How to Migrate from Google Drive to OneDrive — Complete Transfer Guide with RcloneView

March 8, 2026 · 4 min read

Senior Engineer

Switching from Google Workspace to Microsoft 365? The biggest headache isn't the new apps — it's moving terabytes of files from Google Drive to OneDrive without losing your folder structure, sharing, or your sanity.

Whether your organization is switching productivity suites or you simply want a copy of your Google Drive on OneDrive, the migration process can be painful. Google Takeout exports a ZIP file that loses folder structure. Manual drag-and-drop takes forever. RcloneView handles it properly — direct cloud-to-cloud transfer that preserves your folders.

Manage & Sync All Clouds in One Place

RcloneView is a cross-platform GUI for rclone. Compare folders, transfer or sync files, and automate multi-cloud workflows with a clean, visual interface.

One-click jobs: Copy · Sync · Compare
Schedulers & history for reliable automation
Works with Google Drive, OneDrive, Dropbox, S3, WebDAV, SFTP and more

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Free core features. Plus automations available.

Why Not Use Google Takeout?

Google Takeout is Google's official export tool, but it has significant limitations for migration:

Exports as ZIP — You get a compressed archive, not a live folder structure.
Loses organization — Shared Drives and folder hierarchies can be flattened.
No incremental updates — If files change during export, you start over.
Manual re-upload — You still need to upload everything to OneDrive.

RcloneView transfers files directly from Google Drive to OneDrive, preserving the original folder structure.

Step-by-Step Migration

1) Connect Both Accounts

Add both Google Drive and OneDrive as remotes in RcloneView:

2) Browse and Plan

Open both remotes in the two-pane explorer. Google Drive on the left, OneDrive on the right:

Browse Google Drive and OneDrive side by side

Review your Google Drive structure before migrating. Identify:

Which folders to migrate (maybe not everything).
Total size (affects transfer time).
Google Docs/Sheets/Slides (these need conversion — see below).

3) Handle Google-Native Files

Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides are not traditional files — they're web-based. When transferring, rclone converts them to Microsoft Office formats:

Google Format	Converts To
Google Docs	.docx
Google Sheets	.xlsx
Google Slides	.pptx
Google Drawings	.png

This conversion happens automatically during transfer.

4) Start the Transfer

Create a Copy job from Google Drive to OneDrive:

Use Copy (not Sync) for migration. Copy only adds files to the destination — it never deletes anything.

5) Monitor Progress

Watch the transfer in real time:

Monitor Google Drive to OneDrive transfer

6) Verify with Folder Comparison

After the transfer completes, compare both sides to ensure nothing was missed:

Migration Tips

Migrate in batches

For large drives (500 GB+), migrate folder by folder instead of everything at once:

Start with critical folders (Documents, Projects).
Move shared folders next.
Archive and media last.

This way, users can start working on OneDrive immediately with their most important files.

Handle rate limits

Both Google Drive and OneDrive have API rate limits. RcloneView respects these automatically, but for very large migrations:

Use bandwidth limiting to avoid hitting limits.
Schedule transfers during off-hours.
Let failed transfers retry automatically (v1.3 feature).

Run incremental updates

After the initial migration, run the same Copy job again. It only transfers new or changed files — skipping what's already been copied. This catches any files that were added to Google Drive during the migration.

After Migration: Keep Both in Sync

If you need both clouds active during a transition period, set up a scheduled sync:

This keeps OneDrive updated with any changes in Google Drive until you fully cut over.

Common Issues

"File name too long"

OneDrive has a 400-character path limit. Google Drive is more lenient. If you hit this, shorten deeply nested folder names before migrating.

Shared Drive files

Google Shared Drives (Team Drives) are separate from your personal My Drive. Add them as a separate remote or configure rclone to include Shared Drives.