Connecting to Google Workspace is fast to set up and fully supported in Movebot.
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Introduction
Movebot uses the Google Drive API with delegate access, and we provide everything you need for quick authorization in Google Admin. Connecting to Google Workspace by delegate access provides Movebot access to user data and shared drives in the Google Workspace domain and full support for migrating Google Drive content.
To connect a personal Google Drive account see
Requirements
To connect Movebot to Google Workspace, you will need:
A Google Workspace administrator account
To be familiar with the Google Admin Centre
To have access to the Shared Drives you wish to migrate
Configuration Steps
When configuring a new connection, select Google Workspace from the list of available connection types and give the connection a name
Enter your Google administrator account email address
Enter your domain (find this under "Manage domains" in Google Admin) .
Click "Create Service Account" - this will generate a Client ID
Use this Client ID when configuring domain-wide delegation in the Admin console, required to allow Movebot to access necessary data for migrations. Include the following OAuth scopes:
Movebot supports migrations of MyDrive and Shared Drive data within Google Workspace tenants. Below are common GWS Drive-specific errors, their resolutions, and answers to frequently asked questions.
Error: invalid_request: Invalid impersonation
Cause: The admin email address specified in your Google connection is invalid or does not have sufficient permissions.
Resolution: Ensure the email address exists, is correctly entered, and belongs to a licensed Google Workspace admin user with appropriate privileges.
Error: Bad Request. "<email address>" is not a member of this shared drive. Only members can access items in this shared drive.
Cause: Destination tenants sharing settings do not allow non-members to be assigned permissions on a Shared Drive.
Resolution: To resolve this, you can either:
Add the user as a member of the Shared Drive before rerunning the migration,
or
Adjust the Shared Drive’s settings to allow sharing with users who are not drive members.
These changes can be made in the Google Workspace Admin Console under the Shared Drive's access and sharing configuration.
Error: teamdrive-not-found: Could not find team drive
Cause: Movebot was unable to locate a Shared Drive with the specified name.
Resolution:
This error may be caused by one or more of the following:
Hidden whitespace: Check for extra spaces at the beginning or end of the Shared Drive name in Google Drive.
Insufficient access: Confirm that primary and secondary admin accounts specified in your Movebot configuration have been granted Manager access to the Shared Drive.
Error: parent-folder-not-found
Cause: Google Drive creates folders asynchronously, which means there can be a short delay before new folders are fully available. If Movebot tries to upload a file to a folder that hasn’t been fully created yet, it triggers a parent-folder-not-found error.
Resolution: Run a Delta Migration to retry the failed uploads. By the time you run the Delta Migration, the necessary folders usually exist—allowing the uploads to complete successfully.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is it possible to migrate between two existing Google tenants using Movebot?
Answer: Yes. Movebot fully supports bi-directional migrations between Google tenants, including full tenant-to-tenant transfers.
Why does the Movebot scan result show more/less data than the Google Admin Console?
Answer: The discrepancy occurs because Google and Movebot calculate storage usage differently.
Google Admin Console reports storage based on file ownership. It includes all files a user owns, even if they are located in folders shared with them by others.
Movebot only scans and reports on content located within a user’s actual MyDrive. It does not include files the user owns inside folders shared with them by other users.
When Google Admin shows more data than Movebot
Scenario:
Jeff shares a folder with Sarah. Sarah adds 50GB of photos to Jeff’s shared folder.
Google Admin Console: Reports 50GB of storage used by Sarah, because she is the file owner.
Movebot: Scans Sarah’s MyDrive and detects 0KB, since the data physically resides in Jeff’s folder.
When Movebot shows more data than Google Admin
Scenario:
Mathias creates a Shared Folder and shares it with five colleagues. They add 20GB of data to it, but Mathias doesn’t add anything himself.
Google Admin Console: Reports 0KB usage for Mathias, because he doesn’t own any files.
Movebot: Scans Mathias’s drive and detects 20GB, since he is the owner of the Shared Folder—meaning all content within it is considered his for the purpose of migration.
What happens to Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides during migration?
Answer: When migrating between two Google tenants, the native Google file formats (Docs, Sheets, Slides, etc.) are retained, and everything will function the same in the destination tenant as it did in the source.
If you're migrating out of the Google ecosystem (e.g., to Microsoft 365), Google files will be automatically converted to their equivalent Microsoft Office formats (e.g., Docs → Word, Sheets → Excel).
Why can't I see a particular Shared Drive in the list of available drives in Movebot?
Answer: Ensure that the admin user specified in the Movebot-Google connection has Manager permissions on the Shared Drive. If the Shared Drive was recently created, it can take up to 30 minutes for Google's APIs to reflect the new drive. Wait and check back later.
Supported Features
Movebot has comprehensive support for Google Workspaces and is well-maintained.
Feature
Supported in Movebot
Shared Drives
Fully Supported
User Drives
Fully Supported
Permissions
Fully Supported
Versions
Fully Supported
Modification Retention
Fully Supported
Automatic Sanitization
Fully Supported
Tags: googledrive_domain
For detailed instructions on how to set this up, see
Special characters: /teamdriveid:<drive_id> can be used to access drives by their Drive ID instead of their name. This will avoid issues with special characters. .
Note: Due to limitations in the Google API, documents larger than 11MB cannot be exported into Microsoft Office formats. These files will either be skipped or need to be downloaded manually. .
