Challenges When Migrating SharePoint Document Files and Folders

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AND FOLDERS
Challenges When Migrating SharePoint

Document Files And Folders
by Vyapin
There are several challenges when migrating documents to Microsoft

SharePoint. While these challenges can be overcome, they are a real
pain if the migration source, content and file systems are not
SharePoint friendly. We will discuss below some of the common ones
here. Folders and files exist in several sources – file shares, web-based
sources, network / backup drives, personal drives etc.
1. Dealing with Special characters and Lengths in Folder and

File names
SharePoint does not accept certain special characters (tilde, number

sign, percent, ampersand, asterisk, braces, backslash, colon, angle
brackets, question mark, slash, pipe, quotation mark – ~, #, %, &, *,
{, , ;, <, ?, /, |, “). Hm… that’s a lot of special characters and
certainly, it is not that uncommon to find some of these in filenames in
file systems. Also, SharePoint does not allow folder and file name
lengths to be longer than 128 characters in WSS 3.0. These aspects
alone can be such a pain during migration of folders & files that
contain special characters and long names. Windows folder / file
names with special characters have to be replaced with SharePoint
acceptable characters to avoid manual work in renaming folders and
files. For files that contain special characters based on certain logic or
a set of rules, this can easily be dealt with by using scripts or some
tools. However, if the files contain special characters in a random
manner with no orderliness about them, it can be a laborious task to
rename the folders and files before migrating them to SharePoint.
Similarly, long folder and file names have to be truncated to the
prescribed length before moving them to SharePoint. A few nasty
folders / files in random can put a spoke in a well planned, large and
orderly migration. Here are two useful links to know more about
SharePoint special characters, limits on URL lengths and long
filenames.
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/905231
2. Maintaining the same folder / file structure when migrating

to SharePoint
Most companies will want to retain the same structures for files and
folders to maintain operational consistency as well as business
continuity. For example, an organization currently using a traditional
Windows based file server platform for document collaboration could
be deploying SharePoint as the collaboration platform for the users. In
such situation, it will be easier to maintain the same folder and file
structure in the newly setup SharePoint library without changing the
user experience in handling folders and files. It makes the navigation
intuitive, eases migration process, minimizes user training and
improves operational efficiency.
3. Migrating a select set of document types / formats such as

doc, xls, ppt, jpeg, dwg, pdf etc.
Sometimes, only documents of certain types (or formats) need to be

moved to SharePoint libraries depending on the document templates
or content types or file types allowed to enhance the document
management framework. Everything else needs to be filtered. To
selectively move files based on their types will require some
programming, especially so if there are large folder trees (nested
folders).
4. Migrating a large number of unstructured and poorly

managed files.
From the perspective of file contents, business relevance and usage

patterns, migrating a large number of unstructured and poorly
managed files (remember some of those legacy file systems?) to a
structured, organized and searchable framework within SharePoint is
not easy. A lot of planning and meticulous reorg of files and folders is
a must. This essentially means that there will be frequent rework of
mapping and remapping the source folders and the
destination libraries. The migration has to be broken down to several
different tasks (batch processes), with several different rules to
process the files and folders.
5. Using a mass document migration application to work off

your desktop instead of running right on the SharePoint
servers directly.
If you are using third-party tools for SharePoint migration, a

solution that can run either on the desktop and or on the server will be
ideal. Take the case of incremental migrations. The SharePoint server
could already be in production mode while several different libraries in
SharePoint could still be under migration. Server performance will be
compromised if the migrating application is going to run on the server.
It is better if the application runs on a desktop performing actions like
data cleansing, processing etc. and just do a final bulk upload into
SharePoint.
6. Migrating and tagging the tens of thousands of documents

from your legacy file folders into your new SharePoint
repository while retaining the existing taxonomy or migrate to
a new taxonomy.
Most file system users will not be familiar with the concept of
document metadata. They are more familiar with the term file
properties. The concept of document metadata originates from
Document Management Systems (DMS), where documents are stored
and made searchable on a wider set of keywords and phrases.
Document libraries in SharePoint are akin to Document Management
Systems in the way they store documents and properties for search
and retrieval. However, these properties need to be presented to
SharePoint during migration in a certain manner that makes the
search and retrieval more powerful and elegant. You may migrate /
propagate metadata fields from the document properties stored within
the file or using an external metadata file / database. Mapping and
tagging existing file properties and adding additional properties to
documents in SharePoint, especially for a well structured taxonomy
can be a laborious process.
7. Retaining (carry forward) the Created Date and Last

Modified file attributes from the file system to maintain
business continuity for users and minimize user training when
collaborating in the new SharePoint environment.
This is another challenge that is constantly faced by SharePoint users.
There are plenty of business reasons to retain the same Date field
values once the documents have been migrated to SharePoint.
Unfortunately, SharePoint falls short in this aspect and you need third-
party tools or some in-house programming to carry forward the
original date fields for documents.
8. Automating the migration process to reduce the time

necessary and labor involved to move large file repositories to
SharePoint.
Almost all mid-sized to large-sized migrations require automation,

especially when incremental/batch migrations from different sources
take place. Automated batch jobs help you to take complete control of
the migration process by handling errors and triggering events that
can be managed efficiently. Otherwise, you have to spend hours on
ad-hoc problems and tracking down repetitive errors thrown by non-
automated migrations.
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ABOUT AUTHOR- VYAPIN

Vyapin is a Microsoft Gold ISV Partner providing
enterprise-class solutions for Microsoft Windows, Active
Directory, SharePoint, Exchange, IIS and Office 365. We
post blogs about our product launches, new feature updates and
technology updates.
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HOME »» DO YOU KNOW »» CHALLENGES WHEN MIGRATING SHAREPOINT DOCUMENT FILES

Challenges When Migrating SharePoint

There are several challenges when migrating documents to Microsoft

1. Dealing with Special characters and Lengths in Folder and

SharePoint does not accept certain special characters (tilde, number

2. Maintaining the same folder / file structure when migrating

3. Migrating a select set of document types / formats such as

Sometimes, only documents of certain types (or formats) need to be

4. Migrating a large number of unstructured and poorly

From the perspective of file contents, business relevance and usage

5. Using a mass document migration application to work off

If you are using third-party tools for SharePoint migration, a

6. Migrating and tagging the tens of thousands of documents

7. Retaining (carry forward) the Created Date and Last

8. Automating the migration process to reduce the time

Almost all mid-sized to large-sized migrations require automation,

Do You Like Our Article? Please Share It On Your Social

Facebook Twitter Reddit LinkedIn

Dockit Migrator SharePoint Content Migration SharePoint

ABOUT AUTHOR- VYAPIN

Microsoft SharePoint SharePoint Migration

Dockit Migrator for

Active Directory Reports Dockit Migrator – SharePoint

Search Vyapin Blog Po

Microsoft 365 reports:

Microsoft Teams Best

Do I need Planning even

Auditing and reporting

Active Directory Audit &

File Share to SharePoint

Microsoft 365 Reporting

NTFS Security Audit

NTFS Security Manager

Office 365 Migration

Office 365 Reporting

SharePoint & Office 365

SharePoint Audit &

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