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Google Drive to Google Drive

File Migration Methodology

Transend offers two file migration options when migrating files between GoogleDrives in different tenants. The Move operation is usually preferred when datafidelity maintenance is of importance. The Copy operation is attractive whenconversion of files to Microsoft format is inconsequential, pricing is an issue,or files must continue to remain in the source Drives post-migration.

Move operation

Files are moved, not copied from source to target drives. Because the Moveoperation is performed on the server side, full data fidelity is maintainedupon migration. All Google proprietary file types are maintained (i.e. GoogleDocs remain Google Docs, Sheets remain Sheets, etc.), yielding the exact samedata fidelity in the target as in the source. Files will no longer exist in thesource Drives after migration and will instead only exist in their new targetDrive. Folder and file permissions are maintained with select exceptions.

When migrating files between user (My) Drives, the Move operation onlymigrates files that meet both specific conditions:

  1. The file lives in a user’s source My Drive, and
  2. The user is the owner of the file

The following includes conditions when files are not migrated:

  1. Files that are in the “Shared with me” folder
  2. Files in a My Drive but are owned by another user
  3. Files that are owned by the migrating user, but live in another user’s MyDrive
  4. Files that contain corruption or content that Google defines as sensitivematerial and will not accept during migration
  5. Files or folders that contain sharing restrictions or permissions precludingmigration access

Copy operation

Replicas of source files are copied into the target Google Drive. Because noGoogle proprietary file type can exist outside of Google, files are convertedinto Microsoft formats upon migration, yielding loss of data fidelity. Sourcefiles will continue to exist in the source Drive after migration. Folder andfile permissions are maintained with select exceptions.

When migrating files between user (My) Drives, the Copy operation onlymigrates files that meet the specific condition:

  1. The file lives in a user’s source My Drive

The following includes conditions when files are not migrated:

  1. Files that are in the “Shared with me” folder
  2. Files that are owned by the migrating user, but live in another user’s MyDrive
  3. Files that contain corruption or content that Google defines as sensitivematerial and will not accept during migration
  4. Files or folders that contain sharing restrictions or permissions precludingmigration access

Differences between Move v Copy operations

For more details, view theprimary differences between the Move and Copy operations.

Considerations

The following considerations are important to understand when migrating filesbetween Google Drives:

  • For permissions to migrate, a given source address must map to an address thatexists in the global Google namespace, which includes all domains associatedwith all Google tenants and gmail.com addresses.

    Note that source addresses that are not mapped will retain their originaladdresses, which are by definition valid in the global Google namespace. Suchaddresses will be migrated, which may not match expectations.

  • When performing a Move operation, sharing links are preserved and continueto work for recipients of the link. Because the file and URL remain the same,nothing changes for recipients. With the Copy operation, sharing links willneed to be sent out to users again because Google doesn’t know who the linkshave been sent to.

Advanced details

The following documentation provides granular details related to preserving fileand folder sharing permissions during migration. This documentation includesscenario specific examples that define expected behavior for select common andedge cases.