Migration 101: Copying file shares into SharePoint

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Want to learn more about copying documents from file shares and migrating them to your SharePoint environment? Look no further! Here, i’ll show you just how easy it can be with Sharegate! 

1. Easy Sharegate Task Selection

While copying your system file shares into SharePoint sounds like a pretty complicated and time-consuming task, Sharegate literally makes it one of the simplest tasks you’ll have to complete all day. Let’s get things started. Your first step is telling Sharegate exactly what you’d like to do. In this case, we’re going to select “Copy files to Sharegate” from the home menu. Below is an image of what you’ll see in your interface. Selecting your tasks are this easy!

Sharegate Home Screen

2. Select the SharePoint Destination for your File Share Documents

Next, you need to tell Sharegate where you’d like to copy the files to. In order to ensure the risk of errors is elimintaed, or at least minimized, you should visit your SharePoint site using a web browser, copy the URL, and paste it into the field specified in the below image.

Connect to SharePoint

3. Select Your Destination Document Library from a Convenient List

Once you’ve successfully entered your SharePoint site into Sharegate, you will see an organized list containing all elements in your entire SharePoint environment, conveniently displayed before you, as illustrated by the image below. From here, you’ll be able to easily navigate to, and choose, a destination document library for your file share documents. Let’s go ahead and choose one.

Select library to migrate

4. Drag and Drop Functionality makes Copying and Migrating Files to SharePoint Insanely Simple

At this point in the process, Sharegate interface will be split up into two convenient sections. The left-hand section will contain the files from your system file share, and the right-hand section will contain elements from your destination document library (where you’ve chosen to migrate your file share documents. All that’s left to do now is drag-and-drop documents from the left-hand list to the right-hand window, or click Copy

Select Files to migrate

5. Choose How You’d Like to Copy your Files into SharePoint

The next screen will ask you how you’d like to copy your files into SharePoint. The majority of the time I choose “Full Copy” because it preserves all the data from the original file shares, such as modified date, etc. So, for the purpose of this example let’s use “Full Copy”, as well.

Select template to apply during the migration

DONE! Copying documents from your file shares to your SharePoint environment really doesn’t get any easier than this! Additionally, you can see how using “Full Copy” preserved my “modified date”. Simply awesome!

Result with modified date maintained

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