Moving files from Google Drive, OneDrive and Dropbox

Module 6: Files and documents · Reading time: 11 minutes

Learning objective: After this lesson, you can choose the right method for moving your files to a European cloud, and you recognise the pitfalls: Google-only files, "Shared with me", shared drives, forbidden characters and paths that are too long.

Key concepts: migration tool, connection (OAuth), Google Takeout, desktop sync side by side, rclone, Google-only file (Docs, Sheets, Slides), .gdoc shortcut, "Shared with me", shared drive, forbidden characters, path length, checking count and size

Files are the biggest and slowest part

At Bakkerij De Korrel, almost everything is in the cloud: recipes, the rota, invoices, photos for the website and the "Staff" folder with contracts. Together that's over 180 GB, spread across Google Drive (most people) and OneDrive (the owner, who used to have Microsoft 365). That's more than all mail and calendars combined. Files therefore take the most time, and that's also where most things go wrong.

You already saw the right order in lesson 3.3: first tidy up at the old service, then create users in the new one, then move the files, and only after that install the sync apps on computers and phones. This lesson is about the moving itself.

Four ways to move files

There are roughly four routes. Which one you choose depends on the amount, the number of people and how comfortable you are with this kind of thing.

An example with rclone, if you've already set up the two services under the names gdrive and nieuwecloud:

rclone copy gdrive: nieuwecloud:Overgezet/Google --drive-export-formats docx,xlsx,pptx --dry-run

If you remove --dry-run, rclone actually copies the files. Use rclone check afterwards to compare source and destination.

Pitfall 1: Google-only files aren't files

A Google Doc, Sheet or Slides presentation isn't a docx or xlsx file. It's a document that only exists at Google. Anyone who wants to take it along must export it, which converts it into a normal format.

• Google Takeout lets you choose per type: Docs as docx, odt or pdf, Sheets as xlsx, ods or pdf, Slides as pptx, odp or pdf. By default you get the Microsoft formats.
• A migration tool usually converts them too. Check afterwards that the Google documents really are stored as docx or xlsx.
• Google's sync app (Google Drive for desktop) doesn't put a real document in your folder, but a small file with the extension .gdoc, .gsheet or .gslides. That's a shortcut: a few lines of text with a link and a document ID. Not a single letter of your text is in it. If you copy that folder to your new cloud, you end up with thousands of empty references to Google. If you then cancel Google, they point nowhere.

Not everything comes across during conversion. The text, tables, images and most formatting stay intact. The version history doesn't come across, and Google-only elements such as smart chips or links between documents become plain text or disappear. A Google Form doesn't become a working form: at most you get the answers. You'll need to rebuild forms in the new service.

With OneDrive and Dropbox this is much less of an issue: these usually already contain normal Office files. Exception with Microsoft: OneNote notebooks aren't normal files. Export those separately from OneNote (for example as pdf or docx) or move them manually to a note-taking app.

Pitfall 2: "Shared with me" and shared drives

What others have shared with you isn't yours. With Google this is under Shared with me, with OneDrive under Shared. A migration tool or Takeout usually does not include these files, and rightly so: the owner has to move them themselves.

In an organisation this is a big issue. At Bakkerij De Korrel, the manager has made all the rotas for years. These are in her Drive, shared with everyone. If everyone moves their own Drive, only she will have the rotas. So:

• Prepare the list from lesson 3.2 in advance: which folders are shared, and who owns them?
• Have the owner move the shared folders themselves, or move them centrally into a team folder (lesson 6.2).
• Shared drives in Google Workspace (formerly Team Drives) belong to the organisation, not to a person. They aren't part of anyone's personal Drive. You need to select them separately or have an administrator export them. rclone can do this with the shared drives option.

Pitfall 3: names that Windows won't accept

In a browser and on a Mac, almost anything is allowed in a file name. Windows is stricter. If your files reach a Windows computer via a sync app after the switch, these files will be skipped:

It's easiest to clean this up before the switch, or right after it in the browser of your new cloud, before the sync apps start. Agree with the team: no punctuation in names, except the hyphen and the underscore.

Pitfall 4: thinking it's finished

A migration that says "finished" hasn't actually been checked yet. Compare for every user:

1. The number of files and the total size of a few large folders, old and new. For Google documents, the size always differs (they become real files during conversion), so only count the number there.
2. A spot check: open a few files of each type. A docx that came from a Google Doc, a large spreadsheet, a pdf, a photo.
3. The date: is the original modification date still there, or does everything now show today's date? With a migration tool and rclone this is usually preserved, with uploading via the browser not always.
4. Search for shortcuts: search in the new cloud for .gdoc, .gsheet and .gslides. If you find them, those documents haven't really been moved.

Only once this all checks out do you switch off the old sync app and switch on the new one (lesson 7.2). From the start of the switch, work in the new cloud as much as possible: anything you still save in the old one during the switch won't automatically come along.

In practice: what it looks like at a provider

In this example, we use a WebOké Nextcloud. Under Settings there are two tools. With the WebOké Import Tool you connect your Google account and move one folder from Google Drive per task; this app first requests access from support, because Google only allows such apps for registered accounts. With Data migration you connect OneDrive (log in with Microsoft) or Dropbox (with an access code) and choose the Import directory, the folder where everything ends up. Both keep running in the background; you can close the window.

Other Nextcloud providers and other European clouds have similar migration tools, or point you to rclone or the desktop app. The choices and pitfalls in this lesson apply everywhere.

Summary

• Choose a migration tool in the new service if there is one; Takeout, two sync apps or rclone are the alternatives.
• Google Docs, Sheets and Slides need to be converted. A .gdoc file is only a link, not a document.
• "Shared with me" doesn't come across: the owner or an administrator moves shared folders and shared drives.
• Clean up forbidden characters and paths that are too long before the sync apps start on Windows.
• Check the count, size, spot checks and dates before you let go of the old service.

Quiz

Exercise

Exercise A6.1: Checking a test export. Export one folder from your current service containing at least one Google document (or an Office file from OneDrive), for example using Google Takeout or Download. Upload one file from that export. The program checks whether it's a real docx, xlsx, pptx, odt, ods or odp file, and not a shortcut or something else. Also fill in which formats your export produced.

Exercise E6.1: Choosing your transfer method. Choose a method per user or group (migration tool, export, two sync apps or rclone), note the size and who will move the shared folders and shared drives, and create your checklist for after the switch.

Further reading

The steps in these articles apply to WebOké's services; with other providers it works in a similar way.

• Nextcloud manual 13.1: Preparing: what to bring and in which order
• Nextcloud manual 13.2: Transferring Google Drive, Photos, Calendar and Contacts with the WebOké Import Tool
• Nextcloud manual 13.3: Moving Dropbox across with Data Migration
• Nextcloud manual 13.4: Transferring OneDrive with Data Migration
• Nextcloud manual 4.8: File names that cause problems
• Nextcloud manual 16.1: Cleaning up files with forbidden characters so Windows syncs again
• Migrate from Google Drive to WebOké Nextcloud
• Migrate from Microsoft OneDrive to WebOké Nextcloud
• Migrate from Dropbox to WebOké Nextcloud
• Google, Takeout help (export formats for Drive); rclone documentation (rclone.org, Google Drive and WebDAV)