How to Migrate From Gmail to Office 365? Step by Step Guide
This technical guide has been prepared for users who want to migrate from Gmail to Office 365 / Microsoft 365. Stay tuned with the write-up to know everything you need to know about the entire migration process.
As a free email service, Gmail is ruling the email world with billions of users. Despite this, the cloud platform, Office 365, is preferred by most users around the world. And, no matter what, it provides users with more advanced features that help them meet organizational goals.
More importantly, Office 365 is recognized as a professional platform as compared to Gmail. This is the reason why they prefer Office 365 over Gmail for day to day business operations. And, many users have questions related to how to move emails from Gmail to Office 365. Let’s take a look at one of the user’s questions.
“Hi! We used to be a small business and used Gmail to conduct work. With tremendous business growth, we are now running a medium scale business. Our management has made the switch from Gmail to a professional platform like Office 365. so that our business reach can be even better. But, the thing is we don’t know how to do it. It would be great if someone can suggest us some way to transfer our emails.
Like the above user if you also have a similar query then refer this article. Let us discuss the methods.
Table of Content
Preparation Before Gmail to Microsoft 365 Migration
There are some points that you must prepare before going for the migration, that includes:
- Decide what email service are you currently using to migrate emails from.
- Details of the Office 365 admin account and all the required credentials.
- Don’t forget to check the total numbers of domains do you have.
- List all the Gmail user account details.
- Make a list in case of specific emails migration.
- Also, prepare a list of all email folders to migrate.
- Mind the size of the each mailboxes.
Method 1: Migrate From Gmail To Office 365 Using Direct Way
Now, if you are a Mac user then, this is a one-stop solution where you can migrate emails from your Gmail account to Microsoft 365. Since it involves the tried and tested IMAP Server Migration Tool for Mac users to complete the migration directly.
If you want to transfer Gmail to Office 365 and have multiple accounts to migrate then also you can do it with the help of the tool. Above all, it doesn’t include complicated steps like the manual method.
Step by Step Guide to Use the Tool for Migration
It’s very easy to work with the Gmail to Office 365 migration software, let’s have a look at the simple steps-
Step-1. Download the tool on your computer system of the supported version and launch it after successfully installation. From the welcome screen of the tool’s interface, checkout all the prerequisites and tap Continue button to proceed.
Step-2. From the next screen, select the Gmail option, enter your source Gmail account details and validate the same.
Step-3. Then, select Office 365 option and provide your destination account details and validate the user account as well by clicking on the Validate icon.
Step-4. After validating both the accounts, just click on Add in order to migrate from Gmail to Office 365. It will map both the accounts together. In case, you want to go for the batch migration then you can add more accounts as well.
Step-5. Apply Advanced Settings and click on Attach Source Account Tree(for maintaining the hierarchy). In general settings, you can set the date range or exclude or include the desired Gmail folders to migrate.
Step-6. Finally, click on the Start Migration button for a successful Gmail to Microsoft 365 migration on desktop. Once the tool starts to transfer emails you can check the ongoing process with total number of email migrated.
Advanced Feature of the Tool
- Simply entering the account credentials you can migrate from Gmail to Office 365.
- With advanced settings like the Date filter, you can select the duration of email data to be migrated.
- Through the Delta migration option, you can skip previously migrated emails and transfer the newly arrived items.
- You can perform the Gmail to Microsoft 365 migration of multiple accounts simultaneously.
- The tool supports the all the latest and older versions of Mac operating system.
Method 2: Manually Migrate From Gmail to Office 365
If you have a less number of emails in your Gmail account then you can opt for this method. Here you need to follow the below steps for this manual task.
Use Google Takeout to Export Gmail emails
- Go to the Google Takeout page.
- Then, click on Deselect All (Since Google Takeout)
- Scroll down and select Mail.
- Next, click on Export Once to move further with the process.
- Then, select the file type to be created and destination of the link.
- After that, decide the file size limit of the export file.
- Finally, click on Create Export, you will get a link on your emails, download the file. It will be downloaded in Zip format, you can extract the data from it.
After following the above steps, your files will be exported in MBOX format. Since this file format is not supported in Office 365, you need to convert it to a supported format i.e. PST to migrate from Gmail to Office 365. Once done, use the network upload or drive shipping method to transfer your Gmail emails to Office 365.
Or use automated software to save yourself this lengthy process.
Automatically transfer output file to Microsoft 365: You can use the secure FreeViewer MBOX to Office 365 migrator tool to prevent data loss. With the help of this tool, you can easily migrate from Gmail to Office 365. The tool is also capable of converting a large number of emails with ease.
Limitations of The Manual Approach
As you can see the whole process is overwhelming. And, if you have a large number of emails (in the thousands) or multiple Gmail account data to migrate, the process can take hours or even days to complete.
Also, Google Takeout itself has some limitations i.e. you cannot exceed 2-3 backups per day. And, some users have complained about failures even though it shows 100% export complete. Therefore, if the takeout is not completed in the first place the next steps cannot be completed.
So, to avoid such troubles, you can choose the alternate method mentioned below.
In The End
Creating Gmail accounts is easy but transferring the files to a professional platform like Office 365 is not. So, if you have decided to migrate from Gmail to Office 365 for whatever reason, then it’s good to know a user-friendly method. Hence, this article has explained a convenient method for your reference. However, we have also shared the manual method as well. But the manual method is not suggested for the migration because of the technicalities required for the same. Therefore, we suggest you to go for the automated method and try the free demo version of it.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q- How to perform a safe Gmail to Office 365 migration?
- Download the tool on Mac desktop.
- Select the Gmail option as source host.
- Choose Office 365 option as host name in destination.
- Apply filters, skip migrated emails.
- Tap on the Start Migration option to begin the process.
Q- Can I merge Gmail account and Microsoft account together?
Not practically, for security reasons, it is not possible to merge Microsoft user accounts, also, Microsoft does not allow transfer of game progress, account purchases and balance from one account to another.
Q- Why is Office 365 better than Google Mail?
While the reasons may vary from user to user, for many users, the main reason to choose Microsoft 365 over Gmail will be the inclusion of its desktop apps. As every Microsoft user gets access to fully installable versions of Microsoft applications (Outlook, Word, and more).
Q- What if I don’t buy Microsoft 365 again?
If you don’t plan to upgrade or buy Microsoft 365, you can let your trial expire or cancel it before the day it’s up. Before doing this, you may want to back up any data as needed. Then, Microsoft will delete or delete all data after the expiration of the 30-day expiration period.