How to move files from Dropbox to Google Drive

Dropbox and Google Drive don’t talk to each other, so getting your files from one to the other means either passing them through your computer or using a tool that connects to both. Here are three ways, from the simplest to the most hands-off.

Before you start

• Check your Google storage. Google’s free 15 GB is shared between Drive, Gmail and Google Photos. Click Storage in the left menu at drive.google.com to see how much is left.
• Export Dropbox Paper docs. Paper docs only open in Dropbox, so export them to another format before you move them.
• Decide about converting. Google Drive can turn Word, Excel and PowerPoint files into Google Docs, Sheets and Slides as you upload them. If you want that, turn on “Convert uploads” in Drive’s settings first. Leave it off to keep your files exactly as they are.
• Moving a whole company? If you’re moving a Dropbox business account to Google Workspace, your Workspace super admin can use Google’s Data Migration service in the Admin console, which supports Dropbox. This guide is for personal accounts and small teams.

Method 1: Download from Dropbox, upload to Google Drive

1. Sign in at dropbox.com, select the files or folders you want, and click Download. Folders download as zip files.
2. Unzip the download on your computer.
3. Go to drive.google.com, click New, then Folder upload or File upload, and choose what you unzipped. You can also drag folders straight into the browser window.

Dropbox only zips a folder for download if it’s under 250 GB and holds fewer than 10,000 files. Split bigger folders into smaller downloads, or use method 2.

Method 2: Use the Dropbox and Google Drive desktop apps

1. Install the Dropbox desktop app and Google Drive for desktop, and sign in to both.
2. Open your Dropbox folder in Finder or File Explorer. Google Drive appears as its own drive with a My Drive folder inside it.
3. Copy the folders you want from Dropbox into My Drive. Google Drive for desktop uploads them in the background.

Copy rather than move. Moving files out of your Dropbox folder deletes them from Dropbox right away, before Google Drive has finished uploading them. And if your Dropbox files are online-only, the Dropbox app downloads each one before it can be copied, so make sure you have enough free disk space.

Method 3: Copy straight from Dropbox to Google Drive with Axclaim

Axclaim copies files from Dropbox to Google Drive without them passing through your computer.

1. Connect both accounts. Google Drive is part of Axclaim’s Premium plan. Open Settings, then Cloud Services, and connect Dropbox and Google Drive.
2. Open Migrate Files. Set the Source Service to Dropbox and the Destination Service to Google Drive.
3. Keep “Skip duplicate files” ticked, so files that already exist with the same name in the destination’s Migrate folder aren’t copied twice.
4. Select your files and click Migrate.

5. Sort the copies. Your files appear in a folder called Migrate in My Drive. Folders aren’t recreated, so move the files into the folders you want. Everything stays in Dropbox until you delete it.

After the move

• Check the files. Compare file counts and open a few files of each type in Google Drive.
• Look for duplicates. If some files were already in Google Drive, you now have two copies. Axclaim confirms copies between Dropbox and Google Drive by checksum for files up to 4 MB and shows larger files with the same name and size as possible matches. Our guide to finding duplicates across cloud storage explains how.
• Share again. Shared links and shared folders don’t move. Share the new copies from Google Drive.
• Clean up Dropbox last. Deleted Dropbox files can be restored for a limited time (30 days on the Basic and Plus plans), so a mistake can still be undone.

Moving between other services? Our guide to moving files between cloud storage services covers every combination.