Quick Links
Useful Pages on Migration of HKU Connect Accounts from Google to Microsoft
- FAQs
- Video Guides for HKU Connect Account Migration
- Procedure on Email Migration
- Procedure on Email Account Setup on Microsoft
- Recent Announcements on Account Migration
1 June 2022 / 24 May 2022 / 5 May 2022 / 4 Oct 2021
Google has announced a new storage policy for all institutions using Google Workspace for Education editions which will take effect in July 2022. This means the unlimited storage offered to qualifying schools and universities for free by Google will come to an end.
HKU Connect users are requested to reduce their total storage of @connect.hku.hk to within 1TB by end of 2021. This is to ensure they can continue accessing their HKU accounts after a quota limit will be imposed by Google in early 2022.
Please note that Google does NOT offer a pay option for individuals to purchase additional storage for their school accounts using Google Workspace for Education editions.
Before you start any data migration, please read the following notes:
Note 1: You are recommended NOT to transfer your emails UNTIL the account migration date in June/July 2022 to avoid possible issues in synchronizing the emails caused by multiple data transfers.
Note 2: For graduates, please click here to activate your account once if you have not logged in to your Microsoft OneDrive before (applicable to graduates only).
Review current Google storage
Manage files in Google storage
Reduce Google storage
A. Disable Google backup and sync
If you are using Google Backup and Sync to backup your computer(s), please stop syncing Google Drive files with Backup and Sync by doing the steps below.
Google Drive for Windows:
- Click the Google Drive icon on your taskbar. Click the gear icon and select Preference. Make sure the login account is yourUID@connect.hku.hk.
- Click the gear icon.
- Click Disconnect account.
- Click Disconnect. The client will stop backup & sync.
After disconnect the Google Drive client, please go to Google Drive -> Computers, select your computer backup(s) and delete them
Empty Trash after deletion.
Tip for Microsoft OneDrive Users:
Microsoft OneDrive provides similar function on file backup and sync. See the steps for Windows / MacOS .
Google Drive for Mac:
- Click the Google Drive icon on the Menu bar. Click the gear icon and select Preference. Make sure the login account is yourUID@connect.hku.hk
- Click the gear icon.
- Click Disconnect account.
- Click Disconnect. The client will stop backup & sync.
After disconnect the Google Drive client, please go to Google Drive -> Computers, select your computer backup(s) and delete them.
Empty Trash after deletion.
Tip for Microsoft OneDrive Users:
Microsoft OneDrive provides similar function on file backup and sync. See the steps for Windows / MacOS .
B. Reduce Google Drive Storage
Note: If you are using Google Drive desktop client to backup and sync your computer, please complete the steps on “Disable Google backup and sync” BEFORE you do the following steps.
Go to https://drive.google.com/drive/quota and your total storage under Google Drive is shown on the left menu. You can see your files saved under Google Drive. Delete the unwanted files.
If you are using Shared Drives, go to https://drive.google.com/drive/shared-drives to review the list of shared files.
Select your shared drive.
Select all files/folders. Drag and drop your files to My Drive.
Repeat the steps above for all other shared drives.
Delete the unwanted files and empty the Trash.
The previously shared files/folders using Google Drive will become inaccessible once they are relocated. Share the your files/folders again if necessary.
C. Reduce Google Photos Storage
Note: If are using Original quality and you want to download the original photos, please follow the guide to download all photos before changing the option to “Storage saver”.
According to Google’s policy, all new photos and videos you upload from 1 June 2021 onwards will count toward user’s storage no matter the backup quality is in original or high quality.
Please follow the steps below to turn off Google Photos backup on all your mobile devices and PCs if you want to save your Google storage:
Go to https://photos.google.com/settings > Upload size for photos & videos > Storage saver.
Turn off Google Photos backup on all your mobile devices and PCs
Open Google Photos app, click your account icon at the top right. Make sure the login account is yourUID@connect.hku.hk.
Click the Backup complete option.
Click the gear icon.
Turn off Back up & sync.
Go back to the main page and click your account icon. The backup option will show Backup is off.
When you complete migrating the Google Photos, visit https://photos.google.com and delete photos and videos created after June 1, 2021 which are counted under your storage.
Tip for Microsoft OneDrive Users:
Microsoft OneDrive provides similar function on photo and video backup and sync. See the steps for iOS / Android / Windows / MacOS .
D. Reduce Gmail Storage
Enter “larger:20M” in the search box to find out emails larger than 20MB. Delete unwanted emails.
Transfer Data
Below summarize the recommended tools you can use in data transfer:
| Items to Transfer | Suggested Tool | Migration Path | Reference Link |
|---|---|---|---|
Export and download data from the Google products such as
| Google Takeout | Google products > local PC or other drives (*NOT applicable to HKU Microsoft OneDrive which is Microsoft OneDrive for Business) | Link |
| Google Drive | Mover | HKU Connect Google Drive > HKU Microsoft OneDrive | Link |
| Google Calendar | Native import/export function under Google Calendar | HKU Connect Gmail account > Personal Gmail account | Link |
| Google Contacts | Native import/export function under Google Contacts | HKU Connect Gmail account > HKU Connect Microsoft account (the Microsoft email account will be ready in June/July 2022) | Link |
| Google Photos | Google Takeout | HKU Connect Google Photos > local PC > HKU Microsoft OneDrive | Link |
1. Email in Gmail (not contacts, chats, or tasks) 2. Documents in Google Drive (except files in the “Google Photos” section of Drive) 3. Documents in My Drive | (Please login your @connect.hku.hk account and your personal Gmail account using TWO different browsers (e.g. Chrome + Firefox) to do this data transfer.) | HKU Connect Gmail account > Personal Gmail account (* Personal Gmail account is having a default free storage of 15GB. Please purchase more storage if the data to transfer exceeds 15GB BEFORE you do the transfer.) | Link |
A. Use of HKU Microsoft OneDrive
- Go to https://portal.office.com and click Sign in.Note
- Select Work or school account.
- Enter yourUID@connect.hku.hk (for students and graduates) or yourUID@hku.hk (for staff) and your password.
- You can start using the HKU Microsoft OneDrive.
B. Transfer Google Drive
This tool can migrate data from HKU Connect Google Drive to personal Microsoft OneDrive or HKU Microsoft OneDrive for Business accounts. For graduates, please login to your OneDrive once before doing the following steps.
- Visit Mover at https://www.mover.io/ and login with uid@hku.hk for staff/ uid@connect.hku.hk for student/graduate; or your personal Microsoft account like @outlook.com/@hotmail.com.Note:
Please click the “Go to our solutions for individuals and students” instead of the blue button to avoid Access Denied error in mover.io.
- After login to Mover:
- Under Select source, click Authorize New Connector > Google Drive (Single User) > Authorize > Authorize > choose yourUID@connect.hku.hk > Allow.
- Under Select destination, click Authorize New Connector > OneDrive for Business (Single User) > Authorize > Authorize.
- You will be prompted to sign in using yourUID@connect.hku.hk (for student/graduate) or yourUID@hku.hk (for staff).
- Select destination folder and click Start Copy.
- After checking the data has been transferred in good order, delete files from your HKU Connect Google Drive.
We made some testing on data transfer using Mover and the processing time is tabulated below for your reference (note that the processing time varies case by case depending on the number of files, file types, etc.):
| Data size | Processing time |
| 250GB | 1 day |
| 1TB | 4 days |
| 2TB | 7 days |
After you initiate the data transfer on Mover, you can close the browser and turn off your PC. To check the data transfer progress, you can go to https://www.mover.io/ and select Migration Manager. You will receive a completion email after the data transfer is completed.
Video Guide on Migrate Google Drive (Using Google Takeout) to Microsoft OneDrive
Below are the steps on how to use Google Takeout to download data from your HKU Connect account on Google (e.g. emails, documents, calendars, photos, YouTube videos, etc.) and upload it to Microsoft OneDrive. Other than OneDrive, you can also download data to your local PC or other cloud storage such as Dropbox.
- Open an Incognito or InPrivate browser window (please make sure you have logged out from all Google accounts, if any).
- Go to https://webmail.hku.hk and click the button CONNECT.HKU.HK (Google, read-only)
- Login with yourUID@connect.hku.hk and password.
- Open a new tab and go to https://takeout.google.com.
- Select the data to transfer. You can use Find or Ctrl + F to look up the data you wish to transfer. After selection, click Next Step.
- The default download file format is zip. Change it if necessary.
- Change the file size to 50GB and click Create export.
- It may take up a long time (hours or days) to complete the data export, depending on the size of the data.
- After the export is completed, you will receive an email from Google telling you the exported data is ready to download (Note: please check the email with your Microsoft 365 account).
- Click Download your files button and login with yourUID@connect.hku.hk and password.
- Select the file to download. After the download is completed, go to your Downloads folder to look up the file.
- Open a new tab and go to https://portal.office.com. Enter yourUID@connect.hku.hk.
- Enter your yourUID@connect.hku.hk and password to sign it.
- Click the left menu to open OneDrive.
- Click New and Folder to create a new folder for your data exported from Google.
- Go back to the Downloads folder on your PC. Select and drag them to the new folder just created under OneDrive.
- After uploading is completed, you can see all your sub-folders and files exported from Google and stored under your OneDrive.
C. Transfer Google Calendar
(HKU Connect Google Account > Personal Gmail Account)
Login to your HKU Connect Google Calendar.
Click the gear icon, select Settings. Click Import & export, under Export, click Export.
The ICS file in zip format will be downloaded.
Login to your personal Google Calendar.
If you want to import the Google Calendar of your HKU Connect account to a new calendar under your personal Gmail account, click the gear icon and select Settings. Click Add calendar and Create new calendar. Add a name and description and click Create calendar.
Under Settings, click Import & export. Under Import, select the downloaded ICS file mentioned in point 3 above. The calendar items will be added into your selected calendar under your personal Gmail Account.
(HKU Connect Google Account > M365)
Video Guide on Transfer Google Calendar to Microsoft 365
- Open an Incognito or InPrivate browser window (please make sure you have logged out from all Google accounts, if any).
- Go to https://webmail.hku.hk and click the button CONNECT.HKU.HK (Google Read-only).
- Login with youruid@connect.hku.hk and password.
- After login, click the Google apps button at the top right and select Calendar.
- Click the gear button
and then Settings. - On the left menu, click Import & export.
- Click Export. Select the Downloads folder and click Save. A .zip file will be downloaded to your PC.
- Sign out from your Google account.
- Open an Incognito or InPrivate browser window.
- Go to https://webmail.hku.hk and click the button CONNECT.HKU.HK (Microsoft 365).
- Login with youruid@connect.hku.hk and password.
- After login, click the Calendar icon
to open your Microsoft Outlook calendar. - Click Add Calendar and Create blank calendar. Add a name for your calendar. Click Save.
- Click Add calendar. Select Upload from file.
- Open the downloaded .zip file. Extract the zip file. You will find an individual .ics file for each of your calendar.
- Browse and select the .ics file to import. Select the Calendar you just created. Click Import.
- The Google calender wil be imported into your Microsoft Outlook calendar.
D. Transfer Google Contacts
(HKU Connect Gmail Account to HKU Connect Microsoft Account)
Video Guide on Transfer Google Contacts
- Sign in your Gmail account via https://gmail.com using your HKU Portal UID and PIN.
- Select all Contacts and Export
- Go to Google Contacts.
- Select one of the following:
- A single contact: Check the box next to the contact name.
- Multiple contacts: Check the boxes next to the multiple contacts you want to export.
- All contacts: Check the box next to any contact and at the top left, click Selection actions > All.
- At the top left, click More actions
> Export. - To back up your contacts, select Outlook CSV > Export. The exported .csv file will be saved at the default download location of your PC.
- Sign in to M365 Outlook (https://outlook.office.com).
- Import the .csv file saved under Step 1.
- Select
to go to the People page. - Under the toolbar, select Manage > Import contacts.
- Select Browse > choose your .csv file > Open > Import.
- Select Close to finish the import.
E. Transfer Google Photos
Video Guide on Migrate Google Photo (Using Google Takeout) to Microsoft OneDrive
Below are the steps on how to use Google Takeout to download data from your HKU Connect account on Google (e.g. emails, documents, calendars, photos, YouTube videos, etc.) and upload it to Microsoft OneDrive. Other than OneDrive, you can also download data to your local PC or other cloud storage such as Dropbox.
- Open an Incognito or InPrivate browser window (please make sure you have logged out from all Google accounts, if any).
- Go to https://webmail.hku.hk and click the button CONNECT.HKU.HK (Google, read-only)
- Login with yourUID@connect.hku.hk and password.
- Open a new tab and go to https://takeout.google.com.
- Select the data to transfer. You can use Find or Ctrl + F to look up the data you wish to transfer. After selection, click Next Step.
- The default download file format is zip. Change it if necessary.
- Change the file size to 50GB and click Create export.
- It may take up a long time (hours or days) to complete the data export, depending on the size of the data.
- After the export is completed, you will receive an email from Google telling you the exported data is ready to download (Note: please check the email with your Microsoft 365 account).
- Click Download your files button and login with yourUID@connect.hku.hk and password.
- Select the file to download. After the download is completed, go to your Downloads folder to look up the file.
- Open a new tab and go to https://portal.office.com. Enter yourUID@connect.hku.hk.
- Enter your yourUID@connect.hku.hk and password to sign it.
- Click the left menu to open OneDrive.
- Click New and Folder to create a new folder for your data exported from Google.
- Go back to the Downloads folder on your PC. Select and drag them to the new folder just created under OneDrive.
- After uploading is completed, you can see all your sub-folders and files exported from Google and stored under your OneDrive.
F. Transfer Gmail
Migrate Connect Gmail to Microsoft with other mail clients (Please click here)
Official guide from Google: https://support.google.com/accounts/answer/6386856
Update on 2 Jun 2022:
Reports were received on being unable to use Google Transfer to complete the data migration successfully with the error “Problem with your Google content transfer”. We are looking into the issue and please arrange the data migration later if you can’t complete the transfer.
This procedure will only migrate Drive and Mail from CONNECT account to personal Gmail account. It you need to download data from other Google service, you may use Google Takeout.
Please make sure your target account has enough free space before proceed. You may purchase more space for your Gmail account if needed.
Logout any personal Google account in web browser or launch a Incognito/InPrivate browser window to proceed the following step:
- Access https://takeout.google.com/transfer?pli=1 and login as your uid@connect.hku.hk
- Fill in target personal Gmail address.
- Fill in the confirmation code which sent to target Gmail Inbox.
- You may select which data you want to transfer and start.
- It may take up to a week to transfer, depend on data size.
If you see error: “Transfer Your Content is only available to authorised G Suite for Education Accounts. Please contact your administrator”, this may due to you used the same web browser to login both Connect and personal Gmail accounts.
Please try to logout all accounts. Use 2 different web browsers, (may be Chrome and Firefox), to login Connect and Gmail separately and try again.
