Moving from Google

What will and won't migrate to G Suite?

Data that will migrate:

The legacy Google data will be migrated automatically by the project team on your behalf. This data includes:

  • Email - Email data on the legacy Google server will be migrated, including email messages with attachments in your Inbox, any user-created labels, and your Sent and Deleted Items. Drafts will migrate but may duplicate. Please delete any duplicates that appear in your Drafts.

  • Calendar - Calendar appointments from 2000 through 2050 will be transferred to UMD G Suite. (Attachments in calendar appointments will be saved to your new Google Drive.)

  • Personal contacts and groups - All personal contacts in your legacy Google mailbox will be migrated to UMD G Suite as Contacts

  • Tasks

  • Drive/Docs/Sheets/Slides - (With some exceptions. See the "Data that won't migrate" and "Data that may not migrate to Google or may be changed" sections below.)

Data that won't migrate:

  • Messages not stored in your Legacy Google (i.e., in personal archive folders)

  • Filters

  • Keep content

  • Drive files shared with you from an external account will need to be re-shared to your new account. If external shares were organized into folders in your My Drive, that organization will need to be done again after sharing is complete.

Data that may not migrate to Google or will be changed:

  • Recurring calendar appointments that were part of a series but were modified individually may not come over at all or the occurrence may be broken out as a separate meeting.

  • Drive URLs will be new for all files and folders. Any reference to a specific URL will need to be updated.


Before migration

What to do before migrating:

If you would like to organize your email to prepare for the data migration, there are some steps you can take. Your experience with Google will improve if the data that is migrated into G Suite is clean. Be sure to complete these tasks before your background migration begins or else plan to wait until after your entire migration is complete.

  1. Clear duplicates out of your Drafts folder.

  2. Identify and remove any export-controlled data from your email account. U.S. export laws control the transmittal of export controlled technical information to non-U.S. persons and locations. If you believe you have data like this, please contact us at itsupport@umd.edu. Such data may be saved in Box; please see instructions from the Division of Research.

During migration

What to do during the migration:

Your data will be moved to G Suite in two phases: background migration and migration weekend.

Background migration - Beginning a couple of weeks before your Go Live date, your historical email data (all messages received before that phase begins) will be copied to G Suite). It's recommended that you do not do move or organize that email or change existing folders during background migration to prevent errors.

Migration weekend - During migration weekend, your newer email data will be moved, as will your calendar and contacts data.

During your migration weekend, even though you will have access to your new email in UMD G Suite, please do not perform any organizational actions on messages in your new account (particularly adding or changing labels).

During the weekend, please also refrain from taking any action on calendar invitations. New events should ONLY be added to your Google Calendar, and you should refrain from sending ANY invitations until your Google account is live and migrations are completed (after the weekend).

After migration

Your email will automatically begin flowing to UMD G Suite. Learn how to sign into your account. To get the best experience using your new G Suite account, it is recommended that you use the Chrome web browser or the Gmail app for mobile devices.

Verifying your migration

Make sure you have what you expect to see in Gmail and Calendar.

  • Verify that your mailbox contains the messages and Gmail Labels that were in your legacy Google mail account prior to the migration.

  • Make sure all meetings are present in your G Suite Calendar (accepted meetings between 2000 and 2050 were migrated). Please remember that calendar migrations are never perfect. When you access your account, if you are missing an event, please recreate it. If there is a duplicate event, please delete it. You may also experience some issues with recurring events that have exceptions or non-standard recurrence patterns.

  • Verify that all personal contacts and groups are present in your Contacts list in Gmail.

Something's gone wrong with my migration

Contact the IT Service Desk so we can correct any issues.

Other things to note:

You will be able to choose to send email messages from your departmental email address.

All Calendar and Drive/Doc sharing communication will come from your DirectoryID@umd.edu email address.

Getting started

Getting started with your UMD G Suite account

To get the best experience using your new G Suite account, it is recommended that you use the Chrome web browser or the Gmail app for mobile devices. Learn how to sign into your account.

Head over to the training and resources page to learn how to set up your devices and email clients, send from your departmental email address, and more.