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A client requested help to export all mail from a Google Workspace account to a different Workspace (not the same domain). This client does not have admin access to the source Workspace, and has a time limit on transferring the ~25GB of mail content. The solution I recommended was to use Mozilla Thunderbird to consolidate both Workspace accounts on the client's Windows 10 computer, after enabling IMAP & POP for both accounts.

First step was to export All Mail from the source account to a local repository. This took approximately 6 hours. Next step was to migrate the local export EML files into the target account, which would take significantly longer. Having modelled the process and by selecting ~1000 messages/batch, messages were dropped onto a new IMAP folder in the target account. I then instructed the client on the process, and told them to continue until all the files had been copied over. This took quite some time, but the ~90K messages have finally been imported.

Problems emerged: first, the majority of the imported messages have had their dates altered to the date of import, not their original send/receive dated. Second, a significant number of the imported messages have become corrupted, showing "Unknown Sender" and having gibberish content.

Anybody have a critique on this process, and/or suggestions on how to rectify the situation?

TIA!

Bruce M Campbell
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Regarding the date, messages show the migration date and time when the date of the original message was not compliant with RFC 5322. This is documented and you can confirm it on this Help Center article https://support.google.com/a/answer/7032598?hl=en#zippy=%2Cwhy-do-messages-show-the-wrong-date

Now regarding the process, Google has tools to directly migrate emails from Outlook, so adding the source account in Outlook and then using one of these migration tools is a good option, for example Google Workspace Migration for Microsoft Outlook https://support.google.com/a/users/answer/181236

Also if your client has access to the source account he can configure the data migration on the Google Workspace Admin destination console, there is a service for it https://support.google.com/a/answer/9476255 to authorize the migration he just need to enter the source account password, as long as the source account is active he can migrate data from it, the only details is that for the migration source, when configuring the migration tool in the Admin cosole, he will need to select 'gmail', which is fine because gmail accounts and Google Workspace ones use the same servers.

And finally don't be afraid to retry the migration, each email has a unique message id, which is used by the migration tools to avoid generating duplicates but if your client has too much trouble then contacting GW support always is a good option.

Jose Aviles
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