Migrating large volumes of documents from files shares to SharePoint Online has always been somewhat of a matzo ball. Most organizations just had two choices: allow users to drag and drop files manually or purchase a third-party migration tool. The first option worked OK for small/ad-hoc moves of data, but for serious volumes (tens/hundreds of thousands of files and folders), you had to acquire a third-party tool. While I used those tools numerous times to migrate my clients, it did not make financial sense for small businesses looking to do a one-time migration. Luckily, Microsoft has recently come up with a tool of its own, which is entirely free. In this post, I would like to document the process of how to migrate file shares to SharePoint Online using Microsoft SharePoint Migration Tool.
Step 1: Do your homework first!
Yes, I know you just want to click that Migrate button and tell your boss you did it, but you cannot migrate the content without thinking about the information architecture through among other things. It would not be fair for me to describe everything you must do first in a single paragraph here. I devoted many posts on the topic previously. At a high-level, you need to make sure you understand how Information Architecture works in SharePoint Online. Then, you need to build the sites, document libraries, possibly create some metadata. Oh yeah, and did I mention you also have to do training?
Step 2: Download and install the Microsoft SharePoint Migration Tool
OK, I’ll take your word here that you have completed Step 1, so let’s go ahead and perform our first migration. First, you need to download the tool.
Click on Office 365 App Launcher > Admin
Navigate to SharePoint Admin Center
Under Migration, click on Desktop tool (SPMT) (SPMT = SharePoint Migration Tool)
Click the Download tool button to download the software
Once downloaded, install Microsoft SharePoint Migration Tool on your computer by clicking on the downloaded file
Step 3: Perform your first migration
Also, read more at:
Migrate file server to SharePoint
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