SharePoint Migration Tool Tasks

Automate uploading data from local file shares to SharePoint Online.

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Last Review: May 4, 2021

Product(s): Microsoft 365, Windows Server

Author(s): Kyle Vang

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Summary

Microsoft SharePoint Migration tool provides a method to copy data from on-premises SharePoint and local files or other storage devices to SharePoint Online.

Data is encrypted during transfer, invalid web file name characters are replaced, and files inherit destination permissions with updated modified date.

These tasks are specific to file share migration.

Requirements

  • Microsoft 365 Global Admin account.
  • Windows Server 2008 R2 or newer.
  • Domain Admin account to access source files.
  • Destination SharePoint sites previously created with versioning and permissions.
  • User announcement of transition with no access to data.
  • Unshare source file share using admin share to access the data and block user access during the migration.
  • Highest migration throughput is during off-peak hours with medium throughput of 1TB per day that will vary by ISP upload speed, disk access, and average file size.

Install Tool and Perform Migration

  1. Download and install from SharePoint Migration Tool Download.
  2. Follow the prompts and no restart is required.
  3. Enter your Microsoft 365 global admin account.
  4. Choose Start your first Migration and select File Share.
  5. To copy an entire share, select the path at the root of a file share and Migrate only folder contents or select a specific folder and Migrate selected folder and contents.
  6. Copy content – enter URL like https://company.sharepoint.com/sites/teamsite – select Documents folder.
  7. Name your Migration by Share name and date like Sales20210501
  8. Set settings ON for Replace invalid file name characters.
  9. Review the logs created by the SharePoint Migration Tool on the server the SharePoint Migration Tool is installed to address any file conflicts.

Follow-up

Source file shares must remain unshared to prevent potential data conflict by users. Notify users of the new destination and train on SharePoint usage.