Migrate from Project Drive to Trello

Project Drive Projects map to Trello Boards as the top-level container. Project name becomes the board name, project description migrates as the board description field, and project status (Active, Archived) maps to the board state. We use Trello's REST API to create the board and set visibility (Private, Workspace, Public) per the scoping decision. Projects with a Gantt view sequence get a default List structure of To Do / In Progress / Done unless a custom list structure is requested during scoping.

Project Drive Tasks map to Trello Cards. Task name becomes the card title, task description maps to the card description as plain text, and assignee resolves to a Trello member via email lookup. Start date and due date migrate as Custom Fields on the card (requires Trello Premium). Task status (Not Started, In Progress, Completed) maps to the card's List position. We preserve the original creation timestamp in a custom field for audit; Trello does not show creation order on cards natively.

Project Drive Subtasks map to Trello Checklist items on the parent card. The subtask hierarchy flattens into a flat checklist because Trello has no nested task concept. We encode the parent-subtask relationship in the checklist item title using a [Parent Task Name] > [Subtask Name] convention so the original relationship is recoverable from the card title. Checked/unchecked state migrates directly. Some destination tools with deeper hierarchy support can restore the nesting; we assess this during scoping.

Project Drive Milestones are date-flagged markers in the Gantt view. We map each to a Trello Card with a dedicated milestone label (created during schema setup) and the milestone date as the card due date. We recommend enabling the Trello Timeline Power-Up during scoping to display milestone cards chronologically across the board, which most closely approximates the Gantt milestone row. Milestones without a date are migrated as cards with the milestone label and no due date.

Project Drive stores Finish-to-Start, Start-to-Start, Finish-to-Finish, and custom Gantt dependencies as explicit records. Trello has no native dependency model. We encode each dependency during migration as a checklist item on the predecessor card with the text [Dependency] Successor: [Successor Card Name] and the card URL. We deliver a separate dependency map document listing every encoded dependency with its type so the customer's admin can rebuild dependencies natively using the Timeline Power-Up or a third-party Power-Up post-migration. This is not a direct field map but a reconstruction strategy.

Project Drive Users and task assignees map 1:1 to Trello Board Members. We resolve each Project Drive assignee by email against Trello User accounts and invite unresolved users during the migration script execution. Member role (Admin, Member, Observer) is set during board setup per the scoping decision. Assignee is recorded on each card via Trello's idMembers field at card creation time. If a Project Drive user has no corresponding Trello account, they are flagged in a user reconciliation report for the admin to provision before migration resumes.

Project Drive budget and cost fields have no native Trello equivalent because Trello does not support financial tracking fields at the platform level. We flag each numeric budget field during scoping and propose one of three strategies: map as a Trello Premium Custom Field of type Number, document in a separate Google Sheet linked from the board, or preserve in a budget handoff document for the customer to implement as a separate finance workflow post-migration. Original field names and data types are preserved in the handoff document. Budget values do not migrate into Trello cards unless the customer explicitly selects a custom field strategy and has Trello Premium.

Project Drive task and project attachments migrate as Trello Card Attachments. We extract the binary file, preserve the original filename and content type, and upload to the target card via the Trello REST API using the card's id. Attachment links to the destination are maintained by preserving the original filename and content type. If a Trello board has a configured Google Drive or Dropbox Power-Up, we document the original storage location for the admin to re-link files post-migration. Large attachments (over 10 MB per Trello's API limit) are flagged in the extraction report for manual handling.

Project Drive integrates with external calendars but does not expose calendar event objects in its export. Trello has no native calendar object either. We do not migrate calendar events. Teams re-sync their external calendars (Google Calendar, Outlook) to Trello post-migration using Trello's calendar Power-Up or third-party integrations. The calendar re-sync is documented as a post-migration step in the handoff guide.

Project Drive task-level tags and category labels map to Trello Labels on the card. We create label names matching the source tag text and assign them to the migrated card. Label color is assigned sequentially from Trello's default palette unless the customer provides a color mapping during scoping. Tags stored as multi-value properties in Project Drive become multiple Trello labels on the same card, which is the equivalent semantic structure.

Project Drive task and project comments migrate as Trello Card Comments on the parent card. Comment author resolves to a Trello member by email; if no match exists, the comment is posted under the migration service account with the original author name in the comment body. Comment timestamp is preserved as the comment creation date. Comment attachments are handled via the Attachment mapping. Rich text formatting in Project Drive comments is converted to Trello's markdown subset where possible; unsupported formatting is stripped.

Project Drive custom fields on tasks and projects map to Trello Premium Custom Fields. We match by field name and infer type: text fields map to Trello Text type, number fields to Number type, date fields to Date type (if due date and start date are not already mapped), and dropdown-like fields to List type. Custom field values are populated at card creation time. This mapping requires Trello Premium ($5/user/mo); if the customer is on Trello Standard, we flag custom fields in the handoff document for manual post-migration entry or a Power-Up-based workaround.