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Google Workspace to Microsoft 365 Migration Checklist (Printable)

A printable, phase-by-phase checklist for moving from Google Workspace to Microsoft 365: planning, tenant setup, Google preparation, mail, Drive, MX cutover and decommissioning.

By EpiFive Editorial TeamReviewed/updated 10 min readHow we check articles
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This checklist turns a Google Workspace to Microsoft 365 migration into a list of checks you can tick off in order, from inventory to canceling Google Workspace. Each item is short; the reasoning, settings and commands are in the full Google Workspace to Microsoft 365 migration step-by-step guide. If you want a version to print or share with a project team, download the free Google Workspace to Microsoft 365 migration checklist PDF, where every check links to its Microsoft Learn or Google Workspace Admin Help source.

Who this is for and how to use it

This checklist is for the person running the migration: an IT administrator, an office manager who looks after IT, or a project lead coordinating a technical team. It assumes Microsoft's native tools: the Google Workspace migration in the Exchange admin center (or Simplified Gmail Migration in the Microsoft 365 admin center for up to 1,000 mailboxes) for mail, calendar and contacts, and Migration Manager for Google Drive.

Use it in three ways:

  • As a project plan. Each section is a phase. Do not start a phase until the previous one is ticked off, because later steps depend on earlier ones.
  • As a sign-off record. Write the date and initials next to each item. That record helps when someone asks months later why a setting was changed.
  • As a scope check. The "not migrated" items in Phase 1 are where most surprises come from. Agree on them with the business before you start.

The examples use contoso.com as the primary domain, o365.contoso.com as the Microsoft 365 routing subdomain and gsuite.contoso.com as the Google routing subdomain.

Phase 1: Decide and plan

  • List every user with primary address, aliases, mailbox size and Drive size.
  • List shared drives and their members, Google Groups, shared aliases and service accounts.
  • Record delegation and send-as arrangements, and which devices each person uses for mail.
  • Agree on what will not migrate and how each item is handled: shared calendars, event colors, room bookings, vacation replies, Google Sites, Google Maps, orphaned Drive files, Google Chat and external sharing links.
  • Choose the mail path: automated Google Workspace migration in batches, Simplified Gmail Migration for 1,000 mailboxes or fewer, or IMAP only for a handful of mail-only moves.
  • Decide whether you need a third-party tool for content the native tools skip, and if so, confirm it does not depend on Exchange Web Services, which Microsoft began disabling in Exchange Online in October 2026.
  • Map each Google edition to a Microsoft 365 plan (Business Basic, Standard, Premium, or E3/E5 above 300 users) and confirm the count. The cost and timeline guide lists current list prices.
  • Pick a pilot group (IT staff and a few volunteers) and group everyone else into batches by team.
  • Set target dates for the pilot, each batch, the MX switch and Google cancellation.
  • Lower the MX record TTL to 3,600 seconds or less.

Phase 2: Prepare Microsoft 365

  • Buy the Microsoft 365 licenses, but do not assign Exchange Online to people who will be migrated yet.
  • Add and verify contoso.com in the Microsoft 365 admin center with the TXT record. Do not change MX.
  • Confirm the migration admin has at least the Recipient Management role group in Exchange Online.
  • Create a mail user for every Google user, with the primary address on contoso.com and the external email address on gsuite.contoso.com.
  • Add a proxy address on o365.contoso.com to every mail user.
  • Create recipients for groups, shared aliases and service accounts, or plan Internal relay with an outbound connector to Google during coexistence.
  • Add o365.contoso.com as an accepted domain in Microsoft 365 and verify it.
  • Check the default remote domain and the outbound spam policy allow automatic forwarding to gsuite.contoso.com for users in batches. A block here produces 5.7.520 Access denied bounces.
  • Pause messaging records management (MRM) and archive policies for users being migrated, so items do not appear as "missing". Do not remove legal holds.
  • Decide whether to raise the message size limit above the 35 MB default (up to 150 MB for migration).

Phase 3: Prepare Google Workspace

  • Confirm you are not on the legacy free G Suite edition, which lacks Add a domain.
  • Add o365.contoso.com as a User alias domain and point its MX at Microsoft 365.
  • Add gsuite.contoso.com as a User alias domain and point its MX at Google.
  • Wait until both show Active. Google can take up to 24 hours to apply alias domains to all users.
  • Allow automatic forwarding: Apps > Google Workspace > Gmail > End User Access > Automatic forwarding, for the organization or the units being migrated.
  • Give the Google migration administrator the Project Creator and Service Account Creator roles, plus permission to create service account keys.
  • Run the automated setup from the Exchange admin center, or create the project, service account, JSON key and APIs manually.
  • Authorize the client ID and the documented scopes under Security > API Controls > Manage Domain Wide Delegation, then allow 15 minutes to 24 hours to propagate.
  • Store the JSON key securely and record who has access to it.
  • Confirm Drive and Docs is turned on for users whose files you will migrate.

Phase 4: Migrate mail, calendar and contacts

  • Test the endpoint with Test-MigrationServerAvailability and create it.
  • Build the pilot CSV with the EmailAddress column (and Username where the Gmail address differs).
  • Start the pilot batch with o365.contoso.com as the target delivery domain.
  • Assign Exchange Online licenses to pilot users after the batch starts, within 30 days.
  • Measure how long the pilot takes and use it to size the remaining batches.
  • Have pilot users check mail, calendar, contacts and rules in Outlook, and collect their questions for the user guide.
  • Complete the pilot batch when it reaches Synced.
  • Run each production batch: start, license, monitor, validate, complete.
  • Complete batches so that whole teams switch to Outlook on the same day.
  • If a batch slows or stalls, check Google bandwidth limits and the per-user stall reasons before changing concurrency.

Phase 5: Migrate Google Drive

  • Open Setup > Migration resources in the Microsoft 365 admin center and choose Google Workspace.
  • Install and authorize the Microsoft 365 Migration app with a Google super administrator.
  • Pre-provision OneDrive for every destination user.
  • Create Microsoft 365 groups and Teams or SharePoint sites for shared drives.
  • Decide on file-level permissions and file versions in project settings before the first run.
  • Scan, review scan reports, and split any drive over 100,000 items or 1 TB into smaller tasks.
  • Map Google domains, users and groups to Microsoft 365 identities.
  • Check every destination path, and set a Forms destination for drives with Google Forms.
  • Run the migration, then delta passes as needed, without renaming or moving folders in between.
  • Reconcile migration reports, unsupported files and orphaned files with content owners.

The Migration Manager guide covers each of these steps in detail.

Phase 6: Communicate with users

  • Two weeks before: share the date, what moves and what does not.
  • Three days before: send sign-in instructions, Outlook mobile setup and a reminder to finish edits in Google Docs.
  • On the day: ask users to sign in, set their time zone, send a test message, check folders and turn on migrated rules.
  • Explain that Docs, Sheets and Slides become Word, Excel and PowerPoint files, and that external sharing links must be recreated.
  • Publish where to get help and the date Google access ends.

Phase 7: Cut over DNS

  • Confirm every batch shows Completed.
  • Update MX to the value shown in the Microsoft 365 admin center, with the highest priority, and remove or lower the Google MX records.
  • Add or update the Autodiscover CNAME with the value shown in the admin center.
  • Keep one SPF record that includes both Microsoft 365 and Google during the transition.
  • Publish both DKIM CNAMEs and turn on DKIM signing.
  • Keep your DMARC record and review reports before tightening it.
  • Send test mail from several outside providers and check the headers.
  • Wait at least 72 hours before stopping synchronization or removing forwarding. The email cutover checklist has an hour-by-hour plan.

Phase 8: After cutover and decommissioning

  • Compare item counts for sample mailboxes and investigate anything flagged as missing.
  • Recreate shared calendars, room mailboxes and booking policies.
  • Move phones to Outlook or Exchange ActiveSync and remove Google accounts on a set date.
  • Re-share content that relied on external links.
  • Re-enable the MRM and archive policies you paused.
  • Remove routing subdomains, extra aliases and any Internal relay setting or connector.
  • Remove the Google SPF include once Google no longer sends mail for the domain.
  • Revoke the service account key and delete the domain-wide delegation entry.
  • Run Google Data Export for anything you must keep, and download it before it expires 60 days after the export starts.
  • Cancel Google Workspace but keep your domain registration.

Common reasons a checklist item fails

ItemWhat usually goes wrongCheck
Endpoint testScopes mistyped or delegation not yet propagatedCompare the scope string with the documentation; wait up to 24 hours
Batch completionMicrosoft 365 routing domain not verifiedVerify o365.contoso.com in Microsoft 365
Coexistence mail flowForwarding blocked in Gmail or in the outbound spam policyCheck both sides before the first batch
Mailbox conversionExchange Online license assigned before the batch startedKeep users as mail users until their batch starts
Drive destinationOneDrive not provisionedPre-provision and rerun validation
Drive permissionsFile-level permissions were left offDecide before the first run; reruns copy permissions only when files transfer

Fixes for these and other errors are in the common errors section of the step-by-step guide.

References

Questions people ask

What should be on a Google Workspace to Microsoft 365 migration checklist?

At minimum: an inventory of users and data, verified domain and mail users in Microsoft 365, two routing subdomains, Gmail automatic forwarding allowed, the Google service account or migration app, a pilot batch, Drive migration with Migration Manager, the MX and Autodiscover switch, user communication, and a final data export before you cancel Google Workspace.

When should I switch the MX record?

After every mailbox batch is complete. Until then, mail for the primary domain keeps arriving at Google and is forwarded to users who have already moved. After the switch, wait at least 72 hours before you stop synchronization, because other mail systems can take that long to pick up the change.

When can I cancel Google Workspace?

Only after mail flow to Microsoft 365 is verified, Drive migration reports are reconciled, and you have exported any data you must keep. Google's Data Export needs an active subscription for Gmail, Drive and Chat data and can take up to 14 days, so start it before cancellation.

Google WorkspaceMicrosoft 365Exchange OnlineMigration ManagerGoogle Workspace migration
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