Transferring TAMU Gmail Content

Overview

The following instructions will allow you to transfer content from your Texas A&M Gmail account to another destination account or to download a backup of your account for personal storage.

You will be able to set a destination account to any personal Gmail account. 

NOTE: The first set of directions will ONLY transfer your emails and Google Drive contents. Please read further for instructions on transferring data such as your contacts and calendar events.

NOTE: These steps must be completed before your Texas A&M Gmail account is retired. If your account retires halfway through the transfer process, the operation will fail. A former student's Texas A&M Gmail account retires two years after they leave the university.

Instructions

Transfer Emails and Google Drive Files

1. Log into your Texas A&M Gmail account
2. Go to this https://takeout.google.com/transfer. You should see your Texas A&M Gmail account profile picture in the top right.
3. Enter the email address of your personal Gmail account
4. You will be sent a verification code to your personal Gmail account. Check your inbox in a new browser or from another device and retrieve the verification code. 
   1. Note: You can run into issues if you go to your personal Gmail account in the same browser. Commonly, you will see an error stating: Transfer Your Content is only available to authorized G Suite for Education Accounts. Please contact your administrator, or sign in with another Google Account. To fix this, please sign out of your personal gmail, and open a different browser (if you were using Google Chrome, using Firefox, or Safari/Edge) and that should resolve the issue.
5. Go back to the Transfer your content screen and enter the verification code.
6. Select the content you would like to transfer and click Start Transfer

Transfer Contacts

1. Navigate to contacts.google.com and ensure you are logged into your Texas A&M Gmail account
2. Click Export from the menu on the left
3. Choose Export as Google CSV and click Export
4. Save the contacts.csv file in an accessible location of your preference
5. Navigate back to contacts.google.com and ensure you are now logged into your personal Gmail account
6. Click Import from the menu on the left
7. Click Select File
8. Find the contacts.csv file and click Import

Transfer Calendar Events

1. Navigate to calendar.google.com and ensure you are logged into your Texas A&M Gmail Account
2. At the top right, click the gear icon, then click Settings
3. Click Import & Export, then save the .zip file
4. Open the .zip file and choose the .ics file(s) you want to import. Move these files to an accessible location of your preference
5. Navigate back to calendar.google.com and ensure you are logged into your personal Gmail account
6. At the top right, click the gear icon, then click Settings
7. Click Import & Export
8. Click Select file from your computer, then chose a desired .ics file
9. Choose which calendar to add the imported events to
   • By default, events will be imported into your primary calendar
10. Click Import

Backup All Desired Data

These steps will allow you to download every single piece of data from your Texas A&M Gmail account that you desire, including all the above data and more. This method can take up to a few days. Additionally, certain file formats will require a 3rd party to view the data later.

1. Navigate to takeout.google.com and ensure you are logged in with your Texas A&M Gmail account
2. Toggle/select all o the boxes that you would like to download. If all boxes are checked, all data associated with your account will be downloaded
   1. In certain cases, you can specify what format you want. Additionally, you can specify which data you want. For the Google Calendar section, it tells you it will export as an iCal and a JSON, while also giving you an option to choose which calendars you want to export
3. Click Next Step at the bottom of the page
4. For Delivery Method, select Send download link via email
5. For frequency, select Export once
6. For File type & size, select a file type that fits your system(a .zip is best for Windows PC) and the desired file size
   • A larger size will mean fewer files to download
7. Click Create export
8. After a while (potentially a few days), you will receive an email to your Texas A&M Gmail inbox with the files which you can download to your device
9. You now have a full backup of all Google data from your Texas A&M Gmail account, and you can upload the data to your personal Gmail account as desired

NOTE: If you get an error when trying to transfer data, please try using an incognito window and/or another browser.