Overview
Google Drive documents often contain hyperlinks to other Google Drive files. After migration to Microsoft 365, those links still point back to Google — so end users clicking them are redirected to a source tenant they typically no longer have access to.
Link Rewriting detects Google URLs embedded in migrated Office files and rewrites them to the corresponding file in the target Microsoft 365 tenant.
When rewriting happens
Supported Migration Scenarios
| Source | Target | Supported |
|---|---|---|
| Google Drive (My Drive) | OneDrive for Business | ✓ Supported |
| Google Drive (My Drive) | SharePoint Online | ✓ Supported |
| Google Drive (My Drive) | Microsoft Teams | ✓ Supported |
| Google Shared Drive | SharePoint Online | ✓ Supported |
| Google Shared Drive | Microsoft Teams | ✓ Supported |
| Google Sites | SharePoint | ✗ Not in scope |
| Any non-Google source | Anything | ✗ Not applicable |
The feature activates only when the migration source is a Google connector. It is silently ignored otherwise.
Prerequisites
Standard file-migration prerequisites (credentials, target reachability, etc.) apply as usual and are not repeated here.
No extra setup
Enabling Link Rewriting
Link Rewriting is controlled by a single toggle — Rewrite Links — available at two levels:
Global Settings
Applies to all objects in the context:
- File migration: Files → Global Settings → Link Rewriting
- Group migration: Groups → Global Settings → Link Rewriting
Specific Settings
Each individual File or Group object has a dedicated Settings tab where the same toggle can be overridden per object.
| Rewrite Links | Behavior |
|---|---|
| Off | Google links in migrated files remain unchanged. |
| On | Google links are rewritten to Microsoft 365 URLs whenever the target is known to the migration cache. |
How It Works
When Rewrite Links is enabled, link rewriting is performed in two automatic passes during the migration job, plus an optional manual step afterwards.
Link mapping table
Throughout the migration, Cloudiway automatically maintains a link mapping table: for every file migrated, the source Google URL and its corresponding Microsoft 365 target URL are recorded in real time. This table is built incrementally as files are migrated and serves as the reference used during link rewriting.
Rewriting during migration
Each time an Office file is migrated, its embedded links are inspected and matched against the mapping table. If the target URL is already known, the link is rewritten inline before the file is uploaded to Microsoft 365. Links whose target is not yet known — because the referenced file has not yet been migrated — are left unchanged and recorded in the unconverted-links list.
Remediation pass at the end of migration
When the migration job completes, documents that still contain unresolved links are listed in the View Links panel (see Viewing Unconverted Links). Since the mapping table is more complete at this point, most remaining links can now be resolved. Admins can trigger a remediation run from that panel: for each affected document, the file already present on Microsoft 365 is downloaded, its links are rewritten using the latest mapping table entries, and the file is re-uploaded.
Manual remediation (when needed afterwards)
Links that could still not be resolved at the end of the job (for example, because the referenced file is migrated only in a later run) remain in the unconverted-links list and can be completed at any time from View Links (see Viewing Unconverted Links), once additional files have been migrated.
Viewing Unconverted Links
To see the links that could not be resolved during migration:
- File migration: Files → User List → Actions column → View Links
- Group migration: Groups → User List → Actions column → View Links
View Links opens a list of every Google URL that could not be converted during the most recent migration.
| Column | Description |
|---|---|
| Source File | The migrated file containing the link |
| Source Relative Path | Path of the file in the Google drive |
| Target Relative Path | Path of the file in Microsoft 365 |
| Origin Link URL | The original Google URL detected |
| Status | Pending, Processing, Converted, or Failed — hover for the detailed reason (e.g. Target not found) |
| Converted URL | The target URL once conversion succeeds |
Only failures are listed
Remediating Unconverted Links
After additional files have been migrated (so the migration cache now contains more entries), unconverted links recorded during earlier runs may become resolvable.
From the View Links panel, admins can trigger a remediation action. The tool then:
- Downloads the target (already-migrated) file from Microsoft 365 — not the source.
- Re-applies the same rewriting logic, using the current state of the migration cache.
- Re-uploads the file to the target if any links were updated.
- Updates the status of each link row.
When to use manual remediation
Supported File Types & Size Limit
Link Rewriting inspects only Office Open XML documents (Google files are converted to Office Open XML during migration):
.docx— Word.xlsx— Excel.pptx— PowerPoint
Size limit
The following content types are not inspected:
- Legacy binary formats:
.doc,.xls,.ppt - PDFs, images, text files
- Embedded OLE objects
- Any other non-Office content
Limitations
- Excel
=HYPERLINK()formulas. When a link is produced by theHYPERLINK()formula, the URL is part of the formula text and is not rewritten. Such links continue to point to Google after migration. - Google Sites. Not covered by this feature.
- Legacy binary Office formats.
.doc,.xls,.pptare not inspected. - PDFs, images, embedded OLE objects. Not scanned.
- Files larger than 100 MB. Not inspected (see the Supported File Types & Size Limit section).
- Cross-tenant external references. A link pointing to content outside the source tenant being migrated cannot be mapped to a target.
- Manual edits after migration. New Google URLs introduced by an end user after migration are not rewritten — Link Rewriting is a migration-time feature.
Monitoring
Standard migration logs include Link Rewriting events. Each migrated object reports summary statistics at the end of the job:
- Total links detected
- Total links rewritten
- Total links left unconverted
- Files scanned / files skipped (unsupported type or size)
Use the statistics together with the View Links panel to decide whether a remediation run is worth triggering.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I need to run Link Rewriting as a separate job?
No. When Rewrite Links is enabled, rewriting happens automatically during file migration, with an additional automatic pass at the end of the migration job. Manual remediation from View Links is only needed for links still unresolved at that point — typically when the referenced file is migrated in a later run.
Will the feature modify my source Google files?
No. Source content is never modified. Rewriting happens on the target copy only.
Do I need extra licences or API quota?
No additional licences. Target API calls made during remediation consume standard Graph / SharePoint REST quota — the same as the main migration.
Can I preview which links will be rewritten before migration?
No. Detection requires opening each file during migration.
What about links pointing to files I chose not to migrate?
They cannot be resolved — the target does not exist. They remain as unconverted links pointing to Google.
Is the feature available for delta / incremental migrations?
Yes. Each pass rewrites inline using the current state of the migration cache, the end-of-migration pass replays unconverted links once the run is complete, and any links still unresolved can be remediated manually once the referenced files have been migrated in later runs.
Are successfully rewritten links stored anywhere?
No. The unconverted-links list contains only links that could not be rewritten. Successful conversions are applied directly to the file and are not tracked separately.