How can I change a mailbox to a group address in Google Apps?

Question

We have a small company that uses Gmail on Google Apps for Email. We have some personal email addresses, and one that a few people share, [email protected] now we are planning to upgrade to a premium account and we would like to use [email protected] as a shared address. So a few people share the in- and outbox of that address.

Is there a simple way to transform the user-address [email protected] to a group-address? and keep all the emails in the in- and outbox?

See the accepted answer on my previous question.

Answer 1

To directly answer your question, no. Unfortunately it is not possible to simply convert an account to a Group.

You can follow the procedure below to migrate the mail from the account to the Group however some data will be lost. For instance the Group won't retain any of the labels / folders in the Gmail account. Additionally Groups doesn't support contacts or calendar data.

1. Rename the account
2. When the account is renamed, it will automatically be given an alias matching the accounts old name. Delete this alias.
3. Create a Google Group using the old / desired email address. As soon as the alias is deleted you can create a Google group using the same email address.
4. Use GAMME (Google Apps Migration for Microsoft Exchange) to migrate the email from the now renamed account to the Group
5. Delete the account

GAMME supports Google Apps to Google Apps migration of mail. Additional information can be found here: Migrate data from Exchange using GAMME The GAMME Admin guide (a PDF) can be found here.