What moves from OneDrive to Google Drive?
Each person's OneDrive files and folders move into their own My Drive in Google Drive, and the folder structure normally comes across as it was. Word, Excel, and PowerPoint files arrive as Office files. You can leave them that way or convert them to Docs, Sheets, and Slides later.
My Drive works much like OneDrive. It is personal storage that the owner can share with anyone inside or outside the organization, depending on your admin settings. Storage is pooled across your organization on Business editions, so a heavy user does not hit a personal wall the way they might on a fixed per-person quota.
How do sharing and ownership change?
Sharing is the part to plan, because it does not always carry over the same way. Depending on the migration tool and how files were shared in OneDrive, permissions may migrate or may need to be reapplied. Ask your migration partner how their tool handles it before you start.
Ownership matters more in Google Drive than people expect. A file in My Drive belongs to the person who owns it. When that person leaves, an admin has to transfer ownership or the files go with the account. That is why team files belong in shared drives, which the organization owns. Read SharePoint to Google shared drives and My Drive vs shared drives to decide where each kind of file should live.
A good rule: if a file is used by a team, or would be needed after someone leaves, put it in a shared drive, not in someone's My Drive. Our offboarding guide covers what happens to My Drive when someone leaves.
How does Google Drive for desktop compare with the OneDrive sync app?
Google Drive for desktop does the same job as the OneDrive sync app. It puts Google Drive in File Explorer on Windows or Finder on a Mac, so people can open and save files from their usual apps.
It offers two ways to work:
- Stream files. Files stay in the cloud and download when opened, which saves disk space.
- Mirror files. A full copy of My Drive is kept on the computer as well as in the cloud.
Drive for desktop can also sync chosen folders on the computer, such as Desktop or Documents. If you use OneDrive to back up those folders today, plan to set this up during the switch so nothing is left only on a laptop.
What should you clean up before migrating OneDrive?
Clean out duplicates, old downloads, personal files, and very large files nobody needs before you copy, because every unneeded file adds time and clutter. Ask each person to do a quick pass on their own OneDrive. Large video and installer files are worth a second look.
Also flag content that does not convert cleanly. OneNote notebooks stored in OneDrive need their own plan, since Google Workspace has no direct OneNote equivalent. Files with macros or complex formatting are covered in working with Office files in Google Drive, and the wider list is in what does not migrate automatically.
How do you check that files came across?
Spot-check after the copy. Compare file counts and total size for a few users, open a sample of files of each type, and confirm shared folders show up for the people who need them.
Watch for links inside documents and spreadsheets that point to old OneDrive or SharePoint addresses. Those links do not update themselves after a migration. Find the important ones, such as links in templates, procedures, and shared spreadsheets, and update them to the new Drive locations.
For how files fit into the full project, see the Microsoft 365 to Google Workspace migration guide.
Next step
Our Standard and Premium plans move OneDrive files with delta sync so recent changes are not left behind. See the Microsoft 365 migration page for scope.
Frequently asked questions
Do OneDrive files have to be converted to Google Docs?
No. Google Drive stores Office files as they are, and people can open and edit them in Docs, Sheets, and Slides without converting. Convert a file when several people need to edit it at once, and keep Office format when partners expect Office files.
Can people keep working in OneDrive during the migration?
Yes. The bulk copy runs in the background while people keep working. A delta sync before switchover copies files that changed after the first pass. After switchover, ask everyone to save new work only to Google Drive.
