Common SharePoint Online Migration Issues and their Solutions

Megha Sharma | Updated On - November 23, 2022 |

Read time 4 minutes

Have you tried migrating to SharePoint Online from your old on-premises SharePoint Server? If yes, then you must have experienced some challenges during the migration. So, make sure that you know about these challenges well before the migration. Here, we are going to have a discussion on this.

Cloud hosting of SharePoint Server has many advantages like anytime access, advanced security, more storage, more advanced features, collaborations, etc., compared to on-premises servers. That is why many on-premises SharePoint users seek this migration, but it is not as simple as an upgrade as it throws many issues while performing the migration. Let us discuss some common issues and try to find out the possible solutions.

Typical Challenges with SharePoint Online Migration

1. Storage Issues: There should be ample space to store the migrated content. And the content needs to be in an organized and structured manner as unorganized content is likely to consume the storage space allotted for the same. It is a challenge for SharePoint users and administrators who are preparing the migration.
2. Active Directory Health Risks: The Active Directory must be in a healthy state as the process of directory syncing and identity federation would slow down with the health issues associated with Active Directory. It needs to be managed by the free Microsoft utility known as IdFix, capable of locating and fix health issues with Active Directory.
3. Metadata Loss: Often there is a risk of complete loss or misplacement of metadata during the manual way of migration. It may or may not be a complete loss. But the loss of the earlier metadata and can be controlled if the content record is defined accurately and content is organized prior to the migration.
4. Bulk Content Migration: While trying to migrate data in bulk to SharePoint Online, users face challenges as it risks the correct storage placement at the target location. So, it is suggested to arrange similar types of files together for proper distribution and migration.
5. Bandwidth Issues: Limited bandwidth while migrating data in bulk is another big challenge for the SharePoint administrators or users. A low bandwidth impacts the ongoing migration with slow performance with slow loading of content, poor quality, and performance in integrated applications like Skype for Business. A good pre-analysis with the selected internet connection is required to fix this possible challenge in future SharePoint Online migrations.
6. Security Risks: SharePoint Online migration means data is now available on the cloud, which can be accessed anytime online. Sometimes it is risky due to online threats, hackers, spam, malicious integrated links, etc. But the Cloud or Microsoft 365 has many advanced security features and settings which can be used to protect the migrated data from these risks.
7. A Lot of Customizations: Having multiple customizations in the current SharePoint organization created hurdles during the migration as the administrator or user needs to check the permission model, conduct discovery to organize content and structure, and more. This is a big challenge as manual interventions are always needed.

For each challenge, there is a solution. Let us discuss some precautions we need to follow.

• Perform risk assessment by carefully analyzing the source and destination environments
• Perform pre-migration checks for users groups, site architecture, features, metadata, unsupported features, access rights, etc.
• Rely on a third-party SharePoint Migration tool like Kernel Migrator for SharePoint
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• Migrates SharePoint on-premises/SharePoint Online to SharePoint on-premises/SharePoint Online
• Migrates all SharePoint Server objects, including site collections, views, versioning, lists, permissions, contents, list items, metadata, look and feel, etc.
• Integrated pre-migration analysis feature for quick preparation
• Supports migration of content from SharePoint Server environment to another
• Performs SharePoint to SharePoint tenant migrations easily
• Free trial version to understand the software working and migrating limited data (5 items per folder, 5 lists or libraries)
• Allows migrations like File System to SharePoint/Google Drive/OneDrive for Business, Teams to Teams migration, Google Drive to Google Drive, Public Folders, OneDrive for Business to OneDrive for Business, and more migrations.

The above points are just the introductory features of the advanced and robust Kernel Migrator for SharePoint tool.

Final Words

Complex SharePoint Online migrations are always risky when performed manually. It has many challenges, which we have discussed in this blog. Since we need to perform quality, riskless and effortless SharePoint Online migrations, we have suggested some migration techniques and a perfect SharePoint migrator tool for all users.