This article focuses on how to moving large quantities of files and file sizes from SharePoint to another location in SharePoint such as a different document library, folder, site or site collection.
If you simply need to copy a few files or small number of files say less than 500 or a total size of less than 1 GB you might be able to do those using the How to Copy and Move files in SharePoint article.
Once again this article focuses on how to move large files and huge number of files. This sould be useful in the case of migrating content, reorganizing SharePoint content between sites and site collections, consolidating repositories, and doing backups.
The following options are discussed here:
This option is probably the easiest one to try. Explorer view is a tool that comes with classic view in SharePoint. Essentially the tool allows you to access you SharePoint library and documents the same way you would a regular folder on your drive. By doing so, you are able to open the source and destination locations using Explorer view and then do a drag and drop or copy and paste of the content between the two locations. Easy enough? Not necessarily.
It is usually best to start with this option as but not keep your hopes up to high as it may fail. This transfer relies on your local Internet connection. So if your Internet is slow then it will take a long time. It will also rely on zero interruptions. This means if you have to restart your computer or you accidentally stopped the transfer you would have to restart it all over again.
You may also experience timeout issues using this method as the connection is open for a long time and something may go wrong.
You will not transfer the meta-data associated with the files if copying between sites or site collections.
You will not transfer the version history associated with the files if copying between sites or site collections.
This is a neat method. But what is file sync you may ask? File sync is a feature SharePoint that allows you to sync a SharePoint library with your a local folder. The idea here is that you would sync both source and destination folders. So folder A would be a sync of the source library and Folder B would be a sync of the destination library. Once you issue the sync, you would wait for the sync to complete. After that you would drag the contents of folder A into folder B. The sync app will automatically detect that you added a huge number of files to folder B and will begin syncing that to SharePoint library. After waiting a long time, all those files will be synced (uploaded) to SharePoint destination.
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You can install Tru Copy on your SharePoint environment. Tru Copy includes a migration tool that allows you to select files you want to move and then select a destination. The tool will then schedule a migration job to run on secure remote servers and notify you when the migration is complete. During this time you will be able to see what files go copied and any errors if any.
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We explored 3 different ways to migrate large files in SharePoint from one site collection to another or between sites. Those could be large number of files in the tens of thousands or huge file sizes that need to be moved.
The solution you pick really depends on your needs as each comes with its pros and cons.
Let us know your challenges and comments below.
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