Email migration from Google Workspace: what to know

If you manage email for multiple users or organizations, you may need to plan an email migration from Google Workspace to another platform.

This situation often arises when email becomes the primary service to administer and requires a more structured approach to managing corporate email.
Organizations that manage many accounts may consider migrating from Google Workspace when they want greater operational control over users, domains and mailbox configurations.

In these cases, adopting a platform designed specifically for email management can simplify administration.

If you are considering switching to a new email service more generally, you can learn more about how business email migration works and the main steps to consider when changing providers.

Preparing the Google Workspace account

When planning a migration from Google Workspace, it is important to understand some specific characteristics of Gmail that affect how messages are transferred.

The migration to Qboxmail uses the IMAP protocol and requires a few preliminary configurations inside the Google account. Before starting the migration, you need to configure some settings in the source Google Workspace mailbox.

The account owner must:

• enable IMAP access in the mailbox https://support.google.com/a/answer/105694
• activate two factor authentication if it is not already active
• generate an app password

This password does not match the main Google account password. It only allows the migration system to access the mailbox through IMAP.
During the transfer process, the system uses this password as the credential inside the CSV file that contains the accounts to migrate.
After completing these steps, you can start the email migration.

During the transfer process, the system uses this password as the credential inside the CSV file that contains the accounts to migrate.

How the email migration works

After configuring the accounts, the system transfers the messages through the IMAP protocol. This method copies the messages stored in the Google Workspace mailbox into the new mailbox on Qboxmail. You can plan the process in a controlled way to reduce the impact on users’ daily activities and maintain service continuity during the email transfer.

The download limit imposed by Google

Google applies a daily limit to the amount of data that users can download through the IMAP protocol during an email migration.
If the total mailbox size exceeds this limit, the migration cannot complete in a single operation. In these cases, you need to run multiple migration cycles and wait at least 24 hours between each transfer. This approach still allows you to transfer the entire message archive by distributing the process across multiple sessions.

Planning the migration correctly

Careful planning allows you to organize the message transfer gradually, maintain service continuity, and verify that the email history is correctly moved to the new Qboxmail mailboxes.

From the Qboxmail Control Panel, you can organize the different stages of the transition and schedule the required operations. To learn more about the available tools, find out how to plan email imports and migrations independently.

If you are considering switching from Google Workspace to Qboxmail and want to identify the most suitable procedure for your situation, contact us for more information or start using Qboxmail free for 30 days.