Migrate data from an Exchange Online account

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Use the new data migration service to migrate your organization’s Microsoft Exchange Online email and calendar data to user accounts in Google Workspace. Except where indicated, you complete these steps in the Google Admin console for the Workspace account you’re migrating to.

Before you begin

Review and complete the requirements and setup steps for Workspace and Exchange Online. For details, go to About migrating email & calendars from Exchange Online. 

Run a migration

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

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Step 1: Connect to your Microsoft account

1. Sign in with a super administrator account to the Google Admin console.

   If you aren’t using a super administrator account, you can’t complete these steps.

2. Go to Menu  Data > Data import & export > Data Migration (New).
3. For Exchange Online, click Migrate.
4. Click Connect to Exchange Online and sign in as a Global Administrator with your Microsoft account. If you can’t connect, make sure you're using a Global Administrator account to sign in to Microsoft.

   Note: If a blocked pop-up prompt appears in your browser, allow pop-ups from Microsoft sites.

Step 2: Create a list of users to transfer

The new data migration service transfers data from a list of Exchange Online source users to target Workspace users. You can create a comma-separated values (CSV) file for the list. Or, update an existing file to match the required formatting. If you’re migrating a calendar for a resource, such as a meeting room or projector, add the email address for that resource calendar. The file must be smaller than 10 MB.

To get details about users in your Exchange Online tenant, go to Plan for where and how you will manage your user accounts.

Tip: Click Download sample CSV file to get an example file you can use.

To create your own CSV file:

1. Open a spreadsheet program.
2. In the first column, add the header Source Exchange Email.
3. On separate rows, add the emails of Exchange Online users that you want to migrate. You can migrate up to 250 users at a time. Additional users will require a separate migration.
4. Save the spreadsheet as a CSV file.

   Example:

   Source Exchange Email
   [e-mail]
   [e-mail]

5. Upload the file to the Google Admin console:
   1. In your Admin console, click Upload CSV.
   2. Select the fileclick Open.
   3. Click Tasks  to confirm that the mapping file is successfully uploaded.
      Note: If the CSV file doesn't load successfully, go to (Optional) Step 3: Delete a CSV file. If you encounter this issue more than once, contact Google Workspace support.

(Optional) Step 3: Delete a CSV file

If there is an error during the CSV upload or the upload gets stuck, you can delete the current configuration and upload a new one.

1. Select the CSV file you want to remove.
2. Click Delete .
3. Click Yes to confirm that you want to delete the CSV file.
4. To upload a new list of source users, go to Step 2: Create a list of users to transfer.To upload a new identity map, go to Step 4: Create a map from Exchange Online to Workspace.

Step 4: Create a map from Exchange Online to Workspace

Use an identity map to connect users on the source account to users on the target account. To get details about users in your Exchange Online tenant, go to Manage Microsoft 365 user accounts. You can also download a list of your organization’s Google Workspace users. To migrate calendar resources, such as a meeting room, you need to provide a specific mapping for each resource calendar. 

Tip: Click Download sample CSV file to get an example CSV file that you can use.

1. Open a spreadsheet program.
2. In the first column, add the header Source Email.
3. In the second column, add the header Destination Email.
4. Using valid email addresses, add your organization’s Microsoft Exchange Online source accounts and their target accounts in Google Workspace where you want to migrate the emails.

   • An Exchange Online source user can only be mapped to one target user in Google Workspace.

     Example: Exchange Online user [e-mail] can map to Workspace user [e-mail] or [e-mail], but not both.

   • Multiple Exchange Online source users can be mapped to the same Workspace target user, but remember that all the source users’ folders and messages will migrate into one target account.

     Example: Exchange Online source accounts for [e-mail], [e-mail], and [e-mail] can all map to the same Workspace account, [e-mail].

   • Source user emails must be included in the identity and migration maps to migrate. You can also check the Copy accounts that aren't included in the map that are discovered during the migration bo in Step 5 to find any missing emails.
5. Save the spreadsheet as a CSV file.
   Note: The CSV file must be smaller than 10 MB.

   Example:

   Source Email	Destination Email
   [e-mail]	[e-mail]
   [e-mail]	[e-mail]

6. Upload the file to the Admin console:
   1. In your Admin console, click Upload CSV.
   2. Select your fileclick Open.
   3. Click Tasks  to confirm that the mapping file is successfully uploaded

      If the CSV file doesn't load successfully, go to (Optional) Step 3: Delete a CSV file. If you encounter this issue more than once, contact Google Workspace support.

Step 5: Choose which data to copy

1. Select the data sources that you want to migrate from Exchange Online:
   • Select Email to migrate email data.
   • Select Calendar migrate calendar data.
2. Click Start date and enter the date that you want your data migrated from. The new data migration service migrates data as follows:
   • Messages from the Start date to the date that you start the migration.
   • Events from the Start date up to the last event in the calendar  
3. (Optional) To specify additional emails and folders, choose the following options: 
   • Include deleted emails—Migrates deleted email messages.
   • Include junk emails—Migrates junk email messages.
   • Exclude specific folders—Excludes messages in folders you specify. Enter the folder names, separated by commas.
     For details, go to How to exclude folders from migration, (later on this page).
4. (Optional)To migrate additional calendars and the events associated with them, select Copy additional calendars. For more information, go to Migrating additional calendars, (later on this page). 
5. (Optional) To map all users including those not in the identity map, check the Copy accounts that aren't included in the map that are discovered during the migration box and then choose an option:
   • If the user's email address on the source account is the same as their address in Google Workspace, choose Keep their original email address.
   • If the domain name for all migrated users is changing, choose Use a different email address domain for these accounts, then select the Google Workspace domain name.

   This setting does not work for resource calendars. For resource calendars, you need to explicitly define their mapping in the identity map and upload it. 

6. Click Save.

How to exclude folders from migration

• Specify each Outlook folder or subfolder name separately.
• If you exclude a folder, all of its subfolders and any emails in them will not be migrated.
• When you exclude a subfolder, use the full path and separate the parent folder from the subfolder with a forward slash (/). For example: 
  • If you want to exclude the subfolder “Asia” under the folder “Travel,” enter “Travel/Asia”. If you also add “Travel” in the list, such as “Travel, Travel/Asia,“ then all the subfolders will automatically be excluded.
• If you want to exclude a folder with a “/” in its name (for example “Folder/with/slash”), add it as “Folder_with_slash”.
• You can add both default Microsoft provided folders and User created folders in this field.
  • Example default folder(s): Deleted Items, Inbox, Sent Items, Drafts, Junk Email
  • Example user created folder: Travel

Migrating additional calendars

When you migrate additional Outlook calendars, such as a calendar for personal appointments, they’re migrated as Other calendars in Google Calendar.

Step 6: Start the migration and check it's progress

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

1. Click Start migration.
   This action also grants domain-wide delegation and creates a client ID for Data Migration (New) in the target account. For more information, go to Control API access with domain-wide delegation.
2. The status changes to In progress and the following information is updated in real time:
   • Discovered items—Total number of items (messages, folders, and other tasks) that were migrated, skipped, or failed.
   • Warning—Number of items that were migrated, but failed to complete as expected.
   • Failed—Number of items that failed to migrate due to an error.
   • Skipped—Number of items that were skipped.
   • Successful—Number of items that were migrated.
   • Users processed—Number of users whose migration has completed.
   • Emails discovered—Number of email messages that were discovered in the source users’ accounts.
   • Emails migrated—Number of email messages that were migrated.
   • Emails skipped—Number of email messages that were skipped. For example, an email has already migrated in a full migration and then if you are running a delta migration, that email would be marked as skipped.
   • Emails failed—Number of email messages that failed to migrate.
   • Calendars processed—Number of calendars that were migrated.
   • Calendar events discovered—Number of events that were discovered in the source users’ accounts.
   • Calendar events migrated—Number of events that were migrated.
   • Calendar events skipped—Number of events that were skipped. For example, an event is marked as skipped if it was already migrated in a full migration and then you run a delta migration.
   • Calendar events failed—Number of events that failed to migrate. 
3. You can export the report at any time once the migration starts. Click Export migration report or Export user report.
4. If the Tasks list doesn't automatically open with the exported report, click Tasks the report link.
5. Click Open in Google Sheets to open the report in Sheets.
6. To export and interpret the reports, go to Understand email migration reports.

(Optional) Step 7: Stop an in-progress migration

To stop a migration that’s in progress, click Stop migration. It might take a few minutes for the migration to stop, and the migration process does not roll back.

Emails migrated before you stopped the migration are not deleted from Gmail. Calendars and events migrated before you stopped the migration are not deleted from Calendar.

Step 8: Run a delta migration

After you successfully migrate data, you can still move any newly added or updated data to your target account before you exit the migration. You can also retry migrating data that failed in the initial migration. For details, go to Run a delta migration.

Examples:

• If a new source user is mapped to an existing target user, a delta migration will migrate all the folders and messages from the new user into the existing target account.
• If a source user is mapped to a new target user, a delta migration will only migrate messages that were created or modified since the last migration.
• If a source user is deleted from the migration map, a delta migration won’t migrate any folders or messages created or modified since the previous migration. Deleting a source user from the migration map won’t remove any existing data from their target user account. Delta migration does not remove previously migrated data.
• If a message is moved from FolderA to FolderB in Outlook before running a delta migration, the message will be moved from the Gmail label FolderA to the label FolderB during the delta migration. 
• If a folder is renamed from FolderA to FolderB before running a delta migration, then the corresponding label in Gmail will be renamed FolderB.
• If a calendar is renamed from CalendarA to CalendarB before running a delta migration, then the corresponding calendar in Google Calendar will be renamed CalendarB.
• If an event is moved from CalendarA to CalendarB before running a delta migration, a new event will be created in CalendarB in Google Calendar. The previous event in CalendarA will not be deleted.
• Any change to an event will get reflected in Google Calendar after running a delta migration.

Exit a completed migration

Important: Once you exit a migration, you can no longer access its configuration data or reports.

You can run delta migrations and review information about a completed migration in the Admin console until you exit the migration. You can’t start a new migration until you exit a completed migration. To exit a completed migration:

1. (Optional) If you want to save logs from a completed migration, click Export migration report and Export user report. For details, go to Understand email migration reports.
2. Click Exit migrationExit and delete migration.

When you exit, the system deletes the client ID and removes Data Migration (New) as a client in the domain-wide delegation setting.

Related topic

• What’s migrated in an Exchange Online migration?

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