Google Workspace Domain Transfer does not support merging user accounts or account deduplication. This scenario might occur during a merger and acquisition (M&A) where the acquired company’s users are provisioned a second account in the procuring company’s Google Workspace environment.
If the desired end state is a reconciliation of identities so that each user only has one Google Workspace account, additional steps must be taken after the transfer process completes.
This consolidation guide is for customers with users that have 2 Google Workspace accounts, one in the source environment and one in the destination environment, and that wish to consolidate those accounts in the destination after using Domain Transfer.
Preparation
It’s important to determine which account has the user’s primary data (such as email, calendar events, Google Drive, and access to third-party applications). This is the account we want the user to use after completing a consolidation.
This scenario assumes the user was primarily using a single account for conducting business during the last 3 months. If a user has been using both accounts in different ways, and has fresh data in both, this method may not apply or only apply in part.
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Map the source and destination user accountsCreate a map between the source and destination user accounts, for example:
Determine which account is the “primary” account for a user. Some methods to determine this include:
- Understanding the nature of the M&A. Many times duplicate accounts were provisioned for a specific purpose and were only used sporadically.
- Asking the user.
- Using the Google Workspace Accounts user report to get a usage overview of various applications, including:
- User accounts status
- Gmail storage
- Drive storage
- Total storage
- Total emails
- Files edited
- Files viewed
- Drive - last active time
- Use the Google Workspace Email Log Search for detailed analysis of email usage (over the last 30 days):
- Messages sent from 1 hour ago to the past 7 days, or for a date range you specify in the past 30 days.
Note: Search results for messages older than 30 days show only post-delivery message details. - Post-delivery message details have no time constraints and are always retained.
- Messages to or from any Google Workspace user in your domains.
- Messages sent to a group in Google Groups and other mailing lists containing your Google Workspace users.
- Messages sent from 1 hour ago to the past 7 days, or for a date range you specify in the past 30 days.
- For organizations with an Enterprise edition, use the security center to view Message Deliveries.
Migration options for administrators
There’s no tool that offers a comprehensive way to merge 2 Google Accounts covering all possible Google services. However, there are several consolidation and migration options for the main Google services, such as Gmail, Drive, Google Calendar, and Google Contacts.
In addition to the steps outlined below, here’s a few recommendations to keep in mind:
- Test out all known user scenarios.
- Communicate a clear change management plan to users, particularly if there’s a shift in the way they will sign in or if they need to send mail from an address now listed as an alias.
Note: For a small volume of users and data, providing users with self-service options might be the best option.
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Step 1. (Optional) Rename the destination accountIf the source environment account is determined to be the “primary” account, renaming the destination accounts minimizes the need for data migration.
For example, let’s assume [email protected] and [email protected] belong to the same user, and [email protected] is the “primary” account with most of the data. After the Domain Transfer process completes:
- Rename [email protected] > [email protected]
- Remove [email protected] as an alias on [email protected]
- Rename [email protected] > [email protected]
Note: user1 now signs in using [email protected], yet still retains [email protected] as an account alias to both send and receive mail from this address.
Watchpoints
- Review the article Impact of changing a user's email address.
- Users need to configure Gmail to send email from their alias when replying to messages received before the Domain Transfer completes or if the alias is their primary external account.
- If using SSO with an external third-party Identity Provider (IdP), once the account is renamed the user cannot sign in using their old email address - the IdP needs to send the new fully qualified email address. If they have connected apps (either SAML or OIDC), they might also need to be renamed at the same time.
Each service within Google Workspace has a different method for exporting and importing data between 2 Google Workspace accounts.
For an expanded breakdown, see this Help Center article.
| Gmail |
|---|
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| Drive |
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| Calendar |
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| Google Contacts |
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| Google Sites |
| A site owner can copy their site to their new account and share it with other users. |
| Google Analytics |
| Users can reorganize their properties in Analytics including moving them from one account to another. |
| YouTube |
| If a channel is connected to a Brand Account, users can change channel owners and managers. |
Once the user’s data is consolidated into a single account, delete or archive (per data retention policies) the duplicate account. This will clean up the directory listing and make sure users only have access to a single Google Workspace account.
Migration options for users
After reviewing the administrator-driven approach to consolidating 2 Google Workspace accounts that exist in the same environment, there’s an alternate approach through change management activities that can eliminate technical complexities.
A user-driven approach might consist of the following:
- Assumption: User continues to have access to both accounts for a defined period (such as 1 month).
- Mail: Users can forward emails from the “old” account to the “new” account.
- Calendar: Event ownership can be transferred to the “new” account.
- Drive: File ownership can be transferred to the “new” account.
Recommendations
- Clear communication regarding the timeline the user has for self consolidation.
- Once the time period is complete, administrators should suspend “old” accounts for a duration (such as 3 months) in the event the user identifies content not transferred.
Note: Non-core services might not have a transfer ownership option. This might require the user to download data to be made available to the “new” account through import options.
Export options
Administrators and users can also choose to export their Google data.
Organizations
Super Admins can export their organization’s user data to a Google Cloud archive.
Users
Individual users can download Google data using Google Takeout.
Note: Google recommends admins turn on Google Takeout just for the source accounts and only for the time needed to consolidate the data.
