Complete Guide to Migrate SharePoint Site to Another Site

Planning SharePoint migration due to merger, acquisition, or just rebranding? SharePoint migration is not something that you can execute with just a sudden decision. You need to plan everything from scratch so that no data is lost due to the process, followed by a smooth transition.

Migration of SharePoint sites between tenants, including moving site collections, sites, site pages, document libraries, lists, metadata, and other attributes. Let’s go through a detailed guide to see how to perform a SharePoint Online site migration successfully.

Why do you need to migrate SharePoint site?

Before you continue to migrate sites from SharePoint between tenants, here is why an organization might need to move its contents:

• Moving to an upgraded SharePoint version provides users with access to a centralized platform that includes components like OneDrive, Exchange, and Teams that promote team collaboration.
• Simplifies expanding or downgrading business capacity without adding any external hardware components.
• Provides extended security with features, such as advanced threat protection, data loss prevention, multi-factor authentication, etc.
• Due to discontinued support to the SharePoint versions that approached their end-of-life, migration provides security patches, access to updated features, and even more.
• SharePoint migration helps in lowering the burden on the IT administrators and automatic updates, which are otherwise done manually within the on-premises environment.

What do you need for a successful SharePoint migration?

Make sure that you have the following necessities arranged beforehand to avoid complications later:

• Get read access to all the content stored within the source SharePoint.
• Need global admin or SharePoint admin credentials of the target SharePoint.
• Acquire site collection administrator permissions to migrate the entire sites with all the data.
• Note down all the sites, libraries, lists, etc., within the SharePoint inventory.
• Provision all users and groups from the source to exist in the target environment.

Step-by-Step Process for Migrating SharePoint Sites

For a smooth migration of SharePoint site between tenants, follow the given detailed process to ensure zero error during migration:

Step 1: Assessing Your Current SharePoint Site

SharePoint migration starts with the thorough analysis of the existing SharePoint site within the source environment. Perform in-depth research on the content, site elements, permission complexity, evaluate the resources, etc.

Apart from this, sort out the content stored in the source, categorize it into high, medium, and low priority to decide what to get rid of. You can remove the obsolete or unnecessary files and folders from the site.

Step 2: Identifying Destination Site Requirements

Create users and assign the required licenses to them along with the mailboxes in the target environment. Do not forget to take a backup of all the data you’ll need from the source. This will prevent data loss if any catastrophe happens during data migration.

There needs to be enough space in the target environment to accommodate the source data, therefore, assess the storage and buy more if required.

Step 3: Configuring User Permissions During Migration

Review and grant the necessary permissions to users to access content after the migration. Map the users properly from the source to the destination environment. You can create a user mapping file containing source and destination mailboxes and groups mapped properly.

 

Step 4: Transferring Data and Content

Once everything is done, identify the migration method that you want to proceed with. The best solution for an error-free transfer would be using a phased migration approach. In this method, you’ll perform data migration in small batches. It has an upper hand over big bang and lift-and-shift method because it reduces the tendency of committing errors during the migration process.

Step 5: Testing and Validating Post-Migration

Make sure that you inform the users about the migration; otherwise, there can be chaos among them after the process. This will eventually impact the performance of the team, resulting in low productivity.

Next, run a test migration on a small batch of data to see if the process is successfully completed or stopped due to unexpected errors. After that, start the migration process and monitor the data until it is completely moved. After the migration, validate if everything has been moved and there is nothing missing.

Common Challenges in SharePoint Migration

When performing SharePoint data migration using manual solutions, there can be several challenges that disrupt the whole experience of users. Here are some issues that you might face and need to tackle efficiently:

Slow Migration Speeds: When moving massive data volumes with manual methods, there can be bandwidth clogging, which increases the time and slows down the migration speed.

Broken Links Post-Migration: Ineffective SharePoint site migration can result in broken internal links directing to sites, lists, or libraries location.

Incompatible SharePoint Features: Bad, incomplete, or faulty migrations often result in incompatible SharePoint features.

Distorted Permissions Structure: Migration often breaks inheritance on permissions applied to files and folders.

Irrational Data Volume: Migrating massive data volumes can result in bandwidth clogging, enhanced migration time, migration delays, and often throttling.

Tools and Software for SharePoint Site Migration

When talking about the native solutions, there is one prominent tool, which is Microsoft’s SharePoint Migration Tool (SPMT). The tool allows performing a smooth migration from file server and on-premises SharePoint to SharePoint Online, OneDrive, and Teams.

On the other hand, there are several professional tools to migrate to SharePoint, from which you can pick any one that best suits your migration requirements. You can consider features like easy source and destination connection, multi-factor authentication, high data security, data filters, and process scheduling. One of the best solutions that IT admins recommend is Kernel Migration for SharePoint. This tool supports features that will simplify your migration tasks with a few clicks. 

Comparing Popular SharePoint Migration Tools

In this section, we will draw a clear comparison between the native SharePoint tool and the recommended professional tool for your clear understanding:

Features	SharePoint Migration Tool	Kernel Migration for SharePoint
Source supported	SharePoint Server 2010/2013/2016/2019, file shares, and nested folders	SharePoint (on-premises/ online), Google Drive, file server, OneDrive, Teams, etc.
Destination supported	SharePoint Online libraries, OneDrive accounts, or Microsoft Teams sites	SharePoint (on-premises/ online), Teams, OneDrive, and other cloud storage
Tenant to tenant migration	Not supported	Allows easy migration and connect tenants using MFA
Bulk data migration	Provides limited support	Migrate any data volume without hassles
Complex metadata	Difficulty in handling	Handles even complex metadata and permissions
File Path/Character Limits	Do not support exceeding 400 characters	No limitations of file path or file size
Migration automation	Not supported	Schedule on daily, weekly, and monthly basis
Version history migration	Supported but limited functionality	Migrate all the versions of documents required (allow selective version migration, too)

 

How to Handle Data Loss During SharePoint Migration?

Follow the tips given below to handle unexpected data loss during or even after a SharePoint site migration:

• Always take a complete backup of the data using a professional SharePoint backup tool to avoid losing data in the process in unexpected circumstances.
• Never skip running pilot or test migrations to avoid even the minor chances of errors and failed migrations.
• During transfer, restrict the user access at the source to Read only to avoid missing the documents updated or created in that timeframe.
• After the data transition, don’t forget to check the migration reports to get the details about the executed process.
• Use professional tools to migrate the data securely with 100% data accuracy.

Conclusion

With that being said, follow the guide step by step to migrate SharePoint site to another site without losing the integrity and structure of original data. Moreover, for best results, use a professional SharePoint migration tool like the Kernel Migration for SharePoint for a smooth process. The tool will help you run migration as per your convenience and requirements.