migration of file version history is supported.
• Caution: Migrating document versions significantly increases data volume and API calls, extending the overall migration time. Use this feature only if strictly necessary.

Non-owned Files in My Drive

• Behavior: Files located in a user's Google My Drive but owned by another user will not appear directly within the migrated user's OneDrive structure. They will be accessible in the "Shared with me" section of OneDrive (provided the owner was also migrated).

Externally Owned Files

• Behavior: Files owned by external users (outside your Google Workspace domain) will not be migrated.
• Recommendation: After go-live, external users will need to manually re-share their files with the migrating users in the Microsoft 365 environment.

External Sharing (Internal Documents)

• Behavior: Any external sharing permissions for internal documents will not be migrated.
• Recommendation: These permissions will need to be re-established after the Go-Live date.

Deleted Items (Bin)

• Behavior: Files and folders located in a user's "Bin" (Trash) are not migrated by default.

SharePoint Document Creator

• Behavior: Documents migrated into SharePoint will show the CloudM admin account as the "Creator" by default. This is a visual artifact and does not impact access rights.

Orphaned Folders

• Behavior: If "Migrate orphaned folders" is enabled, empty folders prefixed with an underscore (_) may appear in the destination OneDrive.
• Recommendation: Notify users of this potential behavior prior to the migration.

Folder and File Moves Mid-Migration

• Behavior: Folders moved within the source environment during an active migration will not be updated in subsequent passes. The items will remain in the location they were in during the first pass.

Google Shared Drive Limits

• Behavior: If you anticipate reaching the SharePoint/OneDrive upload limits, recommend specifying additional "Shared drive default managers" in the destination settings within CloudM Migrate to spread the load.

This section details specific behaviors related to calendar data migration.

Recurring Appointments: Date Range Requirement

• Critical Requirement: For a recurring appointment series to migrate successfully, the Master (first) appointment of that series must fall within the date range you configure for the migration.
• Recommendation: We highly recommend setting a wide date range (going back far enough to catch the start of long-running series, e.g., 5-10 years) to ensure these appointments are not skipped.

Recurring Appointments: Exceptions and Fidelity

• Supported Exceptions: Only changes to the dates and times of specific recurrence instances are fully supported.
• Unsupported Exceptions: Changes such as added/removed attendees or cancellations of specific instances are not supported and will likely revert to the series default in Microsoft 365.
• Series Splitting: If a Google recurrence rule is too complex to be recreated in Exchange, the series may be split into individual appointments. These are not linked, meaning a change to one will not reflect across the others.
• Recommendation: The safest approach for end-users is to delete the migrated recurring series and manually re-create it in Outlook post-migration.

Meetings with Google Meet Links

• Behavior: The tool migrates the Google Meet link into the text body of the new Outlook meeting. It does not automatically generate a Microsoft Teams link.
• Recommendation (Host): For events where the migrated user is the host:
  1. Edit the event in Outlook and remove the old Meet text/link. Save (do not notify guests yet).
  2. Edit the event again, add a new Teams meeting link, and save. Select the option to send updates/notify guests.

General Calendar Event Migration

• Internal Attendees: For attendees on the same domain, the process works similarly to standard migrations.
• External Attendees: If a migrated event is changed after migration in a way that requires attendee notification, external users will see a duplicate event entry because their calendar interprets the update as a new event.

Shared/Secondary Calendars

• Behavior: Shared/secondary calendars are migrated from Google Workspace to Microsoft 365 only if the original owner can be identified. Previously hidden calendars may reappear at the destination.
• Shared Calendar Permissions
  CloudM Migrate maps Google shared calendar permissions to the nearest Microsoft equivalent:

• Recommendation: Review sharing settings post-migration, especially for calendars shared with external contacts.

Forwarded Invitations

• Behavior: Forwarded calendar invites from the original account to the new account will not be automatically added to the calendar.

Calendar Sharing Notifications

• Behavior: Users will receive email notifications indicating that a calendar has been shared with them during the migration.
• Recommendation: Users should be advised to ignore these automated notifications.

Calendar Interop

• Recommendation: For phased migrations, it is strongly advised that an admin sets up Calendar Interop to allow users to view availability across both Google and Microsoft 365 platforms during the transition.

Attachments

• Behavior: By default, appointment attachments are not supported.

My Contacts vs. Other Contacts

• Behavior: The default behavior migrates users' "Other Contacts" (automatically collected addresses) into the "My Contacts" folder in Microsoft 365.
• Reason: This ensures that autocomplete and suggested contacts work immediately for the user in Outlook.

The following Google Workspace services and content types are not supported for migration to Microsoft 365 by CloudM Migrate.

Google Chat & Spaces

• Behavior: Google Chat & Spaces are currently unsupported and are not migrated.

Google Keep

• Behavior: Google Keep notes and lists are not migrated.
• Recommendation: Users must manually copy important information from Keep (or use Google Takeout).

Google Sites

• Behavior: Google Sites are not supported for migration to Microsoft 365 (SharePoint).

Chrome Data

• Behavior: Saved Passwords and Browser Shortcuts (Bookmarks) are not migrated by CloudM Migrate.
• Recommendation: Users should export their Chrome bookmarks to an HTML file and upload them to OneDrive/Edge. Passwords should be moved to a secure password manager.

Third-Party Apps (SSO)

• Behavior: Applications that use "Sign in with Google" (OAuth) will need to be re-authenticated using the new Microsoft credentials (if supported).
• Store Purchases: Apps purchased via the Chrome Web Store or Google Play Store are tied to the original Google account and will not transfer.