Migrating from Google Drive to Microsoft OneDrive

Google Drive and Microsoft OneDrive are fundamentally different platforms. Here are some primary differences to take into account when migrating from Google Drive to Microsoft OneDrive.

Primary Differences

(1) Firstly, it is important to understand that when migrating to/from OneDrive, CloudM Migrate will only migrate owned files for migrating users.

(2) Google Drive 'Shared with me' and OneDrive 'Shared' are the same thing. They show you files and folders that are shared with the user. Google Drive 'Shared with me' data (that has not been added to My Drive) will be migrated by their owners and shared with the users accordingly, and then appear in the 'Shared' folder.

(3) Google Drive's 'My Drive' is a space where not only users' owned data is stored and managed, but also a space where data shared with them can be added. OneDrive has 'Files' and 'Shared' and they are separate spaces. When migrating the My Drive data from Google Drive, CloudM Migrate will mimic how My Drive is used. 

• If somebody shares a folder with a user and they add it to My Drive, post-migration, they will become the owner of a copy of that folder which will be located in their 'Files' space and it will contain any files that they own.
• Files within the same folder that are owned by other migrating users will appear in a copy of that folder in their 'Shared' folder.

Other notes:

• When migrating to OneDrive, and want to map group permissions for a document from the source to the destination, the destination group must be a security groups, mail enabled security groups or Microsoft 365 Group.
  • CloudM Migrate cannot map permissions to distribution groups. 
  • Mapping examples:
    • Microsoft 365 Group - "examplem365groupsource@test.thecloudmigrator.com" > "ExampleM365Group@M365x91111111.onmicrosoft.com"
    • Mail Security Group - "examplemailenabledsource@test.thecloudmigrator.com" > "ExampleMailEnabled@M365x91111111.onmicrosoft.com|mailsecuritygroup"
    • Security Group - "examplesecuritysource@test.thecloudmigrator.com" > ExampleSecurity|securitygroup"
• If external sharing is disabled on the source Google Workspace, you'll need to disable 'Source Platform - Google Apps' > 'Document Options' > 'Check External Sharing'
• We will migrate all of a user's folders - IE in My Drive - because at the beginning, CloudM Migrate doesn't know if the user being migrated has any files in them, so, users could end up with empty folders;
• If a user owns files in a folder owned by a non-migrating user, the file will appear in the user's root 'Files' space in OneDrive;
• If a folder has multiple parents (multiple "Locations" in Google Drive) CloudM Migrate will use the deepest path.
• Migrating Orphaned Folders from Google Drive can cause underscores on folders in the OneDrive destination.
  • As orphaned folders have no parent folder, this can cause duplication, adding underscores for each duplicated folder. Orphaned folders are not visible from the Drive UI and have to be searched using a specific query from Google Explorer. Microsoft Onedrive is not able to recognise Orphaned Folders correctly and so causes this behavior.
  • The Migrate Orphaned Folders setting (Source Platform (Google) > Advanced Settings > Documents) is set to true by default so will need to be set to false if you have orphaned folders held in Google Drive for users that you are migrating to OneDrive.