5 Free Ways to Transfer Files from Google Drive to OneDrive

Quick Guide

• How Can I Transfer Google Drive to OneDrive?

• Why Transfer Files from Google Drive to OneDrive?

• 5 Easy Ways to Transfer Google Drive to OneDrive

How Can I Transfer Google Drive to OneDrive?

“Hello, I’m looking for a better way to transfer Google Drive to OneDrive. I don’t want to download everything from Google Drive, then upload it to OneDrive, because it’s time-consuming. With bandwidth, it would take about 1 day, even when assuming the files are up/downloaded at full speed. But if this is the only solution, I am prepared to do it over a few nights. Any other ways to move files from Google Drive to OneDrive? Any kindly advice will be appreciated.”

Why Transfer Files from Google Drive to OneDrive?

Are you also using multiple cloud drives? Each cloud storage service has its own features, Google Drive is highly integrated with Google services and is popular with Android users, and OneDrive is seamlessly connected to Office as a built-in software for Windows 10. 

Users may choose to use both Google Drive and OneDrive because of their different advantages. In addition, there are users' work accounts and private accounts using different cloud storage services. You may want to switch to a new OneDrive account for personal reasons, or you may need to transfer from Google Drive's public account to OneDrive's private account. So how to copy Google Drive to OneDrive? We'll give you the best solution in the next content.

5 Easy Ways to Move Google Drive to OneDrive

Usually, if you are looking for a way to convert Google Drive to OneDrive, you may find the traditional downloading and uploading way on the internet and it may be the first option you think about, but it’s time-consuming, especially when you have a large number of files. So, if there are other choices, many users will ignore this method automatically.

Here we will show you the best free way to transfer Google Drive to OneDrive directly, and then introduce the other 4 ways (Google Takeout, Drive Files to OneDrive, and manually download and upload, and their desktop apps) to move files from Google Drive to OneDrive.

Way 1. Directly Migrate Google Drive to OneDrive via CBackup

It’s highly recommended to use the free cloud backup service - CBackup. It’s free, simple, and easy-to-use, and has some advantages you may need, cloud to cloud backup and cloud to cloud sync, both of them can help you to move Google Drive files to OneDrive without downloading and uploading, minimizing the network impact, supporting multiple flexible backup or sync settings, such as file filter, daily/weekly/monthly backup or sync, email notification, etc.

Here we will show you how to transfer files from Google Drive to OneDrive directly with CBackup:

Step 1. Add Google Drive and OneDrive to CBackup

1. Please create an account with the "Sign up" option and then sign in to the CBackup desktop app.

2. Connect your Google Drive and OneDrive to CBackup. Go to the Storage tab, select "Google Drive" and then press Authorize Now. And grant access to CBackup. Then, change the Cloud name and Storage path if needed.

3. Repeat the process to add OneDrive.

Step 2. Move Google Drive to OneDrive Without Downloading

1. Click "Sync" and "Sync Public Cloud to Public Cloud" subsequently.

2. Hit the "New Task" button in the pop-up window.

3. Click "Add Source" to select "Google Drive". And click "Add Destination" to select "OneDrive".

4. Set sync settings by clicking "Settings" on the bottom left. Then, click "Start Sync" to transfer files from Google Drive to OneDrive easily.

Note: Settings provides the following schedule settings.
• If you just want to sync specific cloud files, you can use the "File Filter" setting. With it, you can choose to exclude or contain file types as you like. To some extent, it saves sync time and disk space.
• If you want to continuously protect your data and keep it up-to-date, you could consider using hourly/daily/weekly/monthly sync.
• If you need to avoid working hours, you’d better choose One time only. It’s very convenient and you can set it to any time, such as, after 6 pm or before 9 am.

Besides, CBackup desktop app also helps you to back up data on Windows PC to CBackup Cloud (10GB free). It's secure and cost-effective cloud storage for PC cloud backup on Windows PCs. Sync or backup files to Google Drive, Dropbox, and OneDrive, as well as merge multiple cloud drives to increase Google Drive storage space for free or other cloud storage space easily.

Way 2. Transfer Google Drive to Onedrive using Google Takeout

Compared with the traditional way, "Google Takeout" is a better choice to perform Google Drive to OneDrive migration without downloading and uploading. But it requires a high-speed network. So, if your internet is healthy, you can use this method.

Step 1. Go to the Google Takeout website, click "Deselect all", and tick the checkbox at the right side of "Drive", then click "Next Step".

Step 2. Select "Add to OneDrive" as the delivery method.

Step 3. Scroll down to "Link accounts and create export" and click it.

Step 4. Then, you will be asked to log in to your Microsoft OneDrive and Google Drive, please do so and click "Open in OneDrive" after the exporting process ends. Or you can go to your OneDrive and view the archived files.

Way 3. Transfer Google Drive Files to OneDrive with Drive Files to OneDrive App

1. Please sign in to your Google Drive account, then go to the Settings icon > Settings.

2. Then choose Manage Apps, then click Connect more apps.

3. Then it will bring you to the Google Workspace Marketplace, just input OneDrive in the search box, and click Drive Files to OneDrive^TM, then click the item.

4. Click Install and then press Continue. Then follow the steps to grant Drive Files to OneDrive to access your Google Drive account. Then the Drive Files to OneDrive has been installed successfully.

5. Click My Drive > More > Drive Files to MS OneDrive.

6. Then it will take you to the following page. Hit the Select files from Google Drive button to choose some files or everything from Google Drive, then press the Select target folder to save from OneDrive button to choose the target folder.

7. Press the Save to OneDrive button lastly to transfer Google Drive to OneDrive.

As we tested, it will fail to back up some files and says that the Declared fragment length does not match the provided number of bytes error. And it takes much longer to transfer 50 files and maybe stuck backing up.

Way 4. Download from Google Drive and Upload to OneDrive

If you don't want to use the above ways, you could try the manual way to move files from Google Drive to OneDrive, here are the steps for reference:

1. Please log in to your Google Drive account, then create a new folder, and move all your Google Drive files to that folder.

2. Right-click the new folder, and select Download.

3. Google Drive will download the new folder containing everything from Google Drive to a zip file. Unzip it, or you cannot upload it to OneDrive.

4. Log in to your OneDrive account, then click Upload > Folder.

5. Then choose the new folder containing all Google Drive files, and hit Upload to transfer Google Drive files to OneDrive manually.

This way will cost lots of time for you to manage, and download if you have many files to migrate, and the upload speed is limited to your network situation, so it's not the ideal way for migrating from Google Drive to OneDrive.

Way 5. Use Google Drive and OneDrive Desktop Apps

Please ensure you have installed Google Drive for desktop and OneDrive desktop app on your computer. Then follow the steps to migrate Google Drive to OneDrive for free:

1. Open Drive for desktop and OneDrive app and log in. Both of them will show you a folder, named My Drive in Google Drive disk, and OneDrive folder.

2. Choose all files and folders in the My Drive folder, and drag and drop them into the OneDrive folder.

3. It will copy files from Google Drive to OneDrive.

After the operation, OneDrive needs to sync files to its cloud server for a while, just wait and the time depends on your network connection and upload limit.

Wrapping Things up

Reading here, you may already know what is the best way to backup Google Drive to OneDrive. You can use any one of the 5 easy methods if you have a healthy network. But if your network is poor, your best choice is to use free CBackup.

Compared with Google Takeout and Drive Files to OneDrive to transfer Google Drive to OneDrive, I prefer using free CBackup. Because it not only moves files between cloud storage but also provides multiple backup settings that bring much convenience, such as, saving backup time, keeping the latest version of backup files, etc. In addition, it still resolves the limited cloud storage as long as you connect all your cloud drives to CBackup.