Migrate Data From On-premises File Share to SharePoint

Megha Sharma | Updated On - October 28, 2022 |

Read time 6 minutes

File share is a set of shared files stored on a network drive. When a user chooses SharePoint Server as the storage location or for the data, it essential to migrate data from its file shares as well. Let us ponder over this migration in detail.

Users have the option to manually drag and drop the files from a file share to the SharePoint document library but it is not at all a good choice if you have a large volume of data to transfer. Let us know the next possible options to move large amount of data from file share to SharePoint.

SharePoint Migration Tool – Microsoft Utility

Microsoft has provided a free in-built utility to migrate data from local file shares to SharePoint Online. It can be downloaded from this link or from the Microsoft website easily. To use this utility, you require the exact location of the file share, Microsoft 365 administrator credentials and the destination SharePoint URLs beforehand. This tool provides filter options as well which the administrator needs to set before the migration via tool settings. It also provides the facility of bulk migration via a .csv or .json files. This migration process takes quite a time for completion depending on the Internet speed. Also, there is a limitation on the file size which is 15 GB.

Note: After the file share to SharePoint Online migration using the Microsoft tool, the permission settings on the files can be modified according to the location of your on-premises data, and the synchronization of the Active Directory accounts to Azure Active Directory.

Enterprise-level users can easily move the desired data and permissions from their on-premises file shares to SharePoint Server or SharePoint Online using an efficient tool. It follows a relatively simple and direct process for the migration and provides flexibility and customization options without any size restrictions in the data migration.

Let us know how this tool performs this migration.

Install the SharePoint Migration tool on your system. Carry out the following steps to migrate data from File Server to SharePoint (both On-premises and Online) using this advanced utility.

1. Launch the installed tool.
2. On the Welcome Screen of the tool, go to the tool bar and click on File System section. Now, from the drop-down list, select File System to SharePoint option.
   
3. A new window namely File System to SharePoint will get opened. Here, click drop-arrow besides Add option and select from the given options as per your need. You can add individual files, folders, remote files, remote folders, etc. from your file system or server.
   
4. Once you have added the files, you can view it on the screen. You can add more files or remove the existing ones using the given options. You can assign user permissions to this data using Groups/User Permissions at the bottom-right. Click Next to continue.
   
5. Now, provide details like Site URL, List/Folder URL, etc. for the destination (on-premises SharePoint or SharePoint Online account) and click Next.
   
6. The source and destination attributes are automatically mapped which you can modify if needed, click Next.
7. In the next window, make use of copy options and filters (Date, File, and User) to filter your data. Then click Next.
   
8. If you want to migrate the permissions or remap users, select the options and click Next again.
   
9. Here, you have options to start the migration instantly or schedule the migration at specific day and time. Make your choice and click Next.
   
10. Confirm all the details of the migration from the provided summary. Click Next.
    
11. The migration from File Share to SharePoint will get started. Wait till the process gets over. The final page will show the migration status. Click Finish finally.
    

The migration from file share to SharePoint using this tool seems quite easy, clean and quick. It also performs migrations between SharePoint Online/SharePoint on-premises and vice versa, public folders to SharePoint, and from synchronized cloud drives to SharePoint, Google Drive, OneDrive, etc. It offers to migrate SharePoint permissions easily during the migration. All migrations are smooth, and flexible with support to all versions of SharePoint Server, Exchange Server and Windows Operating System.

Conclusion

Moving file shares to SharePoint is essential for many enterprises as cloud has become a popular mode of data storage. The blog discusses the available manual migration solution for this migration. It also explains a smoother automatic migration of file shares to SharePoint with the most secure and reliable professional tool.