MATRIXC BEST PRACTICES -  

STAFF RESIGNATION AND DATA BACKUP 

 
 
 
 
MatrixC Best Practices: 
Handling Staff Resignations and Data Backup 

Updated: 11th September 2019 

Version: 1.2   

 
 
MATRIXC BEST PRACTICES -  
STAFF RESIGNATION AND DATA BACKUP 
 

Contents 
 
1. Handling Staff Resignations 3 
1.a. Preparations Before Recycling or Deleting the Account 3 
Downloading Data via Google Takeout 4 
G Drive: Transferring file ownership 5 
Google Email Migration service 7 
1.b. Recycling Accounts & Deleting Data 10 
Recycling the Old Account for a New User 10 
Impact of changing/renaming a user name 11 
Google Vault FAQ 12 
Resetting the Password for the Recycled Account 13 
Add or Remove an email Alias (For Google Vault Users) 14 
Remove a user's email alias 14 
Deleting Old Data (For non Google Vault User) 15 
Routing Future Mail to A Supervisor (via Alias) 15 
Viewing the MBOX Archive 16 
 
   

 
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MATRIXC BEST PRACTICES -  
STAFF RESIGNATION AND DATA BACKUP 
 

1. Handling Staff Resignations 

1.a. Preparations Before Recycling or Deleting the 

Account 
One of the first steps to do is to check whether the user account or the organization has Google 
Vault service to it. 
 
Normally Basic account users do not have it, but an organization may decide to purchase 
Google Vault feature for specific individual user account. Or if the organization instead has 
purchased it under Business account then all users in the domain has Google Vault feature. 
 
So if the specific user account has Google Vault feature or the entire organization is under 
Enterprise/Business/Education/Drive Enterprise edition, you would definitely want to maintain 
the Google Vault data for data retention and ediscovery. And it is important to n
​ ever ever delete 
the user account as that will have an adverse impact on it. The only way is to just recycle the 
account by just renaming the user account from the old to the new. 
 
We recommend archiving or migrating data before performing any operations involving the 
recycling OR deletion/suspension of a user account. The following steps outline the archiving 
process: 
 
*Take Note : If you would want to maintain the Google Vault data of the user account, do not 
delete the account 

   

 
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MATRIXC BEST PRACTICES -  
STAFF RESIGNATION AND DATA BACKUP 
 

Downloading Data via Google Takeout 

 
Download data via Google Takeout1 
(​https://takeout.google.com​) via the 
resigned user's login. The archive file(s) will 
be in .zip format.  
 
 
Matrix Connexion recommends that Google 
Drive and Google Mail are selected. When 
selecting Google Drive, please ensure to 
choose the file formats of your choice to 
ensure that they can be read by other 
programs within your organization. 
 
 
Once the appropriate selections have 
been made, click on Create Archive and 
Google will generate the ZIP file to be 
downloaded.  
 
Please note that depending on the size of 
the backup, Google may take time to 
generate the file.  
 
 
   

1
"Download your data - Google Account Help - Google Support." 
https://support.google.com/accounts/answer/3024190?hl=en​. Accessed 3 Aug. 2018. 
 
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G Drive: Transferring file ownership 

 
Matrix Connexion also 
recommends transferring file 
ownerships to the manager or 
supervisor2 before the deletion of 
the account. 
 
To do this, access the ​admin 
console​ and search for Transfer 
ownership to access the menu 
option for ownership transfer. 
After that, simply specify the 
source and destination accounts 
for the ownership transfer*. 
 
*Please note, this process does not remove the original user’s access to the file(s) as they will still 
be given edit access. 
 
   

2
"Transfer Drive files to a new owner - G Suite Administrator Help." 
https://support.google.com/a/answer/1247799?hl=en​. Accessed 3 Aug. 2018. 
 
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MATRIXC BEST PRACTICES -  
STAFF RESIGNATION AND DATA BACKUP 
 

Notes: 
● Only files owned by a user can be transferred to another user, who becomes the new owner.  
● You can also migrate a user’s content to a shared drive. Files in a shared drive are not 
deleted when a user account is deleted since the content is collectively owned by all 
participants.  
● The hierarchy structure of the previous owner is the same in the new owner's Drive. 
● Existing shared users of transferred documents are not affected by the transfer. 
● Some files are not moved: 
○ Google Photos and Maps are not transferred. 
○ Files and folders in the user's Trash are not transferred, so move files out of the Trash if 
they should be retained. Otherwise, files in the Trash are deleted when a user is deleted. 
○ Orphan files are not moved, so move them to the user's My Drive if they should be 
transfered: 
1. In the Drive search field, type: is:unorganized owner:​<username> 
2. Move any orphaned files found to the user's My Drive. 

Learn more about s

​ hared drives​, including how to m
​ igrate existing content to a shared drive​. 

   

 
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MATRIXC BEST PRACTICES -  
STAFF RESIGNATION AND DATA BACKUP 
 

Before you begin 

Current owner's account 

● We recommend that the current owner's account be suspended. This helps ensure new 
content isn't being created or moved in during the transfer.  

New owner's account 

● Make sure that the new owner's account is active. 

○ You can't transfer ownership if the owner's account is suspended or deleted. 
○ If necessary, you can temporarily ​restore a recently deleted user​ or r​ estore a suspended 
user​. 
● Tell the new owner not to add files to their Drive during the transfer.  
● Make sure the new owner ​has enough Drive storage​. If not, you can:  
○ Purchase more space​ for them 
○ Transfer files to someone else's account 
○ Redistribute files among several users 

 
 
 
   

 
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MATRIXC BEST PRACTICES -  
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Google Email Migration service 

 
Should there be a need to migrate old user email content to another specific user before 
recycling the account, you can use Google Data Migration service. 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
"About the Data Migration Service - Google Support" 
https://support.google.com/a/answer/6003169?hl=en 
   

 
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MATRIXC BEST PRACTICES -  
STAFF RESIGNATION AND DATA BACKUP 
 

Then selecting Email, 

 
 
 
Then selecting GMail as your source since we’re migrating from a GSuite account(old user) to 
an existing GSuite Account(new user) 
 

 
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MATRIXC BEST PRACTICES -  
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Then select the appropriate options needed, 
 

 
 
 
Then start adding the user that needed to be migrated from the source to the destination, 
 

 
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MATRIXC BEST PRACTICES -  
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1.b. Recycling Accounts & Deleting Data 

Recycling the Old Account for a New User 

Customers with G Suite Business or Google Vault 
subscriptions may wish to retain their previous 
employee data by not deleting the accounts 
associated with the license. In this situation, it may 
be better to rename the account rather than deleting 
or creating a new account. 
 
To recycle the old account, access the ​admin console 
and navigate to the user account under the User 
menu. Click on the rename function to rename the 
user to a new username; in the even that a new 
employee hasn’t joined the organization, simply 
rename it to a replacement name so that it can be 
reused in the future. Refer to ​https://support.google.com/a/answer/182084?hl=en3 for more 
details. 
 
*Take Note : If you would want to maintain the Google Vault data of the user account, do not 
delete the account 

   

3
"Rename a user - G Suite Administrator Help - Google Support." 
https://support.google.com/a/answer/182084?hl=en​. Accessed 3 Aug. 2018. 
 
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MATRIXC BEST PRACTICES -  
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Impact of changing/renaming a user name 

 
There is however some impact to it, that you should consider. 
 

If you change their email address... 

● They must now sign in to their Google Account with the new address. 
● They continue to receive mail at the old address (it becomes an email alias). 
● If the user's new primary email address matches an existing Google Account, you might 
be prompted to resolve the conflict before you can rename the user. Learn more about 
conflicting accounts​. 

If you change their display name… 

The new name appears: 

● In messages they send (unless they ​change their own Gmail settings​) 
● In calendar invites, shared docs, and other Google services (unless they change their 
Google+ profile) 
● In your company's D ​ irectory 

 
 
 
For more detailed ‘Impact of changing a username’ please refer to the below link: 
https://support.google.com/a/answer/2622985 

   

 
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MATRIXC BEST PRACTICES -  
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Google Vault FAQ 

 
*Take Note: No matter what, ​DO NOT​ delete the user account if you want to maintain the data 
in Google Vault for data retention and ediscovery. 
 
 
If I delete a user from G Suite, is this user's Vault data also deleted? 
Yes. If you delete a user, all the data associated with the user's account will be removed from 
Google. 

Once the user is deleted: 

● You can't search for or export any of their data from Vault. 
● Any retentions or holds placed on the user's data no longer apply. Data can be expunged 
right away.  
● You can recover data for 20 days following the deletion. However, any data that has 
already been expunged won't can't be recovered. Learn more about how to ​restore a 
recently deleted user​.  

As a best practice, Google recommends suspending user accounts instead of deleting them. If 
you're using ​Google Cloud Directory Sync​, ensure that the tool is configured to suspend 
accounts instead of deleting them. 

 
 
How do I preserve data in Vault for a user who leaves the organization? 
Do not delete the account. If you delete a user, you also delete that user's data in Vault. 
If a user leaves your organization and you want to continue preserving that user's data in Vault, 
a G Suite administrator should ​suspend the user's account​. Data is preserved for a suspended 
account, but all services are disabled. Note that suspended accounts are billed the same as 
active accounts. 

 
 
 
 
 
 
"Google Vault FAQ - Google Support" 
​https://support.google.com/vault/answer/2539616?hl=en   

 
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MATRIXC BEST PRACTICES -  
STAFF RESIGNATION AND DATA BACKUP 
 

Resetting the Password for the Recycled Account 

Resetting passwords for recycled accounts 
needs to occur because the admin normally 
requires access to the account to perform the 
data deletion process and to handover the 
account to a new employee. The reset password 
function can be accessed from the Admin 
Console4 under the User menu. Simply click on  the 
Reset Password function and set a new 
password for the account. 

   

4
"Reset a user's password - G Suite Administrator Help - Google Support." 
https://support.google.com/a/answer/33319?hl=en​. Accessed 3 Aug. 2018. 
 
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MATRIXC BEST PRACTICES -  
STAFF RESIGNATION AND DATA BACKUP 
 

Add or Remove an email Alias (For Google Vault Users) 

The moment an old user email account has been renamed with a newer one, the old email name 
will be automatically created as an email Alias. 
 
In most cases we would want to remove it straight away the moment after renaming it. The 
reason for this is to minimize the issue whereby other users may still see the old user details 
when sending an email to the new user account (after being renamed) 
 
If for various reasons or company policies, that the old user email name needs to be maintained 
as the alias, the only way to minimize the issue mention is, each individual user has to reupdate 
their existing contact list of the old user to the new user instead then. 
 

Remove a user's email alias 

1. In your Google Admin console (at admin.google.com)... 
2. Go to ​Users​. 
3. In the Users list, find the user. If you need help, see ​Find a user account​. 
4. Click the user’s name to open their account page. 
5. Click User information Email aliases.  
6. At the right of the alias you want to remove, click Remove . 
 

Note: An alias with no Remove option was automatically added as a domain alias. This 
gives all your users an alias at this same domain. You can't remove the alias for just one 
user. Instead, you need to r​ emove the domain alias​. 

7. Click Save. 
8. (Optional) To return to the user’s account page, at the top right, click the Up arrow . 
It can take up to 24 hours for the alias to be removed. 

 
"Add or Remove Alias - Google Support." 
https://support.google.com/a/answer/33327 

 
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Deleting Old Data (For non Google Vault User) 

Before handing the renamed account to new users, all emails and Google Drive contents need to 
be deleted. This has to be done by logging into the renamed account and deleting the data from 
both Google Drive, Calendars and Google Mail. 
 

Routing Future Mail to A Supervisor (via Alias) 

Resigned employees may still be receiving emails from colleagues or their prospects which may 
be valuable to your organization, by assigning their old email address as an alias to a supervisor, 
the impact of losing important customer emails can be minimized as the supervisor can 
re-assign or takeover tasks which are routed to the resigned staff. The following steps 
document the process of assigning an alias: 
 
*Matrix Connexion recommends removing the alias after 3 months or longer for transitioning 
period.  
 
1. Open the user profile of the 
supervisor.  
2. Expand the User Information section & 
click on the Edit Icon. Enter the old 
username as on of the Email aliases. 
This will result in new emails being 
routed to the supervisor’s account. 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
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Viewing the MBOX Archive 

Google Takeout stores the archived mailbox as in the MBOX format which is supported by a 
number of third party viewer or reader programs. This MBOX can be re-imported into G Suite or 
explored to locate mail independently of any mail service. Please refer to the following steps to 
read the MBOX using a third party viewer: 
 
1. Download MBOX Viewer5 via this link,​ https://sourceforge.net/projects/mbox-viewer/ 
2. Unzip and install. 
3. Extract the Google Takeout archive zip file to individual file, for eg. email, Drive data and 
etc. Email will be in MBOX format. 
4. 4. To view the MBOX file, load MBOX file into 
MBOXViewer​. 
5. 5. Launch MBOX Viewer. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

5
"Windows MBox Viewer download | SourceForge.net." 16 May. 2018, 
https://sourceforge.net/projects/mbox-viewer/​. Accessed 3 Aug. 2018. 
 
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6. Browse folder for Google Takeout 
mail file. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
7. Your mails will be loaded into the MBOX Viewer and can be viewed. 

 
 

 
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