How to export Google Workspace data for a data license
The short answer
The main route is the Data Export tool in the Admin console. A super administrator account at least 30 days old, with 2-Step Verification on, must run it. Expect about 72 hours, and up to 14 days. The export is not ready before 48 hours. Takeout covers one user.
Both micro1 partnership videos talk about "the export" and never say what it involves. So I went to Google's own help pages for the steps.
Which Google route fits a data license?
Google gives you three, and they cover very different amounts of data.
The Data Export tool sends an organization's data to a Cloud Storage archive. Google Takeout lets one person download their own data in archives of up to 50 GB that expire in about 7 days, and an admin can restrict it for managed accounts. Vault searches by matter and exports the results, and it needs the Manage Matters, Manage Searches and Manage Exports privileges.
Who can run the Data Export tool?
A super administrator account that is at least 30 days old, with 2-Step Verification on and Google Cloud turned on for the admin who will open the files. If your organization has more than 1,000 users, Google asks you to contact support first.
What does the export include and leave out?
It covers Gmail, Drive including shared drives, Chat rooms created by users, Calendar, Contacts, Groups, Keep, Tasks, Voice and Vault-retained data, among others. Suspended and archived accounts come along in a full export.
It leaves out accounts created in the 24 hours before the start, and deleted data unless Vault held it. Meet is not in the tool's list, though Vault's page says Meet recordings sit in Drive. Vault can also export files that outside parties own and shared with your users, if they are reachable at the time.
How long does it take, and where does it go?
Files land in a Google-provided Cloud Storage bucket in the United States, Europe or with no location preference. You download folders with the gcloud command line tool.
Higher editions can filter by user or group, as our partial-license page explains. Packets expire 60 days from the start, so download first and think later.
How big is a Google Workspace export?
micro1's partner gave 3 TB for Google Workspace as an example of a size to type into its intake form (self-reported, illustration only). To get your own number, start with the Drive storage page and the 1 TB question.
Who runs the export in a micro1 partnership?
Both micro1 videos mention "the export" without the steps above. micro1's CFO said in an undated recorded forum talk that its forward-deployed engineers help your IT people with the transfer (self-reported).
I'd still read how long a transfer takes so you know what they will ask of you.
Drive holds your partners' files too, so run the rights check first. Licensing Google Workspace data covers Google's API terms.
Talk to a privacy or commercial lawyer in your state before you sign.
micro1 may pay us a referral fee if a company we introduce goes ahead with it. How we are paid
Apply to micro1's data partnership (paid link)micro1's own data-partnerships pagePaid link. How we are paid
Vaultfish helps you run the process. We are not lawyers and this is not legal advice. If you need counsel who knows this area, we can point you to one. Ask for a referral
