Migrate Google Drive to OneDrive without the manual grind

Two main options exist for migrating Google Workspace user drives to OneDrive for Business: Microsoft Migration Manager (built into the SharePoint admin center) and third-party tools like ShareGate Migrate. Migration Manager supports Google Drive as a source and can handle bulk migrations, but agent configuration and identity mapping at scale require meaningful setup effort. ShareGate Migrate approaches this differently: for single-user migrations, the UI lets you connect as a Google super admin and select a destination OneDrive directly. For multi-user bulk migrations across a full organization, ShareGate Migrate uses a PowerShell module with a CSV mapping file that pairs each Google Drive email to its corresponding OneDrive URL. Destination OneDrives must already be provisioned before either tool runs. Both tools trigger Google's own API to export Docs, Sheets, and Slides to Office formats during migration.

Preserving access controls when moving from Google Drive to OneDrive for Business is one of the more nuanced parts of any Google-to-Microsoft migration. Both Microsoft Migration Manager and ShareGate Migrate recreate direct, explicit permissions during migration — mapping Google Drive roles like Viewer, Editor, and Owner to their SharePoint equivalents. Neither tool migrates Google sharing links. Any files that were shared via a shareable link in Google Drive will need to be reshared after migration, because those links have no equivalent in OneDrive for Business. ShareGate Migrate performs this permission mapping automatically through the SharePoint people picker, associating Google Drive users and groups with their Microsoft 365 counterparts. Only permissions using standard Google Drive access levels are migrated — custom or non-standard permission configurations are not carried over.