Has anyone had a successful, pain free migration to Google Mail?

[misswoolly]

Is the end of October now the cut-off date?  I was told originally it was the end of September.  We still haven't heard anything from Telus and I'm getting a bit worried.  Is there any way to contact someone to find out if we are going to receive a notice or if we have somehow been lost in the process?  Thank you.

[RonAKA]

@misswoolly - I looked back through my saved links with respect to the migration. See this one:

TELUS email powered by Google: What you need to know

It contains this information about how to schedule your migration. It appears you can use the Wi-Fi app to jump the queue and schedule your own time, rather than wait for an invitation.

"

Step 1: Schedule your migration

• You will receive an invitation from us. Follow the directions in the email to securely schedule your migration date and choose the details of your migration. (Please note that due to the number of customers who use TELUS email today, we will be migrating all accounts using a staggered approach.) You will receive an invitation anywhere from June 2020 onwards. Can’t wait to get your invite? You can get an early access pass through the My Wi-Fi app, in the Notifications section. This app is free, and it helps you take control of your TELUS Wi-Fi
• Schedule your migration by logging in to TELUS Webmail: This way, you will securely be able to choose your migration preferences. If you don’t remember your password, please visit telus.com/reset
• Learn how to schedule your TELUS email migration
• "

However, make sure you are prepared for your migration. I would make sure you have backups of any mail that is on the Telus server. If you are not using an email software program to view and manage your email, you should consider downloading and installing one like Thunderbird. Use the POP3 method to link to the Telus server. It will download your mail and keep a copy on your hard drive. It will also accept the Gmail account that will get set up so you have all your email in one place (but not in the same account). 

[Oldislander]

It only transfers part of Telus mail. No mailboxes and several other things disappear and Telus personnel have no idea how to deal with it.

[RonAKA]

@Oldislander 

Yes, that is why I like to have Thunderbird download all my mail and not trust Telus to do anything. That is what I did and never lost anything. I did forget that there was some email in my Telus Webmail, Sent Mail, folder, but Telus did successfully transfer that to Gmail. 

[BA2020]

Thank you for your support and information.
I have been on hold so much it is very frustrating. I am not computer savvy and especially don’t want to mess up the business email.

[BA2020]

Also wanted to add we are unable to even open our MS Outlook 10 program on the computer.It seems to be trying to connect to the Internet also. Did read that can change the program to work “offline“? then would be able to at least look at offline folders? - just not sure of anything!
Telus seems to have just migrated us all into their own type of delete folder - we are all in the “closed & done” folder.

[RonAKA]

@BA2020 

It seems like Outlook may be trying to connect to the old Telus account, and it needs to be set up to access the new Gmail account. Unfortunately I have not used Outlook for many years and I don't remember much about it, other than I was not happy with it, and made the change to Thunderbird. 

[lgartner]

My conversion was a nightmare. Every mail moved over to google however now my Outlook 2016 client will not recognize the imap google server and my contacts are totally messed up. I am an ex 20 year employee of Telus and understand IT pretty well. Telus "help desk" said wait 24 hours and see if it works...and its been 3 days and it still doesn't work on Outlook. Fair warning to others...this migration is not well planned. Back up your old info.

--------> I would also HIGHLY suggest that if you have not used your telus online webmail contacts as your primary contacts; that before you go through this migration that you delete every single contact inside of the telus webmail and then upload (import) the contact list that you do use regularly into the telus webmail......or else your contacts will be as messed up as mine.

[vangirl604]

My emails transferred over, but not my contacts, notes or calendar.

Also I cannot set up telus email in Outlook 365 on my laptop

[RonAKA]

@vangirl604 

Are you trying to set up Outlook using POP3 or IMAP? I recall seeing some posts indicating there are issues using POP3 and the new Gsuite Gmail. I set my Thunderbird up using IMAP and it worked fine. I previously had Thunderbird set up with POP3 on the Telus Server. However, I was scared off trying to do it based on the negative posts here. 

[essjay1]

@lgartner  @vangirl604 

For those having apparent issues with contacts, my experience might be of use. Google annoyingly has Contacts as an app unto itself, which you have to pick from the Apps grid.   After conversion, my contacts weren't visible in that app.  However, when I tried to compose a new message and entered the beginnings of a contact/addressee, I was presented with the pick list with the appropriate contacts listed.  That was evidence that they made it through the migration.  Coincidentally, a friend mentioned that her apparent problems with the migration had resolved when she shut down her computer that night and started up the next day.  Behold, the contacts were now listed in the Contacts app.  So, I tried the same thing.  I shut down and rebooted, and the Contacts appeared in the Contacts app.

This note may be too late to solve some people's frustration, but it might be of use to others.

[RonAKA]

Yes, with Google, mail, contacts, and the calendar are all separate apps. I don't particularly like that aspect, but I guess they must do it to keep the app size down?? That was what I like about Thunderbird. It had all functions in the one program. I pretty much have it back to that state, but it is a bit more complicated with Google and my iPhone in the picture. I now have Thunderbird contacts, Google Contacts, iPhone Contacts, and Ooma Contacts (VOIP) that I am trying to keep all in sync. It is still a bit of a work in progress... I guess what I have gained in this whole forced migration to Google is that I now have mail and a calendar on my iPhone. 

[misswoolly]

Thank you for posting this information.  Much appreciated.

[BigBen121]

I have survived the migration and it went really well - I was surprised.  In this household there are two iphones, two ipads, one android phone, a macbookpro, mac mini and two windows PC.

All the apple products went really fast without and issues setup was very easy and the information Telus provided was easy to follow.

The PC's were more of a challenge  - both run Outlook 365 and I thought I would use my skills by manually setting them up - no go.

I ended up using the GSuite sync tool which worked really well - all the mail and all the folders we have were imported as expected to both machines.

The hiccough were contacts but that was not a Telus/Gmail issues as I have mine in icloud and my wife's are in outlook.com. However it was easy to import once the conversion was done. All in all I was surprised how easy this was and how relatively quickly it went!

[canucks4life]

Curious if we're now able to keep our telus.net Email address after the migration no charge if switching Internet providers 🤔

[sandmanbc71]

Note: you might need a cell phone to set up your Google account.

Well, I didn't get very far in the migration today. I used my work email for the alternate email required. I clicked the link and found the telus.net account. 

Next: "This device isn't recognized. For your security, Google wants to make sure it's really you." - the only option they provide is to send a security code to a cell phone, which I do not have. 

This does not make any sense either, how does sending a security code to an unregistered cell phone number help verify "it's really you"?

I will try and sort it out on my Chromebook at home tonight.

I know this is no longer a common issues, but my wife and I try and live cell phone free.

[Oldislander]

I have had similar issues. I avoid using Google mail and the only cell phone we have is for travel and it rarely gets used during the pandemic.

I installed Mac Mail on my iMac and my old Telus is working with all the mailboxes and saved data, which was not the case when we tried Google.

Telus let their customers down by switching before they had the ability to do so smoothly, which has not been the case as we have seen and heard.

John

[NFtoBC]

The process was to identify the cellphone number while logged into your Telus account, thus not an unregistered cellphone number. You then identify yourself with that cellphone. You will likely need to contact Telus directly to address this issue, as other credentials will be needed.

[oldandpissed]

no email for 6+ days and no help despite many HOURS of phone calls. awful service and no recourse , told I could leave Telus but would still have to pay for 2 years. customer for about 25 years with no real problems until now. 

[sandmanbc71]

Yep, which means that this will not be a "pain free migration". Nothing like waiting for a real person at Telus support. 

It would have been nice if Telus had arranged for back-up security codes to be sent with the migration email sent to the alternate account.  This is Telus' lack of foresight rather than Google. My work IT did a similar migration and sent Google back-up codes and registered user phone #s (landline included) prior to the migration, so all went smoothly. No cell phones required.

These are all things Telus could have investigated prior to mandating this migration and sent a pre-migration survey to users to make sure everything would be addressed prior to migration.

[Oldislander]

FYI I tried to reply to your comment on Telus Neighbourhood as well as another post and it says that I have been “banned from the site”. I guess Telus does not appreciate customers criticizing them or revealing the truth about their incompetence.

John

[NFtoBC]

There has been a recurring error on the site today:
"The requested URL was rejected. Please consult with your administrator.
Your support ID is: 15275532863967274925"

This does not mean you have been banned. Telus bans spammers, delete vulgar posts (and repeated offenders) and posts which are wildly off topic. That's about it.

Clearly if you can post here, you have not been banned.

[Oldislander]

I was wondering about that…these are heading out via email. But, when I logged in I got a banned message with no explanation.

[giantbrownguy]

Noticed you didn't get a reply. Likely not. The @telus.net email is tied to your account. They have no incentive to let you keep it if you leave. 

[giantbrownguy]

The service is set up through a corporate G-Suite system, so they are paying Google to run the @telus.net emails. It's not the same as the free gmail email accounts.

[giantbrownguy]

I was talking to one of the administrators about it. Apparently it's happening randomly to a bunch of people. They've escalated to their internal teams. 

[giantbrownguy]

For what it's worth, I did my parents' migration this week. They've had their Telus accounts for basically 20 years and it went through without major issue. The only thing that annoyed me is I was only allowed to schedule the migration on a Tuesday or Thursday so I had to go out to their place on a weekday after work to make sure they could continue to use their emails. 

I used to switch between Shaw and Telus every few years to score better deals so I avoided using Telus webmail. I've been with Telus now for 10 years or so consistently, but I'm entrenched with non-Telus email. I do wish my providers were subject to Canadian privacy laws, but ¯\_(ツ)_/¯.

[sandmanbc71]

Chromebook and other Google Devices - change login from telus.net email before migrating.

Thought I would share my latest adventure. I finally managed to complete the migration but can no longer login to my owner account on my Chromebook because it was linked to my existing Google account that used my telus.net email to login. The new Gmail account set up through the Telus migration voided my original Google account. I can fix it, but it is just one more hassle that could have been avoided if Telus had done some research first.

[sandmanbc71]

Dear Telus Google migration team,

I would have been great to know about this before I did the migration: https://support.google.com/a/answer/7044710 

[essjay1]

@sandmanbc71 

If I'm understanding you correctly, they did tell you.  Or at least they tried.

One of the emails they sent you pointed you to

Migration Day Checklist

https://www.telus.com/en/bc/support/article/day-one-checklist-google-email

Under the heading Steps to activate your TELUS email powered by Google, Step 2 is:

1. Important: If presented with the screen below, the steps in this page will not help you set up your email. Please consult this other checklist instead: Migration day checklist for Google users

The screen they illustrate is the one that would have let you select your personal Google account that used the Telus address as your account ID and sent you off on a different path to the migration:  Migration day checklist for Google users

https://www.telus.com/en/bc/support/article/migration-day-checklist-google-users

Step 3 on the Checklist page reads

3. If you don’t see the "Choose an account" screen, you will be asked to enter your password.

To me, that "If you don’t see ..." is a flag to go back and double check the previous step to be sure I got it right.

I am posting this based on my understanding of what you described.  Are you saying that you followed the process for the Migration for Google users and it wiped your existing Google account anyway?  If so, it's no wonder you are upset!