Leave Google Workspace

1. Before you start

Leaving Google Workspace does not mean changing your email address. If you use your own domain name (for example you@your-company.com), it belongs to you: you keep it, and the people you write to will see no difference. Only the service that receives and stores your email changes.

A successful migration rests on three principles:

• Copy before you cut. Nothing is deleted at Google until you have checked that everything has arrived.
• Switch all at once. The whole team moves on the same day. A period where some people are on Google and others elsewhere leads to lost email and duplicate files.
• Keep a copy. Before closing the Google account, make a full export and store it offline.

2. Take stock

Start in the Google Admin console, with a super administrator account. Write down:

Two things are often forgotten:

• Accounts opened with “Sign in with Google”. Invoicing, accounting, project management tools: if an account was created with that button, it depends on the Google account. Before closing, add a password or another sign-in method to each one.
• A domain name bought from Google. Google sold its registrar business to Squarespace in 2023. If your domain was bought from Google Domains, it is now at Squarespace. You can transfer it to a European registrar.

3. Choose replacements

Every Google tool has a European equivalent. Rather than a brand, look at these criteria:

• Hosting and company in Europe. Hosting in Europe is not enough: an American company remains subject to US law, which can force it to hand over data stored abroad (the CLOUD Act of 2018).
• Standard protocols. IMAP and SMTP for email, CalDAV for calendars, CardDAV for contacts. You can change provider later without starting over.
• Open formats. OpenDocument (.odt, .ods, .odp) for documents, with Word, Excel and PowerPoint import and export for your exchanges.
• Reversibility. A full export of your data, at any time, at no cost.
• Ease of use. For a small team, the best tool is the one people find their way around without training.

You can combine several services, or choose a suite that brings them together under one login. The second option saves the team from juggling several accounts.

4. Prepare the switch

1. Pick a date. A weekend or a quiet period. Keep the following day free to answer questions.
2. Tell the team a week ahead. What changes, what does not (the addresses), and what everyone must do: add a password to “Sign in with Google” accounts, install the new apps on their phone.
3. Lower the DNS cache time 48 hours before. At your registrar, set the time to live (TTL) of the MX records to 300 seconds. On switch day, the change will spread in minutes instead of hours.
4. Create the accounts at the destination. Same addresses, same aliases, same groups. Do not change the DNS yet.
5. Run a first copy of email and files. It is the longest one. On switch day, only new items remain to copy.

5. Migrate, in the right order

1. Email. Full copy, then change of MX records, then a last copy to catch messages that arrived in between.
2. Files. Export each person's files and the shared drives, convert them, upload them to the new storage.
3. Calendars and contacts. Export as iCalendar (.ics) and vCard (.vcf), import into the new calendars and address books.
4. Sharing. It does not follow the files: you have to recreate it.

Each step is detailed, with tools and pitfalls to avoid, in the guide Migrate Gmail and Drive to a European suite.

6. After the switch

• Sending and receiving. Send an email to and from an outside address, for each person.
• Domain authentication. Set up the new provider's SPF, DKIM and DMARC records and remove Google's. Without them, your email may land in spam.
• Temporary forwarding. For a week, a few servers may still send to Google. Keep an automatic forward from each Gmail mailbox to the new one.
• Phones and computers. Remove the Google accounts from devices and add the new ones.
• Third-party accounts. Check that everyone can sign in to their tools without Google.

7. Close the Google account

Wait for at least two weeks of normal use before closing. Then:

1. Make a final export, before cancelling anything. The Data Export tool in the Admin console exports the whole organisation, but it requires a super administrator account at least 30 days old, 2-Step Verification and an active subscription: data from a cancelled subscription is no longer exported. The export takes 2 to 14 days. For a very small team, Google Takeout, used by each person, is enough.
2. Keep this export offline, on an encrypted drive, for as long as your retention obligations require.
3. Remove the third-party apps connected to the Google account.
4. Cancel the subscription in the Admin console, under Billing. Google will then delete the data.

8. Checklist

• Users, groups, aliases and shared drives listed
• “Sign in with Google” accounts given a password
• Domain name accessible at its registrar
• Replacements chosen and accounts created at the destination
• MX TTL lowered 48 hours before
• First copy of email and files done
• MX changed, last copy done
• SPF, DKIM and DMARC set up
• Files, calendars and contacts moved, sharing recreated
• Automatic forward from Gmail for a week
• Final export stored offline
• Google subscription cancelled