Why people actually leave
Nobody wakes up wanting to migrate a cloud drive. The trigger is usually one of a handful of things: a Workspace bill that keeps climbing every time someone joins the team, because per-seat pricing doesn't care whether that person needs 5 GB or 500; a jurisdiction question that matters for client data or a business subject to GDPR; a storage quota that Gmail and Google Photos quietly eat into alongside Drive, so "you're almost out of space" arrives sooner than expected; or a feature you relied on getting deprecated with a few months' notice. None of these require outrage to justify a move — they're just reasons to actually run the numbers on where your files live.
01 Take a real inventory before you touch anything
Before exporting a single byte, open your Google Account storage page and look at the breakdown between Drive, Gmail and Google Photos — they share one quota, and only the Drive portion is what you're actually migrating. Separately, check for Shared Drives you don't own: those belong to whoever created them, and Takeout only exports files you own or administer, so a shared drive you merely have access to won't travel with you. Note any third-party apps connected via the Drive API (backup tools, e-signature services, form builders) — you'll need to reconnect those to wherever your files end up. Finally, list the folders you share out to other people, because they're the ones who'll notice if access breaks.
02 Export everything with Google Takeout
Google Takeout lets you select just "Drive" (and, if you want them too, Gmail, Photos, Calendar and Contacts) and choose an export format for each file type. You can have it delivered as a single archive, split into multiple .zip files if the export is large, or sent directly to another cloud provider. Google assembles the export in the background — anywhere from under an hour for a small account to the better part of a day for several hundred gigabytes — and emails you a download link once it's ready. That link is time-limited, typically around a week, so don't let it sit in your inbox.
03 Decide what happens to Google-only formats first
A Google Doc, Sheet or Slide isn't really a file sitting in your Drive — it's a live document that Google's servers render on demand. Takeout converts each one at export time into whatever format you pick: Docs commonly become .docx, .odt or .rtf; Sheets become .xlsx, .ods or .csv; Slides become .pptx or .odp. The content comes across cleanly. What generally doesn't come across inside the exported file is comment threads and full version history, since those live in Google's own systems rather than in the document itself — if that history matters to you, review it before you convert. Google Forms exports only the response data, not the interactive form; Drawings export as image files.
04 Move the bytes to where they're actually going
There are two honest paths here. The simple one: download the Takeout archive locally, then upload it to your new storage through a desktop sync client or the browser — easy to understand, but bottlenecked by your own upload speed, not by anything on the receiving end. The faster one for larger libraries: a direct transfer over WebDAV or a sync tool that can pull from the archive (or, with the right authorization, from Drive's API) without a full local round-trip. Either way, the honest timing question is about your bandwidth, not about the destination.
| Library size | Takeout export time | DIY transfer & verify | Managed migration |
|---|---|---|---|
| Up to 50 GB | Under an hour | 1–2 hours, mostly waiting | Scheduled, handled while you sleep |
| 100–250 GB | A few hours | Half a day, spread over an evening | One low-traffic window |
| 500 GB–1 TB | 12–24 hours, may split archives | A weekend, plus sorting shared-folder ownership | One scheduling call, checksum report after |
| 2 TB+ / many Shared Drives | Multiple export rounds | Realistically a week of evenings | Same process, just more to verify |
Times are honest ranges, not guarantees — your actual upload speed and how many Shared Drives you administer will move these numbers. "Managed migration" reflects how yourcloud.hosting handles Drive/Dropbox/iCloud migrations: point us at the account, we move things in a low-traffic window we schedule with you, then hand you a checksum report before you cut over.
05 Sort out who's sharing what, before you leave
There are two different sharing situations, and they behave differently once you leave. Files you own that are shared out to other people: before closing or downgrading your account, either transfer ownership somewhere those people can still reach, or make sure they already have their own copy — once your account is gone, access to files you owned typically goes with it. Files someone else owns that are shared to you: these were never yours to export in the first place, and Takeout won't include them. If you depend on a folder someone else owns, ask them directly for a copy or a continued share — your leaving Google doesn't change who owns their file.
06 Don't forget mail attachments
Gmail attachments live in Gmail, not automatically in Drive, unless you specifically used "Add to Drive" on them over the years. If you're only migrating Drive itself, years of attachments can still be sitting in Gmail, untouched by the move. If those matter — invoices, contracts, photos people emailed you — export Gmail separately through Takeout (delivered as an mbox archive) or treat email as its own, smaller migration project rather than assuming Drive covers it.
07 Verify, then delete
Resist the urge to delete or downgrade your Google account the moment the export finishes. Compare file counts and total size between the old and new location, spot-check that a sample of converted documents actually opens correctly, and keep the old account (or at least its paid storage) active through one more billing cycle as a buffer. Only once you're confident everything survived the trip should you cancel the old plan — and only request full account deletion if you're leaving Google entirely, not just moving where your files live.
When a managed migration is worth it
- You administer several Shared Drives with more than one collaborator each
- You'd rather not spend a weekend babysitting an upload bar
- The library is 500 GB or larger, or spans a whole Workspace team
- Non-technical members of a household or team need this to just work on the other end
Migration from Google Drive, Dropbox, iCloud or OneDrive is included with every yourcloud.hosting plan — we copy your files and folder structure across in a low-traffic window, then hand you a checksum report before you switch any devices over.
Deciding where those files land next?
If you're weighing Nextcloud against just staying on Google Drive, the companion comparison lays out privacy, five-year cost and lock-in side by side: Nextcloud vs Google Drive: privacy, cost, control. Or run your own numbers first with the Cloud Exit Calculator.
FAQ
Does Google delete my data after export?
No. Exporting through Google Takeout only makes a copy — your original files stay in Google Drive exactly as they were, untouched, until you separately delete them or close the account yourself.
How long does a 500 GB migration take?
Google Takeout typically needs a few hours to a day to assemble a 500 GB export before it emails you a download link. Moving that copy onward then depends on your own upload speed or your migration provider's transfer method — budget a weekend if you're doing it yourself, or one scheduled low-traffic window if it's handled for you.
Can I keep sharing files with Google users?
Yes. Once your files live on a Nextcloud instance, you can still generate a public or password-protected share link that anyone with a Google account, or no account at all, can open in a browser. What changes is that you're no longer relying on Google's own sharing permissions to do it.
What happens to Google Docs formats?
Google Docs, Sheets and Slides aren't standalone files — Takeout converts each one at export time into the format you choose, commonly .docx, .xlsx and .pptx. The document content comes across intact; comment threads and full version history generally do not, since those live in Google's own systems rather than in the exported file itself.
Ready to give the files somewhere better to land?
Migration from Google Drive is included. Talk to us about your library, or go straight to plans and pricing.