Use advanced file import from a OneDrive account

Supported editions for this feature: Business Starter, Business Standard, and Business Plus; Enterprise Standard and Enterprise Plus; Education Fundamentals, Education Standard, and Education Plus; Essentials Starter, Essentials, Enterprise Essentials, and Enterprise Essentials Plus; Nonprofits; G Suite Basic and G Suite Business. Compare your edition

The advanced import method enables you to use your own dedicated API quota to streamline large-scale data imports from Microsoft OneDrive to Google Drive. Except where indicated, you complete these steps in the Google Admin console for the Workspace account you're importing to. If you want to instead import data with Google's shared API quota, go to Use the default data import method for OneDrive.

Workspace requirements

  • Make sure a super administrator sets up and runs the data import. Resellers can't import data for their customer accounts.
  • Turn on Google Drive for all the users that you're importing to Workspace. For details, go to Turn Google Drive and Docs on or off for users.
  • You need a Workspace user account and license for each user that you're importing. For details, go to Options for adding users.
  • You can import up to 4 concurrent batches at a time, with each batch supporting a maximum of 5,000 users.

OneDrive requirements

Before you begin: Avoid duplicate files

If you exit a data import and then start a new import for the same data set, the second import might create duplicate files in Workspace. To prevent duplication, avoid creating 2 separate imports for the same data set.

Run a data import

You must be signed in as a super administrator for this task. Resellers cannot import data for their customer accounts.

Step 1: Connect to your Microsoft OneDrive account

You must be signed in as a super administrator for this task.

Before you begin: Sign in to Microsoft Azure as a global or privileged role administrator and create an app with permission to access and copy data. Learn how to set up Microsoft Azure.

  1. In the Google Admin console, go to Menu and then Data and then Data import & export and then Data import and then Advanced.

  2. Update these details from your Microsoft Azure app:
    • Client ID
    • Client Secret
    • Tenant ID
    • Sharepoint Host Name
  3. Click Connect.
  4. To complete the security setup and verify the connection:
    1. Click Download Certificate.

      This downloads a certificate file for Azure.

    2. Go to your registered application in the Azure portal.
    3. Click Certificates & secrets and then Certificates and then Upload certificate.
    4. Upload the file you just downloaded and provide an optional description.
    5. In the Admin console, click Verify Connection.

      The system validates the credentials and the certificate. Once successful, the connection status will update to reflect that it is connected.

Step 2: Select sites containing the files you want to import

Upload a CSV file containing each user's OneDrive URL and the Google Workspace email address they'll be moving to. You can create a new CSV file or download a sample file and add the information to ensure your CSV has the correct format. The completed CSV file must be smaller than 10 MB.

Note: You can import up to 4 concurrent batches at a time, with each batch including a recommended 1,000 personal sites (this number is recommended as best practice, however up to 5,000 personal sites are allowed).

To create the CSV file:

  1. Using your Workspace administrator account, open a spreadsheet program. Or, in the Admin console, click Download a sample CSV file.
  2. In the first column, add the header Source SharePoint URL and enter the URL for each SharePoint Online site or site collection. Use a separate row for each URL.

    Note: The user addresses added to this column need to be in this format:

    • “-my.sharepoint.com” needs to be added to the URL
    • Ampersands (@) and periods (.) need to be replaced with an underscore (_).

      For example, kim@your.company.com, is converted to https://company-my.sharepoint.com/personal/kim_your_company_com

      Note: If your users are receiving a File not found error message, you will need to verify that the provided site addresses or file URLs are correct.

  3. In the second column, add the header Target GUser and enter each user’s Workspace email address. In a OneDrive migration the source files will be migrated into the Target GUser's MyDrive.

    Example:

    Source SharePoint URL Target GUser
    https://company-my.sharepoint.com/personal/kim_your_company_com kim@solarmora.com
    https://company-my.sharepoint.com/personal/alex_your_company_com alex@solarmora.com
  4. Save the spreadsheet as a CSV file.
  5. Upload the file to the Google Admin console:
    1. In your Admin console, click Upload CSV.
    2. Select your CSV mapping file and then click Open.
    3. Click Tasks to confirm that the mapping file is successfully uploaded.
  6. If the CSV file doesn't successfully upload:
    1. Select the file and click Delete and then Yes to confirm.
    2. Create a new file and try to upload it again.

      If you encounter this issue more than once, contact Google Workspace support.

(Optional) Step 3: Map OneDrive users to Workspace

Create a second CSV file (separate from the file of OneDrive users) to map each OneDrive user or group and the corresponding Workspace user or group.

You can create a new CSV file or download a sample file and add rows. Their permissions are imported by default. The completed CSV file must be smaller than 10 MB.

To create the identity map:

  1. Using your Workspace administrator account, open a spreadsheet program. Or, in the Admin console, click Download a sample CSV file.
  2. In the first column, add the header Source Entity and enter an email address for each OneDrive user or group whose permission needs to be imported. Use a separate row for each entity (user or group).

    Users can also map group names to target Google Groups or individual emails.

  3. In the second column, add the header Destination Email and enter a Workspace email address for each user or group. Use a separate row for each user or group.

    Example:

    Source Entity Destination Email
    emma@example.com emma@solarmora.com
    Group Team A group-team-a@solarmora.com
  4. Save the spreadsheet as a CSV file.
  5. Upload the file to the Google Admin console:
    • In your Admin console, click Upload CSV.
    • Select your CSV mapping file and then Open.
    • Click confirm that the mapping file is successfully uploaded.
  6. If the CSV file doesn't successfully upload:
    1. Select the file and click Delete and then Yes to confirm.
    2. Create a new file and try to upload it again.

    If you encounter this issue more than once, contact Google Workspace support.

(Optional) Step 4: Select data import settings

Use the following settings to specify which data to copy from OneDrive.

  1. Click Edit settings.
  2. To import all OneDrive users and 365 groups, including those not found in the identity map, ensure that the Copy accounts that aren't included in the map that are discovered during the data import box is checked and choose an option:
    • If the email address for the Microsoft account is the same as the address in Google Workspace, select Keep their original email address.
    • If the domain name for all imported users and 365 groups is changing, select Use a different email address domain for these accounts and then select a domain.

    Note: If the Copy accounts that aren't included in the map that are discovered during the data import box isn't checked, make sure the identity map includes any deleted users or users who are blocked from OneDrive access.

  3. To copy files by date, check the Only include files created or modified after the following date box and choose an option:
    • To copy files created after a certain date, select Created by and then select a date.
    • To copy files modified after a certain date, select Modified by and then enter a date.

    Note: Date settings are based on your local time zone and apply only to individual files, not folders. All folders import, regardless of the date you select.

  4. If you don't want to import all file types, check the Exclude specific file formats box and enter the file extensions to exclude. Separate different file extensions with a comma (for example, tmp, log, bak, and so on).
  5. If you don't want to import larger files, check the Exclude files larger than the following size box, enter a maximum size, and then select MB or GB.
  6. If the original creator or last modifier of any file isn’t found, check the Use target user if original creator or modifier isn’t found box, to allow the Target GUser to be used instead. This setting is enabled by default.
  7. Click Save changes.

Step 5: Start a data import

Before you begin: The initial phase of the data import tool may take up to 15 minutes. Sometimes this may be longer, during which the progress summary won’t show any changes. You don't have to stop or exit the import.

  1. Click Run full import.

    You can review updates on the following information in real time while the data import is in process:

    • Discovered items—Number of tasks that were successfully completed
    • Warning—Number of tasks that were completed but failed to complete as expected
    • Failed—Number of tasks that failed to import due to an error
    • Skipped—Number of tasks that were skipped because of certain data import settings, or because they were completed in a previous import
    • Successful—Number of tasks that were successfully completed
    • Users processed—Number of users that were completely imported
    • Time elapsed—Time elapsed since the data import started
    • Sites processed—Number of sites that were successfully imported
    • Files discovered—Number of files detected during the data import
    • Files imported—Number of files that were successfully imported.
    • Files skipped—Number of previously imported files that were skipped
    • Files failed—Number of files that failed to import to Drive
    • Discovery issues—Number of folders from the source account that couldn't be crawled

    When the data import is complete, you get an email with import statistics. Any reports are attached.

  2. You can export the following reports at any time once the data import starts:
    1. To troubleshoot errors, click View data import logs.
    2. To monitor data import progress and statistics per site, click Export site report.
    3. To see an overview of the import’s progress, view the Data Import Summary.

(Optional) Step 6: Stop a running data import

If you need to stop a data import while it's in progress, click Stop import.

Stopping a data import might take a few minutes, and it doesn't roll back the import process. Any files that were imported before the stop won't be deleted from Google Drive.


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