What is Google Workspace Domain Transfer?

You can merge two separate Google Workspace environments, without the problems that generally result from standard migration methods, using Google Workspace Domain Transfer. All eligible domains and entities from the source environment are moved into the destination environment.

Key benefits

• Your data remains safe—No data ever leaves the Google environment during the transfer process.
• Transfer entities are moved, not copied—The original entity is fully maintained and all settings, history, document IDs and URLs, permissions, etc. remain the same. The only change is which Google Workspace Domain Transfer environment is the owner of the transfer entities.
• Content shared directly to individuals is retained—Sharing with individual users or groups is not modified. However, other configurations might impact direct sharing (for example, Google Drive access lists in the destination environment).
• Content shared with the entire source environment is shared with the entire destination environment, unless otherwise stated—This applies to Drive objects, Google Calendars, Google Groups, and classic Google Sites.
• A team of professionals guides the transfer process—During the entire transfer process, you’re supported by Google PSO as you work to set up your source and destination environments.
• The transfer execution takes hours, not days or weeks—Once the source and destination environments are set up correctly, Google PSO completes the data transfer on your behalf. The domain transfer process generally completes in 24 hours, but it might take longer depending on the environment size. This includes the number of users, groups, Drive files, etc.
• Minimal downtime expected—Transfers execute during business hours. Non-administrator end users can continue to work during the transfer with little impact.

Key constraints

• Licenses are not transferred—There must be enough matching licenses in the destination environment to support incoming transfer users. Your users are assigned the same set of licenses in the destination environment they had in the source environment.
• Partial transfers (divestitures) are not supported—The only supported transfer is when the source environment is merged completely into the destination environment. The only domain remaining in the source environment is the placeholder domain and the only user remaining is the placeholder administrator.
• Identity merge or deduplication is not supported—If a user has two accounts, one each in the source environment and the destination environment, reconciliation of the user’s identity must be done either before or after the transfer. Learn more
• Administrator accounts can expect downtime—All source and destination environment administrator accounts are blocked from using the Google Admin console and Google Workspace administrator APIs for a portion of the transfer.
• There’s no turning back—Once the process is started, there’s no rollback procedure. It’s an all-or-nothing process. All fixes are forward fixes and are resolved in one to 2 days post transfer. Learn more

Other considerations

• Services, functionality, and integrations that aren’t core Google Workspace services are outside the scope of this product, whether they’re listed as unsupported or undocumented—The Domain Transfer product is solely focused on allowing the migration of Google Workspace core services. If a service or some functionality is not listed as supported, it should be considered unsupported. Any behaviors or details of items listed as unsupported are subject to change and might be inaccurate or incomplete. Mitigation for these items should be managed like any other migration project, with appropriate testing and change management in place.
• Transfer users have access to entities shared globally in the destination environment—This applies to Drive objects, Calendars, Groups, and classic Google Sites.
• Managing certain licenses might take extra time or block parts of the process—Unsupported licenses in the source environment that block the swap between the primary domain and the placeholder domain should be removed as early as possible or else the transfer process might be delayed. Learn more
• Verifying domains might require changing Domain Name System (DNS) records—If a different team controls your DNS records, or if you must have all modifications go through change control, it might delay the transfer process. This is especially true when the destination environment verifies ownership of the source environment domains. This procedure requires coordination between the destination environment administrators and the team that owns the source environment’s DNS records. Learn more
• Source environment becomes unsuitable for Google Workspace production use—While not enforced, it's expected the source environment will be removed as the transfer process makes the environment unsuitable for Google Workspace production use. However, if the environment is associated with a Google Cloud organization, it can remain operational for administration purposes only.

Ready to begin?

Go to Transfer process framework