For the last 10+ years I have been using a bunch of Google services in my day to day life, including:
- GMail
- Calendar
- Contacts
- Drive
- Chrome
- Login with Google
- Google Authenticator
- YouTube
- Google Search
However, the thought of my entire online presence relying on a multi-billion dollar company and their good will to not abuse their power has been lingering in the back of my head for a long time. A few days ago I decided to finally pull the plug and migrate everything away from Google. This is my experience, de-google-fying my life as far as possible.
Table of Contents
Plan of Action
The first step in this undertaking was to make a plan. Where can I migrate to? The following table is an overview of the options I evaluated.
Note: I won’t say which of the options I decided on, as I don’t want to influence anyones decision but the process will be largely the same regardless of your choice.
| Google Service | Alternative |
| Mailbox.org, Outlook, iCloud, Domain included Mailbox, Posteo, Proton Mail | |
| Calendar | Outlook, iCloud, Nextcloud, Domain included Calendar |
| Contacts | Outlook, iCloud, Nextcloud, Domain included Contacts |
| Drive | Local NAS, OneDrive, iCloud, Nextcloud, Proton Drive |
| Chrome | Firefox, Safari, Edge, Brave, Opera |
| Login with Google | – |
| Google Authenticator | Microsoft Authenticator, 2FAS, 1Password, Bitwarden Authenticator |
| Google Search | DuckDuck Go, Bing, Startpage, Brave Search |
The next step was to create an overview of all the accounts that needed an address change. Luckily I am using a password manager so finding all my accounts was not an issue. This was the first time I noticed how much of my life was stored on Google’s servers.
Migration
This is where the fun begins. Migrating your data.
Migrating Google Mail is simple in theory. All I needed to do was to change my email address on all the platforms I use. Simple is a big word here as I had to login to every platform to change my email and some of them didn’t even have the option to change it. In these cases the only options are to either contact the support or delete and reopen the account. This is by far the most tedious process of the entire migration and depending on the platform may require additional effort.
Calendar
Migrating Google calendar is easy as it has a built-in export function. I was able to export my calendar as an ical file and import it into my new solution. Nice!
Contacts
Migrating Google Contacts is almost as easy as with Google Calendar. I was able to mark all my contacts and export them as a csv file. The import process was a little bit trickier as the new system needs to understand the format of the csv file but I got it to work without any big issues.
Drive
Migrating Google Drive was as easy as downloading the contents of “My Drive” via web browser and saving them to the new solution. Luckily I didn’t have anything shared with others so that was nothing to worry about. If that is the case for you, you may need to re-share said files with the new solution or find another way. The download via web interface also converts any Google Docs to their office counterpart, which is a nice feature.
One thing to evaluate with your Google Drive alternative is if you need active file syncing. Some solutions don’t provide this feature.
Chrome
Replacing a web browser was not an issue. Most modern web browsers even have a feature that allows importing and syncing of bookmarks.
Login with Google
This one was tricky. I had a few accounts with Login with Google functionality enabled. Google provides an overview of all connected platforms, meaning I could login to most of them to change my authentication method. Some platforms however were a little stubborn and I ultimately had to delete some accounts. Not an issue in my case but beware that you might run into trouble here.
The overview can be found here:
My Account -> Data and Privacy -> Third-Party Apps and ServicesAuthenticator
Google Authenticator has a built-in export feature that allows for easy migration. Nearly all 2FA solutions support importing TOTP codes. No big deal.
YouTube
As you may know, I have a YouTube Channel where I upload all kinds of tech related videos. The DailyCompute brand account is tied to my Google Account, which I want to delete sooner or later.
This is where I had to find a compromise as I wanted to continue to upload my videos to YouTube. I went ahead and opened a new account with an email address that will not be associated with anything but YouTube (think youtube@domain.com) and transfered brand ownership to said account. That way I am still able to have my YouTube presence but without anything else tied to that Google Account.
Google Search
This one is easy. Nothing to migrate.
Things you can’t migrate
Sadly some things cannot be migrated, one of these things being app purchases. Purchases and subcriptions are tied to the Google Account and will be deleted with the account.
Dine-in or Takeout?
Google Takeout let’s you download all data that Google has stored about you, including emails, drive data, calendar entries, contacts, purchase history and analytics details.
The End – For now!
This is a living article. I will try to update this article as my de-google-fying journey continues. I am planning on analyzing my Takeout data at some point. If I ever do that, I will add my findings to this article.
Thanks for reading!
