Migrate SharePoint and Teams to Google Drive Shared Drives: a complete guide to doing it without losing control

Quick summary: migrate SharePoint and Teams to Google Drive in 10 points

1. Teams uses SharePoint for channel files: documents uploaded to a Teams channel live in the SharePoint folder of the team, which is why they are migrated as SharePoint content.
2. Teams chat files are different: files sent in chats are usually stored in the user’s OneDrive, so they are handled in a separate migration if they are in scope.
3. The recommended target for team content is Shared Drives: files belong to the team or organization, not to an individual person, which avoids problems when someone leaves.
4. Google’s native migration copies files, folders and some permissions: it is configured from the Admin console using a CSV of sites and identity mapping.
5. Not everything is migrated automatically: SharePoint lists, pages, old versions, restricted permissions and certain links or policies require specific handling.
6. The key is the assessment: before migrating, you need to know which sites are used, which content is obsolete, which permissions are critical and which links are shared externally.
7. You need to redesign, not copy the chaos: one Shared Drive for every old site is not always a good idea. Sometimes it is better to consolidate, archive or split.
8. Permissions should be based on groups: mapping Microsoft 365/SharePoint groups to Google Groups simplifies maintenance and reduces errors.
9. Incremental migrations are useful: they allow you to copy most of the content first and then bring across recent changes before cutover.
10. Adoption determines success: if users do not know where “their content” is, they will go back to downloading, forwarding and duplicating files.

When do you need to migrate SharePoint and Teams to Shared Drives?

Not every company using Google Workspace needs to leave SharePoint and Teams behind. Sometimes temporary coexistence makes sense; in other cases, the organization wants to simplify tools and centralize collaboration in Google Drive, Gmail, Calendar, Meet and Chat.

Common scenarios

• Standardization on Google Workspace: the company decides to work with Google Drive as its main repository and reduce dependency on Microsoft 365.
• Mergers or acquisitions: an organization using Google Workspace incorporates teams that previously used SharePoint and Teams.
• Tool consolidation: there are too many repositories: SharePoint, Teams, OneDrive, shared network drives and Drive. The goal is a single experience.
• Change in collaboration strategy: the organization wants to move from Teams sites and channels to a structure based on Shared Drives, Google Groups and Google Chat.
• Complexity reduction: users work better in Drive, Docs, Sheets and Slides, but still have a document history in SharePoint.
• Gradual exit from Microsoft 365: the process starts by migrating files and later addresses email, calendars, identities or applications.

In all these cases, the question should not be “how do I copy everything?”, but “what content should remain active, where should it live and who should be able to access it?”. That difference prevents huge migrations that simply move disorder from one platform to another.

Introduction: from SharePoint and Teams to Google Drive without disrupting work

SharePoint and Microsoft Teams are closely connected. When a user uploads a file to a Teams channel, that file is stored in the document library of the SharePoint site associated with the team. That is why, when we talk about migrating Teams to Google Drive, in practice we are almost always talking about migrating its files from SharePoint.

But Teams also includes chats, meetings, recordings, tabs, Planner, apps and conversations. All of that does not magically become a Shared Drive. In a well-designed migration, you separate:

• Teams channel files: usually migratable as SharePoint content.
• Files shared in chats: usually stored in OneDrive and handled as a personal file migration.
• Conversations and chats: they are not SharePoint documents; they require a different strategy if they must be retained.
• Lists, pages, automations and tabs: analyzed case by case to recreate, replace or archive them.

This guide explains how to approach the project in an organized way: assessment, Shared Drives design, tools, permissions, migration waves, validation and adoption.

1. Project methodology and governance

In practice: a migration from SharePoint and Teams to Google Drive should look more like an organized move than a massive dump.

The recommended methodology is phased. First you understand the environment, then you design the target and only then do you migrate. Skipping that sequence often ends in poorly named Shared Drives, confusing permissions, duplicate files and users asking “where is my folder?”.

Recommended phases

1. Discovery: inventory of SharePoint sites, Teams teams, libraries, owners, permissions and volume.
2. Design: Shared Drives structure, Google Groups, external sharing rules and naming conventions.
3. Pilot: migrate a representative area, not necessarily the easiest one.
4. Waves: migration by department, project or criticality.
5. Cutover: controlled freeze, final delta and user communication.
6. Stabilization: support, validation, permissions remediation and progressive decommissioning of the source.

2. Assessment: inventory, real usage and dependencies

In practice: the assessment separates critical content, useful content, obsolete content and content that should not be migrated.

The assessment is the most important part of the project. It is not just about counting gigabytes. You need to understand which sites are used, who maintains them, what permissions they have, which libraries are critical and which content depends on Teams.

2.1 What to inventory in SharePoint

• Team sites, communication sites, subsites and site collections.
• Document libraries, folders, volume, number of files and file types.
• Real owners, not just technical administrators.
• Inherited permissions, unique permissions and external sharing.
• Lists, pages, web parts, flows, Power Apps or integrations.
• Files with download blocking, retention, labels or legal requirements.

2.2 What to inventory in Teams

• Active, inactive and duplicate teams.
• Standard, private and shared channels.
• Files by channel, which usually live in SharePoint.
• Tabs linked to libraries, Planner, OneNote, Power BI or other applications.
• Business-critical channels: operations, sales, support, finance, projects.

2.3 Useful classification for decision-making

3. Designing Shared Drives in Google Drive

In practice: the target design determines whether Google Drive will be easy to use or will repeat SharePoint’s disorder.

Google Drive Shared Drives are designed for team content. Unlike “My Drive”, files belong to the team or organization, not to a specific individual. This makes them ideal for migrating SharePoint libraries and Teams channel files.

3.1 Common structure models

• By department: Finance, Operations, HR, Marketing, Management.
• By process: Contracts, Quality, Support, Tenders, Suppliers.
• By project: one Shared Drive for large or long-running projects.
• By client: useful for consulting firms, law firms, engineering companies or professional services.
• By historical archive: read-only Shared Drives for content that must be retained.

3.2 Not every SharePoint site should become a Shared Drive

Copying the old structure without thinking usually creates too many Shared Drives. It is worth deciding:

• Which sites should be consolidated into a single Shared Drive.
• Which libraries should become folders.
• Which Teams teams are no longer active and can be archived.
• Which sensitive content deserves a separate Shared Drive with stricter rules.

4. What is migrated from SharePoint and Teams

In practice: files are migrated; the full SharePoint and Teams experience is redesigned.

4.1 Typical content that is in scope

• Files from SharePoint document libraries.
• Folders and document structure.
• Teams channel files stored in SharePoint.
• User and group permissions when compatible mapping exists.
• Sharing links in compatible scenarios.
• Office files, PDFs, images, videos and other formats.

4.2 Content that requires a specific decision

• SharePoint lists: they do not always have a direct equivalent in Google Drive; they can move to Sheets, AppSheet, BigQuery or another solution depending on usage.
• SharePoint pages: they can be recreated as Google Sites or documented as archived content.
• Teams chats and conversations: they are not SharePoint files; if they must be retained, they are handled as part of compliance, eDiscovery or collaboration migration.
• OneNote: it may require export or special handling to avoid losing context.
• Power Automate and Power Apps: they are redesigned, not “copied” to Drive.

The key is not to sell the migration as “everything moves exactly as it is”. What makes sense to move to Google Drive is moved, what should live in Google Workspace is recreated, and what only needs to be retained is archived.

5. Migration tools: Google native tool, Google Workspace Migrate and third-party tools

In practice: the tool is selected based on scope, volume, permissions and validation requirements, not just price.

5.1 Google native tool: Data Import from SharePoint Online

Google provides a native option in the Admin console to import files from SharePoint Online to Google Workspace. It allows you to work with a CSV of SharePoint sites, a destination in a Shared Drive and a mapping of users and groups.

It is an interesting option for well-scoped migrations, with a clear structure, permissions that are not excessively complex and a need for basic progress reports.

5.2 Google Workspace Migrate

For larger scenarios or those requiring more technical control, Google Workspace Migrate can provide more flexibility: configuration templates, migration nodes, testing, rules and advanced options.

5.3 Third-party tools

In complex projects, it may make sense to use specialized tools such as BitTitan, Cloudiway, CloudFuze, Quest or others, especially when you need:

• More control over versions, metadata or filters.
• Migrations with many batches and detailed reporting.
• Specific structure transformations.
• Advanced handling of permissions or links.
• Mixed scenarios with OneDrive, SharePoint, Teams and Google Drive.

6. Identities, groups and permissions

In practice: a file migration without good identity mapping ends in access tickets.

SharePoint and Google Drive have different permissions models. That is why, before migrating, you need to build an identity map: which Microsoft 365 user or group corresponds to which Google Workspace user or group.

6.1 Key decisions

• Do primary email addresses match between Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace?
• Will SharePoint/Microsoft 365 groups be mapped to Google Groups?
• Will owners, members and visitors be recreated as equivalent levels in Drive?
• What will be done with external users?
• Which inherited permissions should be simplified before migrating?

6.2 Practical recommendation

Whenever possible, it is better to work with Google Groups instead of person-to-person permissions. That way, when someone changes department or leaves the company, access is maintained through the group and does not remain hidden across hundreds of files.

7. Prepare Google Workspace before migrating

In practice: the target must be ready before moving data; improvising Shared Drives during the migration is a bad sign.

7.1 Basic preparation

• Enable Google Drive and Docs for the users involved.
• Create the required users and groups.
• Create the target Shared Drives.
• Assign responsible Managers or Content managers.
• Configure external sharing rules.
• Define storage limits if the organization uses them.
• Enable DLP, Vault or retention rules if applicable.

7.2 Recommended naming convention

Clear naming helps users and support teams. Examples:

• DEP – Finance
• DEP – HR – Confidential
• PROJ – Client – ProjectName
• ARCH – Closed projects

7.3 Security from the beginning

Before migrating, it is worth deciding whether Shared Drives will allow:

• Sharing with external users.
• Public links or internal-only links.
• Download, print and copy for readers.
• Moving content outside the organization.
• Folders shared with non-members of the Shared Drive.

8. Prepare Microsoft 365: SharePoint, Teams and OneDrive

In practice: the cleaner the source is, the fewer incidents there will be in Google Drive.

8.1 Pre-migration cleanup

• Delete test or duplicate sites.
• Archive inactive Teams teams.
• Reduce excessively deep paths.
• Identify files that are too large or problematic formats.
• Locate content with unique or restricted permissions.
• Review external links and content shared with clients or suppliers.

8.2 Gradual freeze

In the final phases, it is recommended to limit changes in the source to avoid differences between SharePoint and Drive. It is not always necessary to block everything; it may be enough to freeze critical areas, notify users and run an incremental migration before cutover.

8.3 What to do with Teams

For each Teams team, you need to decide:

• Whether its files are migrated to an existing or new Shared Drive.
• Whether its channels become folders.
• Whether conversation evidence needs to be retained.
• Whether the team is disabled, archived or left in read-only mode during the transition.

9. Migrate SharePoint Online to Shared Drives

In practice: SharePoint migration should be done in controlled batches, with reporting and real validation.

9.1 Recommended flow

1. Select sites: choose sites and libraries that are included in the wave.
2. Assign target: map each site or library to a specific Shared Drive or folder.
3. Prepare identity map: source users and groups to Google users and groups.
4. Run pilot: migrate a sample with real content and representative permissions.
5. Review report: migrated, skipped, failed files and unapplied permissions.
6. Correct and scale: adjust mappings, rules and batches before migrating full areas.

9.2 Conceptual CSV example

Source SharePoint URL,Target Drive FolderID,Target GUser
https://company.sharepoint.com/sites/Finance,0AExampleSharedDriveID,user.manager@company.com
https://company.sharepoint.com/sites/Operations,0BExampleSharedDriveID,user.manager@company.com

9.3 Validations after each batch

• Is the expected structure there?
• Are any files missing?
• Are there errors related to size, permissions or format?
• Do the correct groups have access?
• Do external users still have access when it should be maintained?
• Do the business owners approve the result?

10. Migrate Microsoft Teams files to Shared Drives

In practice: migrating Teams to Drive means migrating its files and redesigning collaboration; not copying Teams into Google.

10.1 How Teams translates into Google Workspace

10.2 Recommendation by team type

• Active project team: migrate files to the project Shared Drive and create a Google Space for communication.
• Departmental team: consolidate files in the department Shared Drive.
• Inactive team: archive in a historical Shared Drive with read-only permissions.
• Sensitive team: migrate to a separate Shared Drive with stricter access rules.

11. What is not migrated automatically and how to handle it

In practice: success depends as much on what you migrate as on what you decide not to migrate.

In many projects, this section becomes the list of “business decisions”. Not everything has to be solved with a migration tool. Sometimes the right approach is to archive, simplify or redesign.

12. Incremental migrations, freeze and cutover

In practice: incremental migrations reduce the cutover window and create room for validation.

The most stable strategy is usually:

1. Pre-migration: move most of the content while users continue working in the source.
2. Validation: review structure, permissions and errors by wave.
3. Freeze: limit changes in SharePoint/Teams for the content in the wave.
4. Delta: migrate new or updated changes.
5. Cutover: communicate the new destination and leave the source in read-only mode if appropriate.

What the cutover plan should include

• Freeze date and time by area.
• Who validates each Shared Drive.
• Support channel for incidents.
• Clear instructions: “from now on, work here”.
• Rollback plan or temporary access to the source if a critical incident appears.

13. Security, compliance and retention

In practice: a document migration is also a data protection project.

Before migrating sensitive content, you need to review retention obligations, legal holds, DLP, classification and external sharing. Google states that data import is a productivity feature and that the organization remains responsible for meeting its legal and compliance obligations.

Important decisions

• Which content must be retained in the source as evidence.
• What should be backed up before migrating.
• Which Shared Drives will be governed by Vault rules.
• Which DLP applies to files with personal, financial or confidential data.
• Whether external users are allowed in sensitive Shared Drives.
• How to audit permission changes and downloads.

Best practices

• Create separate Shared Drives for sensitive content.
• Use groups, not individual users, for primary permissions.
• Limit Managers to genuinely responsible people.
• Configure external sharing rules before migrating.
• Review reports of failed files or unapplied permissions.

14. Performance, limits and scalability

In practice: volume is not measured only in GB; number of files, permissions, folder depth and errors matter.

Factors that affect performance

• Number of SharePoint sites and libraries.
• Total number of files and folders.
• Path depth.
• Number of unique permissions.
• Large files.
• External users and shared links.
• API and processing limitations.

Limits worth reviewing

• Daily upload and copy limits in Google Drive.
• Maximum file size supported by the chosen tool.
• Number of members and groups per Shared Drive.
• Maximum folder depth.
• Number of Shared Drives visible or manageable per user.

A large project should be designed in batches. Migrating “everything at once” makes it harder to identify errors, complicates validation and increases impact if something goes wrong.

15. User adoption and communications

In practice: the migration ends when the user can work well in Google Drive, not when the tool says “completed”.

What users need to know

• Where the content from their old team or site is now located.
• Which Shared Drive they should use for each process.
• How to request access.
• How to share securely with external users.
• Which content remains historical or read-only.
• What to do if a file or link is missing.

Clear messages to reduce support

The best migrations include short sessions by role: general users, Shared Drive owners, managers, internal support and teams handling sensitive information.

16. Operational checklists

16.1 Before migrating

• Inventory SharePoint sites, libraries and Teams teams.
• Classify content: migrate, archive, exclude or redesign.
• Shared Drives created and named correctly.
• Google Groups created and mapped.
• External sharing rules defined.
• Google Workspace users and licenses available.
• Administrator permissions in Microsoft and Google confirmed.
• Pilot selected and approved by the business.

16.2 During migration

• Monitor migrated, skipped and failed files.
• Review errors by batch; do not wait until the end.
• Validate permissions in the target.
• Document decisions about non-migrated content.
• Run access tests with real users.

16.3 After migrating

• Run a delta if applicable.
• Communicate the new destination to users.
• Leave SharePoint/Teams in read-only mode if appropriate.
• Fix critical links or publish shortcuts.
• Review external permissions.
• Collect incidents and adjust guides.

17. KPIs and business validation

In practice: migrating files is not enough; you need to prove that the team can work.

18. Common risks and mitigations

In practice: the most expensive problems usually come from permissions, expectations and unevaluated content.

19. Frequently asked questions about migrating SharePoint and Teams to Google Shared Drives

20. Official resources and external links

• Google Workspace Admin Help — Import files from a SharePoint Online account
• Google Workspace Admin Help — What’s imported from SharePoint Online?
• Google Workspace Admin Help — Run a delta import for SharePoint Online
• Google Workspace Admin Help — Set up shared drives
• Google Workspace Admin Help — Manage shared drives as an admin
• Google Workspace Admin Help — Manage external sharing
• Google Workspace Learning Center — Shared drive limits
• Microsoft Support — File storage in Microsoft Teams

Related MSAdvance services: Microsoft 365 to Google Workspace migration · Microsoft 365 migration · All services.

21. Conclusion and next steps

Migrating SharePoint and Teams to Google Drive Shared Drives can be a great opportunity to simplify collaboration, reduce duplicate repositories and improve the user experience. But it only works well when done with method: honest assessment, clear target structure, permissions mapping, testing, deltas and support.

As next steps, it is worth:

• Inventorying SharePoint sites and Teams teams.
• Classifying content: migrate, archive, exclude or redesign.
• Designing Shared Drives by area, process or project.
• Creating Google Groups and sharing rules.
• Running a pilot with a real area.