6. Execute the transfer

Before a production transfer can be executed, the following activities must be completed according to their timelines:

1. The indefinite Google Vault retention policies in the source environment must be completed at least 7 days before the production transfer.

   Note: The Google Workspace Domain Transfer team always establishes the indefinite Vault retention rules in the destination environment. For the source environment, you can elect to have the Google Workspace Domain Transfer team establish the indefinite Vault retention rules in the source environment or administrators can do it themselves. Learn more

2. The primary domain swap in the source environment must be completed at least 48 hours before the production transfer.
3. A final, fully passing dry-run transfer must be completed 24 hours before the final production transfer.
4. Both source and destination admins must give explicit authorization (in the form of an email or during a meeting) for the Google Workspace Domain Transfer team to execute the transfer.

The main production transfer executes in the following order:

1. Access revoked for all source and destination environment administrator accounts.
2. Transfer entities begin to move and permissions begin to update.
3. Transfer entities finish moving.
4. Destination admin access is restored and the main transfer is complete.
5. Transfer complete.

The following steps occur post transfer:

• Drive permission updates are completed.
• Validation audits are completed.

Learn more about the transfer process.

Estimates are based on historical averages, and transfer times might vary. Some transfer stages are dependent on other stages reaching completion. If a stage gets blocked and requires engineering action, subsequent stages might be delayed.

Number of transfer users in source environment	Estimated timing
Fewer than 1,000	1 hour or less
1,000–14,999	1–2 hours
15,000–30,000	2–4 hours

Project team members establish an email thread for all stakeholders before the transfer, and add the domain transfer team engineer who is on-call during the production transfer.

The domain transfer team starts executing the production transfer at the agreed upon time and provides a warning approximately 15 minutes before starting.

Once the transfer starts, the team provides updates regarding the transfer progress using the email thread. The production transfer executes in the following order and updates that are communicated include:

1. Admin access revoked.
2. Transfer entities begin to move and permissions begin to update.
3. Transfer entities finish moving.
4. Destination admin access is restored and the main transfer is complete.
5. Audits and permissions updates complete.

Additionally, updates are provided on estimated completion times and any domain transfer issues requiring input from stakeholders. The domain transfer process generally completes in 24 hours, but it might take longer depending on the environment size (for example, the number of users, groups, Drive files, and so on).

Response times

If a transfer becomes blocked and:

• Admins are locked out—The domain transfer team will respond within an hour and give periodic updates. Admins should be prepared to not have access for up to 24 hours.
• Admins are not locked out—The domain transfer team will respond promptly within business hours.

Source environment and destination environment administrators are blocked from using the Google Admin console or APIs for a portion of the transfer. Destination environment admin access is restored once all entities are moved, though permissions might take time to update.

Administrators from the source environment move to the destination environment and become regular users, with their admin roles revoked. Destination environment admins have to manually reassign admin roles for the source environment admins.

This step is accomplished by revoking and reinstating roles for all super and delegated administrators. Any access tokens tied to an admin won’t work in the period when roles are revoked. Once reinstated, calls using the access tokens will succeed. Learn more

End users can access all Google Workspace services during the transfer process. User sessions are not invalidated as a part of the transfer process so users can continue to work and are not forced to sign out. However, some users might experience temporary interruptions during the transfer process and for up to 24 hours after it completes.

Important: Transfer users should avoid domain-wide sharing during the transfer process as it might result in content being shared with the source environment instead of the destination environment.