SharePoint Migration – The Most Common Issues
Microsoft SharePoint is an advanced platform for content management and collaboration. Today, most of the organizations are planning to migrate to SharePoint from their traditional file systems. Also, organizations that are using older SharePoint versions are migrating to the latest versions of the same.
If you also want to migrate from the Windows file system or an older version of SharePoint to a recent version of SharePoint, then you should know various challenges you may face during the migration.
In this article, we’re going to discuss some of the known challenges of SharePoint migration, and the ways to overcome these challenges.
- File type restrictions
After the recent improvements in the SharePoint platform, SharePoint 2019 and SharePoint Online doesn’t have any restrictions on the file types that can be added to it. However, older versions like SharePoint 2016 and 2013/2013 continue to have this limitation. So, one cannot upload these blocked file types to SharePoint.
- Invalid characters in file/folder names
Some characters are not allowed for file/folder names in SharePoint Online (Microsoft 365) and OneDrive for home/work or school. Similar restrictions are there for SharePoint 2013 also. So, when you try to upload files/folders with these characters in file names, they are not synced.
- Invalid file/folder names
Certain file/folder names are not allowed by SharePoint. Also, some words or characters are not allowed in some parts or anywhere in names.
- File size Limitations
File size limitations apply to individual files that are being uploaded or synced. As of now, this is 100 GB for OneDrive for home/work or school and SharePoint Online (Microsoft 365).
- Length of file names and file paths
There are restrictions on the length of file names too. The permissible length for file names and paths depends on the app or Office version you are using. For OneDrive, the decoded path (including the file name) cannot be more than 400 characters. The same limit applies to OneDrive for work or school and SharePoint Online (Microsoft 365). Also, if you are syncing to PC or Mac, then the operating system limitations will also apply. And for SharePoint server versions, this character limit is 260 only.
- Manual migration is difficult
Manual Migration to SharePoint is challenging to perform. In a manual migration, you cannot migrate specific files easily based on your requirements. You need to migrate the whole folder or manually select the files to upload these files.
- Not all versions are supported
The free SharePoint Migration tool can migrate data to cloud from SharePoint versions up to 2016 only. If you want to migrate to SharePoint Server 2019, you cannot use the free SharePoint Migration tool. Also, it doesn’t support on-premises migrations.
- Loss of working hours
The manual migration is going to take several hours to complete, and till then, your employees will not be able to use SharePoint continuously. There is a considerable loss of working hours, and you will have to verify the migration to avoid human errors.
How to Deal with SharePoint Migration Issues?
With the help of a professional migration tool like Kernel SharePoint Migrator, many of the SharePoint migration issues are easy to solve.
Kernel SharePoint migrator is a secure and straightforward migration tool that allows users to migrate everything to SharePoint to SharePoint on-premises or SharePoint Online with zero assistance. This tool has some advanced features which help to deal with many of the known issues of SharePoint migration.
1. Pre-Migration Analyzer
The Pre-Migration Analyzer is the cool feature that checks for the possibility of migration issues due to SharePoint limitations.
It validates the following parameters before the actual migration–
- Invalid characters in names
- Name ending strings
- Filename length
- File path length
- File size limitation (in kilobytes)
- Blocked file extensions
You can edit this criterion as per your requirements. After specifying the complete criteria, you can get a report depicting the outcome of a SharePoint migration –
2. Bulk Migration
With the Kernel SharePoint migration tool, you can migrate the entire data in bulk from the file system, public folder, or SharePoint site/list/library. To perform this migration, you can use a CSV file.
3. Advanced Filtering Options
The advanced filtering options of this tool allow users to migrate files/folders based on their date of creation/modification and file type (such as file name, extension, file size, etc.). Also, you can migrate their versions as well.
4. Migrate Permissions
With Kernel SharePoint migrator, you can migrate anything from the SharePoint server, including documents, pages, sites, and site collections, along with their permissions. Also, this tool allows accurate mapping of users between the source and the target servers.
5. Generate a CSV File for Bulk migration
For the Bulk migration of SharePoint data, including Site, List/Library, and Items, you can use a CSV file. But you do not need to create the CSV file yourself. Kernel Migrator for SharePoint will help you create it. You can create a CSV file for the SharePoint Server, Public Folder, or File System.
Later, you can save the CSV file at the desired destination.
6. View the History of Migration
The majority of the manual approaches for the SharePoint migration finish the migration without giving any report or the status of the migrated items. Kernel Migrator for SharePoint has the option to view the history of all the completed migrations.
You can choose any of the completed operations, view their details, save their reports, or delete the history.
Final words –
Kernel Migrator for SharePoint helps you understand the issues and problems in SharePoint migration and accomplish the migration with ease. It is the best professional tool that caters to the SharePoint migration needs of all types of SharePoint users.
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