Moving Google Drive Files to OneDrive Without Losing Organization

When an organization switches from Google Workspace to Microsoft 365, moving email accounts is only part of the job. The files stored in Google Drive also need to be transferred, and that is where the process can become unexpectedly complicated. I’m researching Google Drive to OneDrive Migration and have been looking at the practical issues administrators should consider before starting.

The first thing that stands out is the amount of data involved. A few documents can easily be downloaded from Google Drive and uploaded to OneDrive manually. However, this approach becomes difficult when users have years of documents, spreadsheets, PDFs, images, videos, and project folders stored across different locations.

Folder structure is another concern. Simply transferring files is not enough if employees depend on an existing organization of folders and subfolders. Recreating everything manually can take a lot of time and makes it easier to accidentally place files in the wrong location.

There is also the question of duplicates. If a transfer is interrupted and restarted, some files may already exist in the destination. Without checking carefully, the same documents could end up being uploaded more than once. Google-specific files may also need attention because their formats can differ from conventional Microsoft Office files.

For organizations planning to migrate data from Google Drive to OneDrive, I think preparation is just as important as the actual transfer. Checking available OneDrive storage, identifying unnecessary files, reviewing file names, and keeping a backup of important information would be sensible steps before beginning.

While researching possible approaches, I came across the SysInfo Google Drive Migrator Tool. The information available about it mentions features such as folder hierarchy preservation, duplicate removal, date filtering, and custom folder naming.

I’d be interested in hearing from administrators who have already completed this type of migration. What was the biggest challenge for you—large files, folder organization, duplicate data, file formats, or simply the amount of time required? And what method did you ultimately find reliable?