From Google Workspace to a European workplace: what moves and how

Your business has five to twenty people and everything runs on Gmail and Google Drive. A customer, your accountant or a colleague asks whether there is a European alternative to Google Workspace. Above all, you want to know what all has to come along and what you lose along the way.

This piece describes the switch from Google Workspace: what you can get out of it, in which file format and what to watch out for. Everything about Google comes from Google's own help pages, with the date on which we read them. You can also read which features Noveu offers.

A switch consists of four moves

A European alternative to Google Workspace replaces four components: mail, files and documents, calendar and contacts. Each component has its own route and its own pitfall. Plan them separately, because they do not have to move on the same day. Which requirements you set for a new provider, you can read in how to choose a sovereign workplace.

Mail: you copy the mailbox via IMAP

You retrieve your mail from Google via IMAP and copy the mailbox to the new environment. Google's admin help states that your administrator must enable POP or IMAP for this in the Google Admin console, for everyone or for certain groups or organisational units, and that such a change can take up to 24 hours. The administrator also decides whether every mail client may sign in or only the OAuth clients that the administrator specifies (Google Workspace Admin Help, updated 1 October 2026, accessed 6 October 2026). For Gmail users with a personal Google account, Google writes that IMAP is always on (Gmail Help, accessed 5 October 2026).

There is a second condition. Since 1 May 2025, Google Workspace accounts no longer support apps or devices that sign in with only a username and password, and Google writes that those apps must use OAuth (same source). The ordinary password is therefore blocked for such apps. Google recommends using only mail clients with OAuth. The administrator can restrict access to the OAuth clients that the administrator specifies with their client ID. Users can then only sync with those clients, and a client that works with domain-wide delegation via a service account is not supported in that setting. A mail client without OAuth only works if the administrator allows every mail client, and users must then also set up POP or IMAP themselves in Gmail. In the restricted setting, an app password therefore does not help (Google Workspace Admin Help, updated 1 October 2026, accessed 6 October 2026). If the administrator allows every mail client, Google describes an app password as a fallback for users with 2-Step Verification who need a mail client without OAuth (Google Workspace Admin Help, updated 1 October 2026, accessed 6 October 2026). So ask the provider that moves your mail whether that route supports OAuth, what its OAuth client ID is and whether it works with domain-wide delegation. If not, ask whether it can work with an app password and whether your administrator is willing to allow every mail client, before you agree on a date. This is a summary and not exhaustive: Google's guide prevails.

Files, calendar and contacts go via standard files

What you can get out of Google per component:

• Files: you download them from Drive, including several at once. In Docs, Sheets and Slides, you choose the format under File and Download, for example pdf, Microsoft Word (.docx) or PowerPoint (.pptx) (Google Drive Help, accessed 5 October 2026)
• Calendar: an export as an .ics file, for all calendars at once in a zip, only from a computer. You need the permission to make changes and to manage sharing, and the administrator can restrict the export (Google Calendar Help, accessed 5 October 2026)
• Contacts: an export as a csv or vCard file. If you use Google Contacts through work, you cannot select all contacts in the directory (Google Contacts Help, accessed 5 October 2026)

A file that someone else shares with you sometimes cannot be downloaded. The owner can turn off downloading for people who may only view the file or comment on it (Google Drive Help, same source as above).

You can also export the data of your domain in one go

The super administrator makes a copy of the data of your domain with the Google Workspace data export. It contains the data that is also in Google Takeout and, in addition, data that only administrators can export: deleted data that Vault retains and data that belongs to the organisation, such as Gmail messages in the admin quarantine, data in shared drives and the data of groups without an owner. Google names these conditions and limitations, among others, and the current guide prevails. The super administrator account that starts the export must be at least 30 days old, unless your organisation itself was created less than 30 days ago, and must have 2-Step Verification. To retrieve the export, Google Cloud must be turned on for the administrator account. Data of accounts created less than 24 hours before the start of the export is not included in the export. An export is ready no earlier than after 48 hours, usually takes 72 hours and can take up to 14 days (Google Workspace Admin Help, updated 1 October 2026, accessed 6 October 2026).

Google automatically deletes the exported data in a Google-provided storage bucket 60 days after the start of the export. Because the data is exported in parts, some parts can disappear earlier: subtract the number of days the export took from 60 (Google Workspace Admin Help, updated 1 October 2026, accessed 6 October 2026). With the Assured Controls or Assured Controls Plus add-on, you can choose your own Cloud Storage bucket and keep the data longer yourself, for which Google Cloud Storage costs may apply (Google Workspace Admin Help, updated 1 October 2026, accessed 6 October 2026).

Google Takeout provides the same kind of data for a single account, including email, documents and calendar. Downloading deletes nothing at Google (Google Account Help, accessed 5 October 2026). An administrator who wants employees to download their own data allows Google Takeout for that (Google Workspace Admin Help, accessed 6 October 2026). So see the export as a backup copy, even if you move the mail via IMAP.

What does not move by itself?

An export is a copy of your files, not of the way you work. You check this yourself:

• links in emails, quotes and wikis that point to files in Drive
• files from others that are shared with you and that you cannot download
• shared calendars, meeting links and recurring appointments
• apps and services you sign in to with your Google account
• your domain: where your MX records and other DNS settings are and who has access to them

Turn each point into one line in your inventory, with an owner and a date.

What you can do tomorrow

1. Make an inventory: number of accounts, size of the mailboxes, shared files and the list above.
2. Ask your Google administrator to check whether POP and IMAP are on in the Admin console for a test account and whether every mail client may sign in or only the OAuth clients that the administrator specifies. Ask the new provider whether the transfer signs in via OAuth, what its OAuth client ID is and whether it works with domain-wide delegation. If the provider cannot do OAuth, the transfer only works if the administrator allows every mail client, and only then does an app password come into play. Google's guide for POP and IMAP prevails.
3. Start the data export of your domain. It runs for days, so start early, and download it in time: 60 days after the start, earlier for a large export. Check the conditions beforehand in Google's guide for the data export, such as the age of the administrator account, 2-Step Verification and Google Cloud for that account.
4. Let one colleague work in the new environment for a while with Google as a fallback: mail, files and calendar.
5. Only cancel Google once you have checked that everything has moved, and keep the export as a backup copy. Accounts created less than 24 hours before the start are not included: start the export later in that case or repeat it.

Where Noveu fits

Noveu Werkplek has mail, Files, Documents, Calendar and Contacts. Data and backups are stored in a Hetzner data centre in Falkenstein (Germany); Cloudflare (US) sits at the edge of the network. Mail works via IMAP and SMTP, you import documents as a Word file (.docx) and export them as .docx or as PDF, and you import contacts from vCard or CSV. You download a document from Google Docs as .docx (Google Drive Help, accessed 5 October 2026) and then import it into Documents.

You can find the features on the Noveu Werkplek page. How to set up mail in your mail app is in the help guide for mail, and how to import and export a Word file is in the help for Documents. If you work at a municipality or an implementing organisation, look at the digital workplace for government.