Overview
When trying to delete an email account from Google Workspace from an employee that has left the company, you need to transfer the following, prior to deleting the email account:
- Emails
- Drive and Docs
- Include files that are not shared with anyone.
- Calendar
- Also release all calendar resources booked in events organized by the user
- Only future non-private events with at least one guest/resource shall be transferred.
- Brand Accounts – Brand Accounts and their data will be transferred to a new owner.
- Data Studio – Include assets that are not shared with anyone.
Error Message
When transferring the emails, we are getting the following error message: “Error (retrying) The connection to Gmail via IMAP failed. Please log in via your web browser. (18015)”.
“The data migration service couldn’t connect to the source Gmail account. Verify you’ve completed the personal Gmail account setup steps and try again.”
Platform
Google Workspace
Problem
When trying to delete an email account from Google Workspace,
- Go to Admin/Users
https://admin.google.com/ac/users - Choose the user that you want to delete
- DELETE USER
- Then choose “Migrate the user’s existing email“
https://admin.google.com/ac/dms - Add user, and enter source email address that will be deleted, the password and the destination Google Workspace account.
- When starting the process, we are getting the following error message in the Status:
“Error (retrying) The connection to Gmail via IMAP failed. Please log in via your web browser (18015).”
Resolution
- Go to the Gmail Account of the user that will be deleted, enter user name and password.
- Go to Settings,
- Forwarding and POP/IMAP
- IMAP Access
Enable IMAP - After that, go to Google Admin, and select the user that will be deleted
- Go to Security
- Go to Login Challenge, and disable for 10 minutes
- Turn off identity questions for 10 minutes after a suspicious attempt to sign in.
- Try one more time to start the migration of the emails
