Dropbox to Google Drive
Why Switch?
- Bundled with Workspace. If you already pay for Google Workspace for email, Calendar, and Docs, you're already paying for Drive. Keeping a separate Dropbox subscription is pure duplication.
- Cheaper at scale. Google Workspace Business Starter is $7.20/user/mo with 30 GB of storage. Dropbox Standard Business is $24/user/mo with 15 TB shared. Unless you're file-heavy video/design, Workspace wins on cost.
- Native collaboration. Docs, Sheets, Slides, and Forms live in Drive. No round-trips through "open with Word" or third-party sync.
- One tool, one backup. Fewer places for files to exist means fewer places for them to get lost.
| Dropbox | Google Drive | |
|---|---|---|
| Entry price (business) | $24/user/mo Standard | $7.20/user/mo Starter |
| Storage at entry tier | 15 TB shared pool | 30 GB/user |
| File sync | Best-in-class | Reliable |
| Native docs | Paper (limited) | Docs, Sheets, Slides |
| Best for | File-heavy teams (video, CAD) | Most founders on Workspace |
What You'll Need
- Admin access to both Dropbox and Google Workspace
- Estimated total storage needed - Workspace Starter's 30 GB/user may not be enough for design-heavy teams
- ~2 hours for teams under 10 GB; longer for larger migrations
Step-by-Step Migration
Sort Dropbox content by size. Identify the 20% of folders that hold 80% of your data (usually project archives, old design files, or raw video). Ask: do these need to move, or can they go to cold storage (Google Archive, S3)?
List every shared folder with external collaborators. Shared links are the most fragile part of a migration - every broken link is a broken relationship.
If you're on Google Workspace already, verify per-user storage. Business Starter = 30 GB/user. Standard = 2 TB/user. If you're file-heavy, plan the upgrade before migration.
For shared folders, use Shared Drives not "My Drive". Shared Drives belong to the org, not the individual, so files survive when employees leave.
Two options:
Google Workspace Transfer Tool - free for Workspace admins, transfers Dropbox folders to Drive. Best for one-off migrations.
MultCloud / cloudHQ / rclone - third-party cloud-to-cloud transfer, better for ongoing sync during the parallel period.
For very large transfers (1TB+), download locally then upload to Drive via Drive for Desktop - faster and more reliable than cloud-to-cloud APIs.
Create a Shared Drive per major folder structure. Dropbox's "Shared Folder" → Drive's "Shared Drive" is a one-to-one map.
Invite teammates with the right access level:
Manager - add/remove members, manage content
Content manager - add/edit/delete files
Contributor - add/edit files, no delete
Commenter - comment only
Viewer - read onlyThis is the painful step. Every Dropbox share link in your:
Contracts / proposals - grep through Google Docs and Notion for dropbox.com. Replace each.
Email signatures - update templates.
External tools - Slack canvases, Notion embeds, CRM attachments.
Use a shared spreadsheet to track which external links have been updated. The first 30 days after switch will reveal links you missed - expect to fix a handful on demand.
Drive's sharing model is stricter than Dropbox's. After migration, audit:
External collaborators - are they in the right Shared Drive with the right role?
Link sharing - did you enable "anyone with the link" on files that need it?
Sensitive files - are they locked to specific people, not shared-drive-wide?
One permission mistake can expose a whole folder. Take this step seriously.
Keep Dropbox live for 1-2 weeks. Update bookmarks, uninstall Dropbox from dev machines, redirect internal docs.
Post a pinned note in team comms: "Dropbox is going away on [date]. Everything is in Drive now. Ping me if a link breaks."
Before canceling: export a final backup of Dropbox to a private Drive folder or S3 bucket. That's your insurance policy.
Then downgrade to Free or cancel the Dropbox business subscription entirely. Most teams save $200-500/user/year net.
Common Gotchas
Workspace's storage is per-seat, pooled only in Enterprise. A 10-person team on Business Starter has 300 GB total - not a single 300 GB pool for the whole company. Plan accordingly.
Dropbox keeps 30 days of version history on Standard; Drive keeps 30 days unless files are pinned. If version history is load-bearing for your team, pin critical files explicitly.
Paper documents don't port to Docs cleanly. Export each Paper doc as Word, import to Docs. For heavy Paper users, this step is the longest.
Dropbox handles 10GB+ video files gracefully. Drive's upload size limit is 5TB but sync performance on large files is slower. For video-heavy workflows, Dropbox may still win.
Migrate without breaking things.
The Migration Plan gives you a step-by-step playbook for this switch with rollback steps, time estimates, and the named gotchas other guides skip. £59 one-time, instant download.
Get the Migration Plan · £59 →Or want it done for you? Work with me →
