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How to migrate your emails from Google Workspace to Microsoft 365 for business

This article is aimed at solopreneurs, the self employed and very small businesses who are looking to migrate their emails from Google Workspace to Microsoft 365 for business.

If your email accounts are currently with Google Workspace but you want to move them to Microsoft 365 for business this article is for you. We offer a full migration service using BitTitan's MigrationWizz service.

Why move your emails from Google to Microsoft 365

Here are some reasons for why you might want to move your emails to Microsoft 365:

  • You want to keep everything within Microsoft 365
  • You want to use Microsoft Teams for collaboration and meetings
  • You prefer OneDrive to Google Drive
  • You find Google's email within Outlook doesn't work as well as you'd hoped.

The Steps to Migrate your Emails from Google Workspace to Microsoft 365

The steps to migrate your emails from Google Workspace to Microsoft 365 are:

  • Setup new Microsoft 365 account
  • Verify domain ownership with Microsoft
  • Do a manual backup of your emails
  • Use MigrationWiz to do the initial transfer of all emails which are older than 30 days
  • Switch DNS records so all email is routed through Microsoft 365.
  • Use MigrationWiz to do the final transfer of all emails less than 30 days plus calendars and contacts to Microsoft 365
  • Setup email accounts in Outlook

I will explain each of these steps in detail below.

Migrating your Emails to Microsoft Exchange Online

MigrationWiz from BitTitan offers a very reliable SaaS method to migrate all your Google Workspace emails, calendars and contacts to Microsoft 365. It is the tool we use and recommend for all Google Workspace migrations.

Setup Microsoft 365 Account

Go to Microsoft website to purchase a Microsoft 365 business account. If you already have Outlook installed as part of another Microsoft 365 package or another installation then you only need the Microsoft 365 Business Basic package. For all other users, the Microsoft 365 Business Standard package should suit your needs.

Setting up your domain in Microsoft 365

Before you can use Microsoft 365 Exchange Online for your emails you need to verify you own your domain name with Microsoft. The wizard provides step-by-step instruction on verifying your domain. For a lot of popular web hosting accounts such as GoDaddy and IONOS, Microsoft will ask you to login to your account and then do the verification for you. If Microsoft can't verify automatically then you will need to add some TXT records to your DNS records and then manually verify the domain ownership.

Google Workspace Admin Actions

Before any migrations can take place there are a series of steps that need to be carried out so MigrationWiz can access your Google Workspace and Microsoft 365 accounts securely. The steps are very well explained in this knowledge article by BitTitan.

You will need to purchase MigrationWiz licenses for each account you want to migrate to Microsoft 365. The cost is $11.99 per license.

Once these prerequisites are done then it's time to verify the credentials within MigrationWiz to ensure it can access both the Google account an the Microsoft account.

First stage migrations

The first stage migration is to migrate all emails which are older than 90 days. Depending on the size of your mailbox this can take a long time so don't worry if it does. MigrationWizz will churn away doing what it does best.

DNS Changes

When the first stage migration is complete it's time to change DNS records so all email is routed through Microsoft 365. Once the DNS changes are complete you will also find that any devices you use for your emails will come up with an error message about invalid server details. Don't worry, this is normal! So if Outlook on your computer or your phone can't receive or send emails this is good!

You can check you emails are working by going to Outlook online. You can send an email to your personal email (eg. Gmail, Hotmail) and vice versa to make sure everything is working as expected. You will also see all your old emails (older than 90 days).

Second stage migration

The next stage is to do migrate the rest of the emails (less than 30 days) plus calendars and contacts into Microsoft 365. MigrationWiz calls this the Full Migration.

Checking everything is correct

Gong back to Outlook online you should now see that all your emails, contacts and calendars have been copied across without any errors. If so, now is the time to setup Outlook on your computer.

How to Set Up the 'New' Email Account in Outlook

Once all of the above is complete you will be in a position to setup the 'new' email account in Outlook and then import the old emails via the PST or via the Outlook.com account. You now have two options:

Remove the 'old' email address account and then set it up again with the new Microsoft account details
Create a new Outlook profile and add the new email address and the PST / Outlook.com address.
On Windows I prefer creating a new profile because you have an easy way of going back to the 'old' account if required. This option doesn't exist on MacBooks. To learn how to create a new profile I provide full steps in this article.