What you need to know about Gmail and Google Workspace

How is Office 365 different from Gmail and Google Workspace?

Before you migrate Google Workspace to Office 365, you must consider the differences between the two and how the email, apps and services that you are using in Google Workspace might be different in Office 365.

Office 365 is a subscription-based service provided by Microsoft that includes a range of productivity and collaboration tools, including email (Outlook), word processing (Word), spreadsheets (Excel), presentations (PowerPoint), and cloud storage (OneDrive). Office 365 also includes other services such as SharePoint for document management and collaboration, and Skype for Business for online meetings and instant messaging.

In contrast, Google Workspace (formerly known as G Suite) is a cloud-based productivity suite from Google. It includes a range of apps such as Gmail for email, Google Calendar for scheduling, Google Drive for cloud storage, Google Docs for word processing, Google Sheets for spreadsheets, and Google Slides for presentations. It also includes other services such as Google Meet for video conferencing and Google Chat for instant messaging.

 Here is a comparison of Office 365 vs Google Workspace

What is the best way to migrate Gmail to Office 365?

EdbMails Gmail to Office 365 migration tool is the best application to migrate all your emails from Gmail to Office 365. You can migrate labels, files, attachments, emails and map the folders and mailboxes to Office 365. The tool enables you to migrate a single or multiple mailboxes with ease and supports secure modern authentication for Office 365. In addition to the Office 365 migration, you can also export your google emails to PST or migrate them to Live Exchange server. In this guide we walk you through the process of setting up Office 365, configuring Office 365, performing and testing the migration, and completing post-migration tasks.

1. G Suite to Office 365 migration checklist

   Here is a detailed migration checklist for moving from G Suite (Google Workspace) to Office 365:

   1. Plan the migration to Office 365

      • Identify the migration scope such as what data needs to be migrated
      • Establish a timeline and costs for the migration
      • Identify any potential roadblocks or issues that may arise during the migration
      • Create a detailed project plan that includes the steps necessary for the migration

   2. Prepare the target Office 365 environment

      • Create and configure all mail accounts in Office 365
      • Ensure that all necessary permissions and access rights have been granted for users to access the data
      • Assign suitable licenses to users in Office 365
      • Create mail-enabled Public folders and enable the In-Place Archive

   3. Set up and configure Office 365

      • Set up email routing in Office 365
      • Configure email policies and email archiving
      • Configure spam and malware protection
      • Configure email retention policies

   4. Migrate Gmail to Microsoft 365

      • Use EdbMails to migrate all your emails, folders and mailboxes.
      • Import Gmail calendars and contacts to Office 365
      • Import other items such as Conversations and Chats

   5. Post-migration tasks

      • Add MX records to direct emails to Office 365
      • Test the migration by sending and receiving emails
      • Monitor the migration for errors
      • Review the migration and make sure that it's working as expected.
      • Update users and stakeholders on the status of the migration
      • Train users on Office 365 and provide them the necessary assistance for the transition
      • Perform regular maintenance tasks, such as backing up data, configuring security settings, and troubleshooting issues.

2. Gmail to Office 365 migration prerequisites

   Before you begin the migration operation, it's important to make sure that your system meets the requirements for Office 365. You will also need to determine the number of users that will be migrated and create a plan and schedule for the migration.

   • Step 1: Determine the number of users and create an Office 365 migration plan
     1. Before you begin the migration, determine how many user mailboxes you plan to migrate to Office 365. Based on this requirement, you can purchase a suitable Office 365 plan for your organization.
     2. Create a plan and schedule for the migration such as migration start and end date, the number of users being migrated, and the specific data that will be migrated.
   • Step 2: Enable two-step verification and create app password in Gmail
     1. For the email migration from G Suite / Google Workspace to Office 365, you will be using IMAP migration. As a result, you have to enable IMAP for Gmail and Google Workspace accounts.
     2. To connect Office 365 with Gmail, you must enable two-step verification and also create an app password for your account.
   • Step 3: Evaluate the bandwidth and network requirements

     When migrating from Gmail to Office 365, it's important to take into account the bandwidth and network requirements of the migration operation. The amount of bandwidth and network resources required depends on the number of mailboxes being migrated, the size of the mailboxes, and the migration method being used.

     1. Connectivity: It's important to ensure that you have a stable connection to migrate all your emails between Gmail and Office 365. See networking roadmap for Office 365 which details the steps to plan and deploy your network for the migration.
     2. Internet bandwidth: The migration requires a reliable and fast internet connection to transfer the data from Google Workspace to Office 365. See bandwidth requirements for Office 365 migration and also consider the Gmail bandwidth limits at the source.
     3. Network latency: The network latency should be as low as possible. A latency of less than 150 ms is recommended. See how Microsoft 365 networking is different from IMAP servers.
     4. Firewall configuration: Make sure that your firewall is configured to allow traffic to and from Office 365 which includes ports that are used for Exchange and Azure AD Connect. See the list of worldwide endpoints for Office 365.
     5. Testing your network connection: With tools like Microsoft Remote Connectivity Analyzer and Microsoft 365 network connectivity test tool, you can test your existing network.

      See best practices for network planning and improving migration performance.

     Note: If you have already configured your Office 365 tenant, you can directly skip to Step 7 in this section.

   • Step 4: Choose a Microsoft 365 license option that suits your requirements

     Microsoft 365 is available as a cloud-based subscription service or as a one-time purchase of a perpetual license. Office 365 has different licensing plans each suited to different user requirements.

     It is recommended to thoroughly evaluate the Office 365 business plans and Office 365 enterprise plans to determine which one aligns with your organization's requirements. Alternatively, you can also sign up for a 30-day free trial of Office 365 and test the various plans before making a final decision.

   • Step 5: Set up your target Office 365 tenant for the migration

     Setting up the target Office 365 for the migration involves creating the tenant and configuring it to receive the migrated data from Gmail.

     1. Create an Office 365 tenant: Plan for the tenant creation and deployment. See the tenant roadmap for Office 365.
     2. Sign in to the Microsoft 365 admin center: Go to the Microsoft 365 admin center (https://admin.microsoft.com/) and sign in with your global administrator credentials.
     3. Customize the tenant settings: After the tenant is set up, you can configure and customize the settings such as email domains, language, and time zone to suit your organization's needs.
     4. Configure email clients and apps: If you want to install Office 365 apps and Outlook, see system requirements for Microsoft 365 and Office configuration support matrix. Because Office 365 is a cloud based solution, it is also important to learn where your Microsoft 365 customer data is stored.
     5. Set up Office 365 services: Besides email, you may want to set up additional services such as SharePoint, OneDrive, Teams and OneNote.
     6. Establish data retention policies: With Office 365, you have the ability to retain data in accordance with compliance and legal requirements. Set up data retention policies to meet your organization's compliance needs, and if necessary configure retention policies for specific mailboxes or groups of users
   • Step 6: Add and verify the custom domain on Office 365

     If you have a custom email domain from your hosting provider (such as GoDaddy, Cloudflare, AWS) to which you want to migrate and receive emails, you must add and verify the domain on Office 365. This will enable you to use your own domain name (such as example.com) for your email addresses and other Office 365 services.

      To set up your custom domain, follow these steps:

     1. Verify that you own the domain by adding a TXT record to your DNS configuration. If you have your domain registered with GoDaddy, follow the instructions to connect your DNS records at GoDaddy to Microsoft 365.
     2. Add a new domain to your Office 365 tenant. You can use an existing domain that you own or purchase a new one. The domain is used to access your Office 365 services.
     3. Update your DNS records to point to Office 365. This step is required to ensure that your email is delivered to the correct mailbox. You can also perform this step at the end after the migration is complete.
   • Step 7: Create mailboxes and mail-enabled Public folders

     Before you migrate to Office 365, ensure that you create mailboxes for users in your organization and assign suitable licenses to them.

     1. Add users and assign licenses to Office 365 users
     2. Add several users at the same time to Office 365
     3. Assign Microsoft 365 licenses to user accounts

        If you want to migrate your Google emails to Office 365 Public folder, ensure that you create and configure Public folders and make them mail enabled on Office 365.

     4. Create Office 365 Public folder and assign mailbox user
     5. Enable In-Place Archive mailboxes in Office 365
   • Step 8: Set the impersonation role on the source to the admin user

     Ensure that you set the following permissions to the admin account on the source and target server and that the mailboxes you migrate are not hidden from the address lists.

     On the source
     1. Google Cloud platform permissions
     2. View-Only Configuration - Run the cmdlet ApplicationImpersonation

     Setting impersonation rights in Office 365 is a simple process that can be done quickly using the Admin Center. Assign the Organization Management role group to the admin user in Exchange online. It is an elevated permission that is required to migrate Public folders.

   • Step 9: Configure Office 365 to send and receive large messages

      Follow the steps to increase the message size on Office 365 to 150MB.

3. Gmail to Office 365 migration using EdbMails

   The following methods can help you migrate mailboxes from Gmail to Office 365.

   • Method 1: Gmail to Office 365 IMAP migration

     • Step 1: Download EdbMails IMAP migration tool

       • Download and install EdbMails on any Windows computer that is connected to the source and target environment. The application is compatible with Windows 11, 10, 8 and 7.

          See the detailed list of EdbMails system requirements for Exchange migration.

       • Launch the application and click 'Login' or 'Start Your Free Trial'.

         Login to the application (if you have purchased a license and already have the username and password). The free trial version allows you to migrate 30 items from every folder of the source account to the target.

         

       • Select the migration method as 'IMAP migration' in the main window.

         

     • Step 2: Create a list of user mailboxes and connect to your Gmail server

       If you have to migrate multiple mailboxes from Gmail, you must create a list of users with their email addresses and app passwords.

       • Download the sample CSV file in the EdbMails IMAP connection screen.
       • Fill in the required details such as the source mailbox name, password, host (imap.gmail.com) and port number (993).
       • Upload the CSV file to load all the mailboxes you want to migrate.
       • Select the connection type as 'Connect to IMAP' and proceed

       

     • Step 3: Select the mailboxes to migrate and connect to Office 365

       EdbMails displays a list of all your mailboxes on the left pane.

       • Click on individual mailboxes, view the folders and count of the mail items. You can also select the option to exclude empty folders from the migration.

          Tip: If you’re migrating with EdbMails for the first time, the migration is a full migration. On subsequent migrations from the same source to the target, the migration is incremental, which migrates only the new and updated items.

       • Click 'IMAP to Office 365' to set up connection with the target server.

         

          Tip: EdbMails provides the following additional options to help you customize the migration task.

         1. Additional Include and Exclude Filter Options
         2. Filter emails by Date: Migrate to Office 365 by applying the Date filter
         3. Filter emails by Size: Exclude emails from migration larger than a specified size.
         4. Filter emails by domain: You can also filter emails by the sender address or the email domain.
     • Step 4: Log in to your Office 365 tenant as Global Admin

       Next, connect to your target by entering your admin credentials. EdbMails is a highly secure application and uses TLS encryption along with OAuth 2.0 authentication for login. It does not store your user credentials.

       The application supports both modern and classic authentication. Connect to the target server by selecting Auto or Manual registration for modern authentication and the connection method as Mailboxes, Public folder or Archive Mailbox.

       The following migration options are available with EdbMails

       • Migrate mailboxes from Gmail to Office 365 Shared mailboxes
       • Migrate mailboxes from Gmail to Office 365 In-Place Archive
       • Migrate Gmail mailboxes and Public folders to Office 365

        Connect to Office 365 server with secure modern authentication.

       

     • Step 5: Map the mailboxes and migrate Google mail to Office 365

       After you successfully log in to your Office 365 tenant, map the respective folders and mailboxes. EdbMails can automatically do this for you and saves time when migrating a large number of mailboxes. Note that, your Gmail labels are migrated to the respective Office 365 folders. Finally start migrating to Office 365 and verify the count of emails and folders with the log report.

        Tip: If you receive new emails on your Gmail account and want to sync them with Office 365, run a remigration with EdbMails. The incremental feature migrates only the new emails without duplicating the data that you have already migrated.

       

     • Step 6: Migrate Calendars and Contacts from Gmail to Office 365

       The IMAP method supports Gmail to Office 365 email migration, folders and attachments. To migrate contacts and calendars, follow these steps.

       • To migrate Gmail contacts to Office 365, you have to export your contacts as a CSV file and then import them into Office 365.
       • To migrate Google Calendar to Office 365, you have to export it to an ICS file (iCalender) and then import it into Outlook Calendar.

   • Method 2: Migrate Google Takeout MBOX files to Office 365

     • Step 1: Export Gmail messages from Google Takeout to MBOX format

       • Go to https://takeout.google.com/ and select the required mail data. Choose the labels and folders that you want to export and select the format as MBOX.

         

       • Choose the file type to download, frequency and destination

         

       • Start the export operation and check the destination for the MBOX file

         

     • Step 2: Install EdbMails MBOX to Office 365 migration tool

       After you install the application, launch it and select the migration technique as MBOX to Office 365 and MBOX to Exchange.

       

     • Step 3: Add the MBOX files that you exported from Google Takeout

       Browse and add the MBOX files containing the folders and messages from Gmail. EdbMails enables you to preview each folder and all the emails contained within it.

       

     • Step 4: Select the folders and connect to Office 365 server

       Select the folders and click 'Migrate to Office 365'. You can apply filters to consider only the selected emails from your folders. For instance, you can migrate all the emails within a date range or migrate emails based on sender address, recipient and so on.

       

     • Step 5: Start and verify the Gmail to Office 365 migration

       Log in to your Office 365 tenant and map the folders between the source and the target. Set the 'Action' to 'Migrate'. Start the migration and verify if all of the emails and folders have been successfully migrated to Microsoft 365. By using this method, you can export all your data from Google Takeout as MBOX files and migrate G Suite to Office 365.

   • Method 3: Migrate email from Gmail to Office 365 with PST files

     If you have an Outlook backup PST file or want to migrate a few mailboxes, the PST method to import Gmail to Office 365 is a good option. You can migrate not only emails but also contacts and calendars with this method. EdbMails supports PST to Office 365 migration and enables you to directly migrate multiple PST files to Office 365.

     • Step 1: Download EdbMails and select Office 365 migration

       Download and install the application on your computer. Select the migration technique as shown.

       

     • Step 2: Select and add multiple PST files to migrate

       Close the source connection window and click 'Migrate PST to Office 365'. Add the PST files that contain the emails from Gmail and connect to the target server by following the steps 1-3.

       

     • Step 3: Sign in to your Office 365 tenant as Global Admin

       In the Office 365 connection window, log in with your tenant administrator credentials. EdbMails is a highly secure application and does not store your credentials.

        Tip: EdbMails automatically maps and matches the folders and mailboxes from the PST file to Office 365. Verify the mapping and make changes if you want to map to a different mailbox.

     • Step 4: Import calendars, contacts and email from Gmail to Office 365

       Start the mailbox migration to Office 365 and verify the operation with the text-based log report. By using this method, you can easily transfer your mailbox data from the application without the manual PST upload procedures.

       

4. Post-migration tasks

   • Step 1: Verify the Gmail to Office 365 email migration

     After completing the Gmail to Gmail to Exchange online migration, verify that all of your mail data, including messages, attachments, and folders, have been migrated successfully. Verify if all of your calendars and contacts have been imported.

      Perform the following tasks in Microsoft help page to verify a successful mailbox migration to Microsoft 365.

   • Step 2: Update MX records to point to O365 and send a test email

     If you have not updated your DNS records before the migration, you must update them to point your incoming emails to the Office 365 server. Note that, it may take anywhere between 48 to 72 hours for the changes to get propagated and ensures that any email sent to your domain on Gmail is routed to Office 365 mailboxes.

     1. Test the email flow by sending and receiving emails to ensure everything is working as expected.
     2. Test the sending and receiving of messages between internal and external users.
     3. Test the sending and receiving of messages with large attachments.
   • Step 3: Reset and create new password for all users on Office 365

     Ensure that your users change their passwords for their mailboxes. See how to reset passwords in Microsoft 365.

   • Step 4: Create a new Outlook profile for users in the new domain

     Ensure you have the latest version of Microsoft Office and Outlook installed to avoid compatibility issues with Office 365. Configure the Outlook profile for each user in your domain if Outlook has problems connecting to your mailboxes. See how to add email account to Outlook on PC and email account on Mac

   • Step 5: Train your users to become familiar with Office 365

     1. Provide training for users on the new Office 365 environment, including new features and apps.
     2. Train users on how to access and use the new email, calendar, and contacts features.
     3. Provide training on how to access and use other Office 365 tools such as OneDrive, SharePoint, and Teams. See Microsoft 365 help documentation.

Benefits of EdbMails for Gmail migration to Office 365

1. Let EdbMails do the heavy lifting while you perform the Gmail migration with ease.
2. User-friendly tool that can help you transfer all your emails to Office 365 cloud without technical knowledge.
3. EdbMails maintains perfect data consistency between the source and the target.
4. Easily transfer large mailboxes from Google Workspace to Office 365 without size limitations.
5. Include and exclude filters help you with batch migration and transfer selected mail items and folders.
6. Cost-effective and time-saving solution for both personal and corporate users
7. Zero downtime, which enables you to keep using the mailboxes even during the migration.

Office 365 migration troubleshooting

 See the troubleshooting solutions for Office 365 migration. For more information related to EdbMails application, see frequently asked questions.