How to Transfer a Former Employee’s Email to Another User in Google Workspace

By Patronum

November 13, 2026

Read Time: 6 mins

How to Transfer a Former Employee’s Email to Another User in Google Workspace image

Which route fits what you need?
How do you copy a leaver’s mailbox with the data import tool?
When is delegation enough?
When should you export from Vault instead?
What about new mail sent to the old address?
Restore a leaver’s email into another user with Patronum Archive
FAQ
Sources

To transfer a former employee’s email to another Google Workspace user, copy it with the Admin console data import tool before the account is deleted. For temporary work in the mailbox, delegation lets a colleague read, send and delete its messages, but it isn’t a copy. Future mail to the old address is a separate job.

This page is about getting old mail into someone else’s hands. How long to keep it is a separate decision, covered in email and data retention when an employee leaves.

Which route fits what you need?

Pick the route by the job: a working copy for a successor, temporary access, a legal record or catching new mail.

Route	What the colleague gets	What it needs	Best for
Data import tool	A copy of the messages, labels and stars in their own Gmail	The source must authorize the import; the account must still exist	A successor who needs the history day to day
Gmail delegation	Read, send and delete in the leaver’s mailbox; not a copy	Set up while the account is active	Short handovers
Vault export	An MBOX or PST file	The leaver’s data covered by Vault	Legal, HR and records requests
New-mail routing	Future messages only	A recipient address map, or the address moved to an active user or group	Customers still writing to the old address
Patronum Archive	Archived mail restored into a selected user’s Gmail on request	Archive before the account is deleted	Keeping mail long term in your own storage

Google lists copying mail to a new or existing account among its options for preserving a former employee’s data (Google).

How do you copy a leaver’s mailbox with the data import tool?

Run an import from the leaver’s account into the colleague’s, using whichever source route Google documents for your setup. The tool copies mail, including drafts and sent messages, read status, and for Google sources, labels and stars. The original stays in place, and Google says attachments come across unless the message plus attachment is larger than 25 MB (Google).

Google documents two source types, and they’re authorized differently (Google import instructions):

Another Google Workspace account. A super admin of the source account must approve an authorization request, and you upload an import map that pairs each source user with one target user (Google).
A Gmail account. The owner of the source account approves the request. Google’s troubleshooting page says this address can belong to a personal user or to a user in your own Google Workspace account, and that your app access policies can stop that user from giving consent (Google troubleshooting).

Follow Google’s instructions for the route you choose rather than a combined recipe; we haven’t tested either in a live handover. A few points hold for both. Authorization requests expire after 24 hours, so set it up during the notice period while the right person can approve. In an urgent exit, contain access first; never hold back suspension while you wait for import authorization. If the account has been deleted, Google says you must restore it within 20 days before copying its data (Google). And plan to exit the import when it’s done, which removes the tool’s access.

When the import finishes, check the result before anyone relies on it: open a sample of old and recent messages, confirm labels and attachments came across, and read the report of failed or skipped items.

When is delegation enough?

When a colleague needs to answer threads for a few weeks, not keep the mail. Google says delegates can read, send and delete messages for the delegated account, though they can’t chat from it or change its password (Google). That’s full working access, so choose the delegate as carefully as you’d choose who gets a copy.

Delegation is access, not a transfer, and it depends on the leaver’s account. Google’s pages don’t say whether a delegate keeps access once the account is suspended, so don’t build the handover on that assumption; if the colleague needs the mail after suspension, copy it. Our Gmail delegation guide covers setup.

When should you export from Vault instead?

When legal, HR or an auditor needs a file rather than an inbox. Vault exports Gmail content as PST or MBOX, and Google keeps export files available for 15 days (Google). If a mailbox is the end goal, Google documents migrating PST files into Workspace accounts (Google).

Vault only helps if the leaver’s data is covered by it. An Archived User license on its own isn’t enough: Google says archived users’ data is protected by Vault retention rules and holds when the user has a Vault license or an Archived User subscription that includes Vault (Google). An export is also a snapshot. It doesn’t replace a retention rule or a legal hold.

What about new mail sent to the old address?

Routing handles future mail; it doesn’t move a single existing message.

Redirect with a recipient address map. In Apps > Google Workspace > Gmail > Routing, use the setting named Email forwarding using recipient address map to send mail for the old address to a colleague. Google says changes can take up to 24 hours (Google). General routing rules don’t apply to suspended users, and Google’s routing page points admins to this address map guide, or to default routing, to set up delivery for them (Google). Once it’s in place, send test messages from both an internal and an external sender, with the intended message scope selected.
Move the address to an active colleague or group. Rename the retained leaver account, remove the alias Google creates for its old address, and assign that address to an active colleague or a Google Group. When you rename a user, Google turns the old address into an alias on that account (Google), and alias changes can take up to 24 hours (Google). Check that the address is free and that the receiving mailbox or group accepts the mail you expect; a group’s Who can post setting and your organization’s policy on outside senders decide whether external messages get through (Google Groups Help). This approach doesn’t depend on delivery to the suspended account. Don’t delete the leaver just to release the address.

If a team should share the inbox, see Google Groups vs a shared mailbox. For an auto-reply, see out-of-office for an employee who left.

Restore a leaver’s email into another user with Patronum Archive

Patronum Archive moves a leaver’s email (Mbox) and Google Vault data to your organization’s own Google Cloud Storage bucket, then restores mail into a selected user’s Gmail when someone needs it (Patronum Archive). At offboarding, the policy’s Archive User Email option sends the mail to a bucket you connect in Patronum (Patronum).

For the restore, Patronum’s help describes a full restore into a selected user’s Gmail, or a partial one: select a date range and apply a label to restored messages so they’re easy to find. You can also filter for specific messages. Progress shows in the Live Task section of the dashboard (Patronum).

Archived Users list on the Patronum Archive page with Name, Email Address, Storage Bucket and Archive Date columns — The Archived Users list on the Archive page in the Patronum console. User details are blurred.

That changes the timing. You don’t have to copy every mailbox into a manager’s inbox on the day someone leaves, just in case. You archive once, delete the account when your retention policy allows, and restore the slice someone asks for later. Patronum says Archive removes the need for Archived User licenses; compare the cost of keeping accounts in our Archived User license guide. Archive covers email and Vault data only, not Drive, Calendar or Chat.

FAQ

Can I transfer email after the user is deleted?

Only by restoring the user within 20 days and then copying. After that, Gmail data that wasn’t copied, exported or archived is gone.

Should the mail go into the manager’s inbox or a separate account?

Either works with the data import tool. Imported mail lands alongside the target’s own mail, so some teams use a dedicated handover account to keep the manager’s inbox clean. The target needs a license with Gmail turned on.

Does forwarding a leaver’s address move their old email?

No. A recipient address map or a reassigned address only affects messages that arrive after the change.

If you’d rather archive leaver mail once and restore it on request than copy every mailbox into someone’s inbox, see how Patronum Archive keeps it in your own Google Cloud Storage bucket.