Google Workspace turning off Google Sync

Google is officially 'sunsetting' their sync tool. This means that in the future you could have issues when syncing your emails to your computer. The official article from Google is below:-

Transition your organization off Google Sync - Google Workspace

More Detail: Google syncs all emails, calendars, contacts and tasks from Google's online systems to your computer and displays them in Outlook or other email client software for easy management. Google sync is being retired and with no replacement available, the expectation is that everyone will change the way they operate by changing to work online, in the cloud at gmail.com, instead of syncing to their computer. Working online at gmail.com with separate browser tabs for calendar, email, contacts and the like is the best way to operate Google’s Workspace system for no issues and maximum compatibility.

If you can adapt to working online, great, however, if you don’t like the look and feel of Gmail online (which is probably why you use another method like Outlook in the first place), then another option is to simply change platforms altogether and migrate away from using Google as your backend email system.

IS THERE A WAY AROUND THIS?

There are all sorts of email clients that will work with Google, but sunsetting the sync tool will cause issues if you are an Outlook user so you may need to make changes. There are many plugins that are specifically designed to work in Outlook with many business systems, so using 3rd party clients like Thunderbird and em-client will more than likely not be compatible with those. Typically in I.T. a lot could change with Google’s plans and intentions so we cannot give any guarantees or predictions on what the future holds. But one thing is certain - email is a business critical function and not an area where we like to cut corners or incorporate workarounds.

WILL MICROSOFT 365 HAVE THE SAME ISSUE?

Microsoft are the manufacturer's of Outlook and they also have their own email system called 365 which is specifically designed to work with Outlook.  Thus issues are rare due to maximum compability. Plus Microsoft’s products such as word and excel are naturally designed to work together seamlessly with Outlook and Sharepoint which can be both in the cloud and sync’d to your computer.  So if you would like to continue to sync your emails, calendar, tasks and contacts to Outlook and have everything from one provider (Microsoft), then it makes perfect sense to switch to Microsoft's 365 email system for maximum compatibility and integration with all their systems and software. Plus you just pay 1 invoice to Microsoft for both Email and Office software as they combine this into 1 product.

WHAT’S INVOLVED IN MIGRATING TO MICROSOFT?

Migrating systems is a massive project and needs to be completed accurately, otherwise there will be knock-on effects and downtime. There are all sorts of ‘gotya’s’ and ‘catches’ that many people don’t realise exist. It is not straightforward to untangle your life from Google so migrating away from Google should not be taken lightly! We have many examples of items that often get overlooked as part of a migration. A few examples are below:-
1. Your actual Google account may be used to login to other websites, instead of a username and password. After migrating away you will lose access to all accounts which login via Google instead of a separate username and password. So these accounts need to be identified. See below.

2. Leaving Google could mean you lose all your Google reviews.
3. All your photos may be on your Google account which could be lost.
4. All your contacts will be stored in your Google account which you will lose.
5. There are known issues with email accounts not migrating over if they have over a certain amount of emails and attachments in them.
6. Google Documents will not migrate over so these will need to be converted to a Microsoft format first.
7. Shared documents internally and externally will stop working so permissions need to be understood.
8. Shared calendars or additional calendars will not be migrated and need to be investigated and re-setup.
9. Our list goes on…. and on…I think you get the point that we know what to look for and how to do everything fully.

NEXT STEPS

Hence, we require an initial audit, feasibility study and scoping exercise to establish the extent of the project and associated costs.

This migration to Microsoft project is a one-off investment that needs to be completed if you want to continue to use Microsoft Outlook as your email program for full syncing of all items mentioned. We, therefore, need your authorisation to start the project off with 3-4 hours of work for audit, feasibility and scoping so we know where we stand, what needs to be done and how long things will take, along with potential costs.

Our goal is to set you up to best practice on Microsoft Systems which includes going the extra mile with all the latest advanced security requirements of MFA for each user account so that you are not left open to potential hacking situations.

Big changes like this can always be scary, but you can count on Computer Clinic’s substantial experience with this particular kind of work as it is a project we complete on a regular basis. To book in your initial audit/scope/feasibility study, please get in touch asap as September’s deadline will soon be upon us. Call 03 3 90 91 92 to book your spot.