Import files from a Dropbox 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

Use the data import tool to copy files, folders, and associated permissions from a Dropbox business account to your organization's Google Workspace account. Except where indicated, you complete these steps in the Google Admin console for the Workspace account that you're importing to.

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 to create shared drives in Workspace for your organization's files. For details, go to Set up shared drives for your organization. If you already have shared drives, go to Manage shared drives as an admin instead.
  • 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 150 Dropbox personal or team folders at a time. If you need to import additional users or folders, you must start another data import.

Dropbox requirements

  • Make sure a Dropbox team admin helps with the data import.
  • You need a Dropbox user email address for every personal folder you want to import. You need a path for every team folder you're importing. To get a list of email addresses and team folder paths in your Dropbox tenant, export a member data report and a team storage report.

Before you begin: Avoid known issues

  • 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.

  • You can encounter issues if you complete and exit a data import from OneDrive to a Workspace location and then complete the following 3 actions:

    • Create a new data import for the same data set within 14 days of the first data import.
    • Import the data set to a second Workspace location.
    • Stop the data import before any data can be copied to Workspace.

    When you restart the data import, it runs as a delta import and moves the OneDrive data from the first Workspace location to the second Workspace location. The imported data is no longer available in the first Workspace location.

Step 1: Connect your Dropbox account

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

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

  2. For Dropbox, click Import.
  3. Click Connect and sign in to Dropbox as a Team Administrator.

Step 2: Create a file of Dropbox folders to import

Create a comma-separated values (CSV) file that lists the Dropbox folders that you want to import. You can create a new CSV file. Or, download a sample file and add rows. The completed CSV file must be smaller than 10 MB.

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 DropboxValue and enter an email address for each personal folder or a folder path for each team folder. Team folders import to a specified Workspace shared drive. Use a separate row for each folder.
  3. If you're importing a Dropbox team folder, in the second column, add the header Target Drive FolderID. Then, enter the ID for the Workspace shared drive where you want to import the team folder. Use a separate row for each team folder.

  4. If you're importing a Dropbox team folder, in the third column, add the header Target GUser and enter an email address for the Workspace user you're importing to. Use a separate row for each folder.

    Recommended: Use multiple Target GUsers in the file to avoid data import failures and Google Drive performance issues. You can import up to 500,000 items to a single Target GUser.

    Example:

    Folder Type Source DropboxValue Target Drive FolderID Target GUser
    Personal terry@example.com Not needed if the Source DropboxValue matches a Workspace user Not needed if the Source DropboxValue matches a Workspace user
    Team /folder/folder2 BDEz25J3DzFb

    alan@other-company.com,

    emma@other-company.com

  5. Save the spreadsheet as a CSV file.

  6. 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 Tasksto confirm that the mapping file is successfully uploaded.

  7. 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.

Step 3: Create & upload an identity map

Create a second CSV file (separate from the file of Dropbox folders) to map Dropbox folders and files to Workspace users. You can create a new CSV file. Or, download a sample file and add rows. The completed CSV file must be smaller than 10 MB.

Before you begin: If you're importing Dropbox Groups to Google Groups, you need to:

  • Create groups in Google Groups in your Workspace account. For details, go to Create a group in your organization.
  • Replicate the Dropbox Groups user memberships in Google Groups.

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 personal folder or a folder path for each team folder that you want to import from Dropbox. Use a separate row for each folder.
  3. In the second column, add the header Destination Email and enter the Workspace email address that you're importing to.

    Example:

    Source Identity Destination Email
    emma@example.com emma@other-company.com
    Group Team A group-team-a@other-company.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 Tasksto 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.

Step 4: Configure data import settings

  1. Click Edit settings and use any of the following settings to choose which data to copy from Dropbox.

  2. If you want to import all OneDrive users, including those not found in the identity map, check the Map any additional accounts discovered during data import box, and then choose an option:

    • If the user's email address in Dropbox is the same as their address in Workspace, select Keep their original email address.
    • If the domain name for all imported users is changing, check the Use a different email address domain for these accounts box and then select a domain from the list.

    Note: These settings don't apply to external users or Dropbox Groups.

  3. If you want to copy files by date, check the Only include files created or modified after the following date box and then select an option:

    • To copy files created after a certain date, select Created after and then select a date.
    • To copy files modified after a certain date, select Modified after and then select 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 that you select.

  4. If you don't want to import all file types, check the Exclude specific file formats box, and then enter the file extensions that you want 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 greater than the following size box, enter a maximum size, and then select MB or GB.

  6. Click Save.

Step 5: Start a data import

Starting a data import grants domain-wide delegation and creates a client ID for Data import in Workspace. For more information, go to Control API access with domain-wide delegation.

  1. Click Start data import.
  2. Review updates for the following information in real time while the data import is in progress:
    • Successful—Number of tasks that were successfully completed
    • Skipped—Tasks that were skipped because of certain data import settings, or because they were completed in a previous data import
    • Warning—Tasks that were completed but failed to complete as expected
    • Failed—Tasks that failed to import due to an error
    • Time elapsed—Time elapsed since the data import started
    • Files discovered—Number of files detected during the data import
    • Files imported—Number of files that successfully imported
    • Files skipped—Number of previously imported files that were skipped
    • Files failed—Number of files that failed to import
    • Size of imported files—Total size of imported files
    • Discovery issues—Folders from Dropbox that couldn't be crawled
  3. (Optional) To export a report for a data import in progress:
    1. Click View data import logs or Export summary report.
    2. If the Tasks list doesn't automatically open with the exported report, click Tasks and then the report link.
    3. Click Open in Google Sheets to open the report in Google Sheets.
  4. (Optional) To stop an import in progress, click Stop import. It might take a few minutes, and the import process does not roll back. If you're running other batches at the same time, those batches will continue to import. Any Dropbox data that was imported before the stop isn't deleted from Workspace.

When the data import is complete, you get an email with import statistics. Any reports are attached. For details about the reports, go to Understand a Dropbox data import report.

Step 6: Exit a completed data import

Once you exit a data import, you can't access its configuration data or reports.

You can run delta imports and review information about a completed data import in the Admin console until you exit the import. If you need to start a new data import from Dropbox, you must exit the existing import.

To exit a data import:

  1. If you want to import any new or updated files before you exit, follow the steps in Run a delta import for Dropbox.
  2. (Optional) If you want to save logs and reports from a data import, click View data import logs and then Export summary report.
  3. Click Exit import and then Exit and delete import.

Data import is intended as a productivity feature and is not designed to assist with legal compliance matters. You and your organization are responsible for assessing and meeting your organization's legal compliance needs. If you require files and folders for legal compliance purposes, consider backing up the files in Dropbox prior to importing data to Workspace.


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