Migrate from @family Google Gmail to Microsoft Office 365 (O365)

Recently, Google has changed the terms and conditions to support our @family account service. After assessment, ITSC decided to migrate all @family accounts from Google to Office 365 in consideration of cost and functionalities. The existing @family Google account will be terminated on 11 April 2023.

After you sign in to your @family O365 account with the first-time password, you need to:

  1. Assign a new password for your @family O365 account (please retry if you encounter error 'Message: AADSTS50012: Authentication failed.' in case your new password does not meet the following requirements)
    • A minimum of 8 characters and a maximum of 256 characters.
    • Requires three out of four of the following: 
      • Lowercase characters.
      • Uppercase characters.
      • Numbers (0-9).
      • Symbols (@ # $ % ^ & * - _ ! + = [ ] { } | \ : ' , . ? / ` ~ " ( ) ; < >).
  2. Enter your mobile number or personal email for the self-service password reset function in case you forget your password later. (to choose email, please select “I want to set up a different method”)

With your @family O365 account, you can access your email via Outlook for mobiles or Outlook on the web at https://outlook.office.com/family.ust.hk.

Please note that existing data such as emails, calendar events and files in your @family Google account will NOT be auto-migrated to your @family O365 account and you need to perform self-service data backup and migration.

Self-service Data Backup, Export / Migration

  1. Migrate your Email to Office 365 (Using Thunderbird - free email application)
  2. Migrate your Calendar to Office 365
  3. Migrate your Contacts to Office 365
  4. Migrate files from Google Drive to OneDrive

1. Migrate your Email to Office 365 (Using Mozilla Thunderbird - free email app)

  1. Access to your @family.ust.hk Office 365 mailbox using Mozilla Thunderbird
    1. Download and install Thunderbird from thunderbird.net.
    2. Setup your @family account with the following settings or refer to the page Configure Thunderbird for Office 365 with your @family.ust.hk account to access your mailboxes.


    3. Install the “ImportExportToolsNG” add-on
      1. Click the ‘Menu button’, select ‘Add-ons and Themes’.
      2. Type “ImportExportToolsNG”in the search bar and press ‘Enter’.
      3. Find “ImportExportToolsNG" and click ‘+ Add to Thunderbird’.
      4. Press ‘Add’ and ‘OK!’.
  2. Download the export files by Google Takeout
    1. Log on Google Takeout (https://takeout.google.com) with your @family Gmail account email address.
    2. Click 'Deselect all'.
    3. Select the ‘Checkbox’ of Mail and click ‘All Mail data included’.
    4. Select ‘Include all messages in Mail’ then click ‘OK’ (all messages in one folder), or choose specific Label for export if you want to migrate just one foder at a time.
    5. Scroll down and click ‘Next step’.
    6. For the File type & size, you may select the maximum size (from 1GB to 50GB) of a single file to be downloaded. Then click ‘Create export’.
    7. Google is creating the copy from Mail. The process may take several hours or days. You may close your PC. If the copy is done, you will receive an email with download link.
    8. When your export is done, you will receive an email. Open that email and select ‘Download’. You may receive more than 1 file to be downloaded.
    9. Open the downloaded zip file and drag the 'Takeout' folder to your preferred location e.g. Downloads folder.
  3. Import the export file to O365 via Thunderbird
    1. In Thunderbird, right-click on ‘Local Folders’, then select ‘ImportExportToolsNG’ and click ‘Import mboxfile’.
    2. Select ‘Import one or more mbox files, with its/their subdirectory’, then press ‘OK’.
    3. Go to the takeout downloaded in step 2, select the ‘Takeout > Mail > the mbox file’
    4. After importing all the message from the mboxfiles, rename the folder name if necessary.
    5. Drag the ‘mboxfolder’ to your xxxx.xxx@family.ust.hk account (or any folder if necessary)
    6. Cross check if all emails are migrated successfully

2. Migrate your Calendar to Office 365

  1. Log on the Google Calendar. (https://calendar.google.com)
  2. Click the 3 dots (options) at the end of the calendar you want to export.
  3. Select ‘Settings and sharing’.
  4. Select ‘Export calendar’, then a file named as “your_email_address.ical.zip” will be downloaded.
  5. Unzip the zipped file, or just drag your_email_address.ical from the zipped file to your download folder
  6. Sign-in Outlook on the web (https://outlook.office.com/family.ust.hk) and click the ‘Calendar icon’.
  7. Select ‘Add calendar’.
  8. Select ‘Create blank calendar’, type the name of the calendar (e.g. ABC Calendar) and click 'Save' (add to My Calendars)
  9. Choose ‘Upload from file’and ‘Browse’. Select the last download iCalendar file then ‘Open’.
  10. Select the correct calendar name, click ‘Import’.
  11. Repeat the above steps for other calendars.

3. Migrate your Contact to Office 365

  1. Login in to Google Contacts at https://contacts.google.com
  2. Choose ‘Contacts’ and export as ‘Outlook CSV’, then click ‘Export’.
  3. Sign-in Outlook on the web (https://outlook.office.com/family.ust.hk) and select ‘People'
  4. Select ‘+ Import Contacts’.
  5. Select the ‘contact.csv’ from ‘Download’ folder,
  6. Click ‘Open’ and start 'Import' the Contacts.

Ref: https://support.google.com/contacts/answer/7199294

4. Migrate your files from Google Drive to OneDrive

You can download files from Google drive to your PC and then upload to your OneDrive for small number of files.

Or you may consider install both the Google Drive for Desktop and OneDrive sync client, and then copy all the files from Google Drive to OneDrive using the File Explorer.

Another option is to user the Google Takeout:

  1. Sign-in to Google Takeout (https://takeout.google.com)
  2. Click 'Deselect
  3. Select only the Drive option
  4. Click Next Step
  5. Click Create Export
  6. Click Manage exports and download the zip file
  7. Unzip the downloaded file and then upload to your files to OneDrive.
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