Migrate Google Groups to Office 365 with Ease
Many organizations now want to migrate Google Groups to Office 365. For most, the decision to ditch the Google Workspace platform and embrace the M365 equivalent is simply due to the numerous facilities present within the latter.
Like a unified calendar, the ability to start instantaneous video meetings(with Teams) during conversations, and direct interaction with powerful Office suite apps like Word, Excel, and more.
However, it is not just the positive aspects of Microsoft Groups that pull users towards it. Google Groups, for some time now, has lost the key value it once had.
Even individuals who used to rely on Google Groups for accurate user-generated tips find their inboxes filled with useless spam of unrelated subjects.
The problem became so widespread that Google eventually removed support for Usenet within Google Groups back in February of 2024.
Before you move ahead must be clear about your end state. Which can be either one of two. Do you plan on maintaining access to Google Groups after the transfer? Or decommission G Suite groups and shift your focus entirely to the Microsoft 365 group.
Individuals who still use Google Groups actively can attempt the following.
Ask Members to Help You Migrate Google Groups to Office 365
Individual account holders who are group owners as well can drop a message in Google Group itself, asking users to forward all their messages in the new account.
Note that when you begin this process, we assume that you have your new M365 Group address (e.g., [email protected]) and access to a Google account in the old Google Group. Moreover, you should also set up an auto-forwarding rule in Office 365 that sends all incoming messages from the Google Group member to the M365 Group.
- Go to Settings (gear icon) > View all Outlook settings > Mail > Rules.
- Add a new rule.
- Name it.
- Then, set a condition (e.g., “Subject includes”).
- Set the action: “Forward to” [Microsoft 365 Group address].
- Save.
Then, follow these steps:
- Visit groups.google.com, sign in.
- Look for the Google Group.
- Open single message (selecting multiple and forwarding them is not possible)
Note: If you try to forward multiple emails from source Gmail account, they will end up as attachments, which we don’t want.
- Click “Forward”
- Enter your Outlook account address in the “To” field.
- Verify attachments.
- Click “Send.”
Repeat these steps for each message in every thread.
- Open Outlook on the web and/or MS Teams (if using) for the Group.
- Check forwarded messages.
It has quite a few drawbacks. Like:
- Users may forget to forward entire threads or break threading (subject lines get “FW:” prefixes, dates can shift).
- Troubleshooting missing or misformatted messages can be painful.
- Messages forwarded to the Group are resent to the mailbox, cluttering and taking up extra space.
- This can’t be done in an organization setup that has strict forwarding and incoming quotas
- It may be possible within small groups, but coordinating and auditing messages from hundreds or thousands of members is highly impractical.
Admins can try this.
Phase 1 of Organization-Wide Google Groups to Office 365 Migration: Export Out of G Suite
We will be using Google’s proprietary Data Export mechanism to pull data out from Google Groups.
Before you start, ensure that you qualify under the minimum requirements.
- First, have a 30-day or older Google Workspace or Cloud Identity super administrator account.
- Second, the admin account you are using for export has the 2-Step Verification enabled.
- Third, Google Cloud is enabled for the admin account.
Once all of this is done, follow these steps.
- Step 1. As a Google Admin, go to the Admin console.
- Step 2. Menu > Data > Data import & export > Data Export.
- Step 3. Click “Set up new export.”
- Step 4. Give your export a name and choose “Export all user data for the entire organization.”
- Step 5. Deselect all and only choose Google Groups from the service list.
- Step 6. Set your date range, choose “Google-provided Cloud bucket” for the destination, and pick your region (United States, Europe, or No preference).
- Step 7. Then, click “Start export.”
- Step 8. After the export is complete, check the email notification for a link or go to the Admin console (Data > Data import & export > Data Export) and click the export name. Then, under “Actions”, choose “View Archive.”
Now, visit the Cloud Storage UI (remember to use the same account admin credential you used for the export), find the root folder. It contains a zip file(or tgz) with your Google Groups data.
For Unzipping the Data
- Download the zip file from the root folder in the Cloud Storage UI.
- Extract the contents of the zip file to a location on your computer.
- Open the extracted files to check if all the data is there by comparing it with Google Groups data.
- Don’t forget to save it in an easy-to-access local folder.
This completes the first phase.
Phase 2 Convert the Data into Office 365 Acceptable Format
There are 3 distinct parts within the unzipped folder:
- Group information (CSV) – name, description.
- Group memberships (CSV) – each member’s email and role.
- Group posts (MBOX) – all the discussion threads.
As the data is in an MBOX file, you can not deposit it in the M365 platform directly. You must either convert MBOX into PST or use an external client like Thunderbird, which supports MBOX.
Phase 3 Add Google Groups into Office 365
To do this, we take help from PowerShell cmdlets. First, Provision Groups & Members (PowerShell)
Step 1. Transform Google CSV → PS objects
$raw = Import‑Csv "C:\Takeout\Group information.csv"
$groups = $raw | Select‑Object `
@{Name='DisplayName'; Expression={$_. 'Group name'}}, `
@{Name='Alias'; Expression={(($_.'Group email address') -split '@')[0]}}, `
@{Name='EmailAddresses'; Expression={ ($_.Alias + "@groups.yourdomain.com") }}, `
@{Name='Description'; Expression={$_. 'Group description'}}, `
@{Name='AccessType'; Expression={'Private'}}
Step 2. Create Groups
Connect‑ExchangeOnline -ShowBanner:$false
foreach ($g in $groups) {
New‑UnifiedGroup `
-DisplayName $g.DisplayName `
-Alias $g.Alias `
-EmailAddresses $g.EmailAddresses `
-AccessType $g.AccessType `
-Description $g.Description
}
Step 3. Import & Add Members/Owners
$members = Import‑Csv "C:\Takeout\Group memberships.csv"
foreach ($m in $members) {
Add‑UnifiedGroupLinks -Identity $m.GroupName -LinkType Members -Links $m.MemberEmail
if ($m.Role -eq 'OWNER') {
Add‑UnifiedGroupLinks -Identity $m.GroupName -LinkType Owners -Links $m.MemberEmail
}
}
Disconnect‑ExchangeOnline -Confirm:$false
Then, Import PSTs into Group Mailboxes
Step 1. Assign Import Role
Connect‑ExchangeOnline Add‑RoleGroupMember -Identity "Organization Management" -Member [email protected] Disconnect‑ExchangeOnline
Step 2. Upload PSTs: Get the SAS URL from Compliance → Information governance → Import → Network upload.
With AzCopy:
C:\AzCopy\azcopy.exe copy "C:\PSTs\*.pst" "<Your‑SAS‑URL>" --recursive
Step 3. Create & Run Import Job: In Compliance portal, + New import job → Network upload.
Step 4. Upload your mapping CSV:
Workload, FilePath, Name ,Mailbox Exchange, C:\PSTs\Marketing Team.pst,MarketingTeam,[email protected] Exchange,C:\PSTs\IT All Hands.pst,ITAllHands,[email protected]
Step 5. Finally, submit and start the job.
Best Practices to Follow While Migrating Google Groups to Office 365
- Perform a pilot migration with a small group to test the process.
- Get professional help by using SysTools Google Workspace to Office 365 Migrator for migrating Google Groups to Office 365 with accuracy.
- Back up all data before starting to prevent loss.
- Schedule migrations during off-peak hours to minimize performance issues.
- Set and verify permissions in both Google Workspace and Microsoft 365.
Conclusion
In this post, you saw exactly how to migrate Google Groups to Office 365 groups. If you are an individual group owner, you can ask your members to make a new Oultook account and start fresh. Otherwise, forward all old messages. However, this is not possible in a professional environment. So admins have to follow a manual Export→Convert→Import process to achieve the same result. If you find it difficult or want to automate the process, reach out to our support team, and we will surely help you.