Migrate from Google Workspace to OVH: Step by Step

More and more companies leave Google Workspace for OVHcloud email — Email Pro, Exchange or the Zimbra (MX Plan) offer — to host their data in Europe and keep costs under control. The worry is always the same: losing years of Gmail, contacts and calendars, or cutting off mail in the middle of the day. Good news: with the right method, the switch from Google Workspace to OVHcloud happens with no data loss and no visible interruption for the people who write to you.

What gets migrated — and why people leave Google Workspace

An email migration covers far more than messages alone. You need to think about everything tied to the Google accounts:

• Gmail email: inbox, folders, sent items, drafts and archives. Careful: in Gmail, labels act as folders and a single message can carry several labels.
• Contacts: each user's personal address book (Google Contacts) and shared lists.
• Calendars: appointments, recurring meetings and shared Google Calendar calendars.
• Files: documents kept on Google Drive (My Drive and shared drives) that you want to move to an OVH space (web hosting, Nextcloud, NAS).

The reasons are familiar: host data with a European provider, cut the per-user bill, and bring mail, hosting and domain names together under a single provider. Moving from Google Workspace to Email Pro or Zimbra also simplifies domain management, which is often already at OVH.

Step 1 — Audit and inventory before touching DNS

No successful migration starts with the technical bit. It starts with a precise inventory:

• List every mailbox to migrate (named accounts, shared addresses like contact@, aliases, groups and forwards).
• Measure the size of each Gmail mailbox: this drives transfer time and the risk of rate limiting.
• Enable IMAP access on the Google side (in the admin console, allow IMAP for the organisation; each account will need an app password if two-step verification is on, since "less secure app" access has been removed).
• Check the domain and DNS: note who manages the DNS zone, the current MX records, SPF, DKIM and above all the TTL. Lower the MX TTL (e.g. to 300 seconds) a few days before the cutover so the change propagates quickly.

Step 2 — Provision the mailboxes at OVHcloud

On the target side, pick the right OVH plan (Email Pro, Exchange or MX Plan/Zimbra), add your domain in the OVHcloud control panel, then create the accounts and aliases. At this point, do not change the MX yet: the new mailboxes are ready but empty, and mail keeps arriving at Google Workspace. That lets you prepare the transfer calmly and hand out credentials to users.

Step 3 — Migrate email (IMAP or Takeout export)

Because Gmail exposes IMAP (imap.gmail.com, port 993 over SSL), the go-to method is an IMAP-to-IMAP copy into OVH. Two routes:

• OVHcloud's email migration tool (IMAP-based, in the spirit of imapsync): it connects to each Gmail mailbox and copies the messages into the matching OVH mailbox, in the background, without touching incoming mail, which still lands at Google.
• Google Takeout export: for small volumes or an archive, Takeout produces an MBOX file per mailbox, which you can then import (via Thunderbird connected to OVH, for example).

Note that IMAP copy moves email but not contacts or calendars: those are handled separately. Bear in mind too that multiple Gmail labels become folders: some messages may appear duplicated across several folders.

The secret to a zero-downtime cutover: copy everything while the old mailbox is still running, and only change the MX once the copy is complete.

Step 4 — Contacts, calendars and Drive files

Contacts and calendars don't travel over IMAP. The most reliable path is to export contacts as CSV/vCard from Google Contacts and calendars as .ics from Google Calendar (or via Google Takeout), then import them into your new OVH webmail or into Outlook/Thunderbird. For files, download your Google Drive content with the Google Drive for desktop app or via Takeout, then drop the folders onto your OVH space (web hosting, Nextcloud or NAS). Check access rights on shared drives, which don't recreate automatically.

Step 5 — Cut over DNS/MX with no downtime

Once the initial copy is done, change the DNS zone (at OVH or your registrar) to point to OVHcloud:

• MX to the servers shown in the OVH control panel (for example mx1.mail.ovh.net and mx2.mail.ovh.net).
• autoconfig / autodiscover CNAME to the values OVH provides for automatic client setup.
• SPF updated with include:mx.ovh.com, then enable DKIM from the OVH manager.

Thanks to the lowered TTL, propagation is fast. During a few hours of coexistence, some mail may still arrive at Google; run a delta sync (a fresh IMAP pass) to bring over messages received between the initial copy and the cutover.

Step 6 — Verify and set up clients

Check that no folder is missing, send and receive a test email, then reconfigure clients: in Outlook or Thunderbird, recreate the account over IMAP with the OVH servers (ssl0.ovh.net, port 993 for incoming, 465/587 for outgoing depending on the plan); on mobile, remove the old Google account and add the OVH one. Also review signatures, rules and forwards.

Common pitfalls

• Rate limits: Google caps IMAP connections and daily volume. Stagger the batches to avoid errors and temporary blocks.
• Label duplicates: a message with several Gmail labels can end up in several OVH folders. Warn your users.
• App passwords: without two-step verification handled correctly, IMAP fails. Prepare the app passwords before starting the batches.
• Recurring calendars: some recurring meetings or invites can shift after import; check them.
• Cancelling Google too early: only close the Workspace subscription after several days of confirmed operation on OVH, or the data will be permanently deleted.

How much it costs: Yuna7 vs an IT contractor

Having a contractor migrate Google Workspace to OVHcloud often costs several hundred dollars, with quotes and lead times. Yuna7 automates the switch and you only pay for what's actually used — you can even try it free.

Let Yuna7 migrate Google Workspace to OVHcloud for you

Describe your migration in one sentence — "migrate my Google Workspace mailboxes to OVH" — and the AI does the rest: it audits the mailboxes and DNS, provisions the OVH accounts, transfers email, contacts, calendars and Drive files, cuts the MX over at the right moment and verifies nothing is missing. You only approve the sensitive steps. Far cheaper than a technician, and launched in minutes.