The process of migrating from Microsoft Exchange to Google Workspace involves these major steps. Click a step for more information about the tools, resources, and best practices to help you move your data to Google Workspace.
Steps to migrate data
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Step 1: Get familiar with Google Workspace
For resources on managing a pilot or full deployment of Google Workspace—from planning to ongoing user support—go to Set up Google Workspace for your organization.
Step 2: Add user accounts in Google Workspace
Make sure your Google Workspace users have a user account.
- If you have a smaller number of users, you can add them individually in the Google Admin console. Go to Add an account for a new user.
- You can add multiple users at once using a comma-separated value (CSV) file. Go to Add or update multiple users from a CSV file.
- To synchronize user data in your existing LDAP directory with your Google Workspace account (syncs groups, contacts, and organizations, too), use Google Cloud Directory Sync.
- To provision many users with data from your existing LDAP directory, such as Active Directory, use the Directory API.
Step 3: Configure mail delivery to Google Workspace
Next, set up your Exchange server to send mail to your Google Workspace account. Your users will continue to receive mail sent to Exchange email accounts as your organization transitions to Google Workspace.
The most straightforward option is to set up dual delivery. With dual delivery, incoming mail is still delivered to your Exchange server. The Exchange server processes each message and then forwards a copy to Google Workspace. This configuration does not require you to change the mail exchange (MX) records for your domain. In some cases, you might need to set up secondary email addresses in Google Workspace.
For details about how to set up dual delivery through your Exchange server, go to Legacy server as primary server.
Related topic
Email routing and delivery
Step 4: Move data from the legacy system to Google Workspace
You might want to bring some data, such as email, calendar, and contacts, from your legacy system to Google Workspace. There are a range of products to help you with this process.
Note: For details on migrating from additional data source environments, go to our migration product matrix.
| If you want to... | Then use... |
|---|---|
| Migrate email, calendar, and contact data on behalf of your users from:
| For 1,001+ users:
For 101–1,000 users:
For 1–100 users:
Must be a super admin to use these products. |
| Migrate email, calendar, and contact data on behalf of your users from:
| For 1,001+ users:
For 101–1,000 users:
For 1–100 users:
Must be a super admin to use these products. |
| Migrate email, calendar, and contact data on behalf of your users from:
| For 101+ users:
For 1–100 users:
Must be a super admin to use these products. |
| Migrate email, calendar, and contact data on behalf of your users from:
| For 1–1,000+ users:
For 1–20 users only:
Must be a super admin to use these products. |
| Allow your users to migrate their own Exchange data. | For 1–20 users:
|
| Synchronize email, calendars, contacts, notes, and task data between your Google Workspace account and Outlook. | Google Workspace Sync for Microsoft Outlook (GWSMO) |
Step 5: Configure the Google Workspace environment
You might want to set up Google Workspace so that it feels familiar to users coming from Exchange. This section describes how to recreate some of the functionality of Exchange in Google Workspace.
Can a user continue to use Outlook or another email client?
Yes. You can set up Google Workspace Sync for Microsoft Outlook (GWSMO) to let users access Google Workspace email, calendar, and contact data from Outlook. GWSMO synchronizes all data between Google Workspace and Outlook. For details, go to .
Google Workspace also supports any email client that uses IMAP, including mobile devices. For details, go to Add Gmail to another email client.
Can a user send email on behalf of another user?
Yes, but first you need to set it up in the Admin console:
-
Sign in to your GoogleAdminconsole.
Sign in using your administrator account (does not end in @gmail.com).
-
In the Admin console, go to Menu
AppsGoogle WorkspaceGmailUser settings. - Under Mail Delegation, check the Let users delegate access to their mailbox to other users in the domain box.
- Click Save.
- Tell your users to review Set up mail delegation.
AppsCan I create a global address book of shared contacts?
Yes. All users and groups in your domain are automatically added to the global address book. You can add more entries using the Domain Shared Contacts API.
Can I create shared calendars?
Yes, but first you need to set it up.
- Follow the steps under Set Calendar sharing options.
- (Optional) To create a calendar for your organization, go to .
- Tell users to share their calendar. Go to Share your calendar with someone.
If you use GWSMO, it will synchronize user calendars between Outlook and Google Workspace. Your users can create calendars in either Outlook or Google Workspace to have them sync to the other product. Go to Share a calendar using GWSMO.
How do I create public folders?
Google Workspace does not support public folders in the sense that Exchange uses them. However, you can implement similar functionality by using Google Groups as a Collaborative Inbox, or by sharing files and folders from Google Drive.
For a successful deployment, train your users before switching to Google Workspace. Go to:
- Train your Google Workspace users
- Google Workspace Learning Center
Related topics
- Migrate your organization’s data to Google Workspace
- Google Workspace migration product matrix
Google, Google Workspace, and related marks and logos are trademarks of Google LLC. All other company and product names are trademarks of the companieswith which they are associated.
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