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4 Easy Ways to Migrate SharePoint Site to Another Site – Automated to Manual Methods [Latest]

Mack John ~ Published: August 29th, 2024 ~ SharePoint ~ 12 Minutes Reading

What is SharePoint Migration? How to migrate SharePoint site to another site? What are the different methods for SharePoint site migration? We are answering all your questions in the upcoming section of this blog. Go thoroughly and understand the necessary considerations.

Curious about how organizations have a collaborative platform and organized data management in one place? SharePoint works on the cloud and can be accessed from any web browser making it device-independent. It was developed by Microsoft and launched in 2001 since then it become more popular among organizations. Because it works as a one-stop shop for managing and organizing a variety of content like documents, images, videos, files, folders, and lists.

Table of Content

So, we know it is more popular among organizations but few users know its SharePoint site migration capabilities. If you are also among those users who need to migrate SharePoint site to another sharePoint site for any reason. Choose easy methods for site migration and follow the detailed instructions for efficient migration of your data. Before moving further let’s have a quick introduction to SharePoint site migration.

SharePoint Site Migration: It is a process of moving site content from one SharePoint Site to another whether in the same SharePoint environment or a different environment.

Hopefully, you have understood the definition let’s quickly  move to our next section where we will understand the different scenarios leading to SharePoint Site Migration 

Migration Scenarios to Migrate SharePoint Site to Another Site

  • Mergers and Acquisitions: Nowadays many organization faces the situation of mergers or acquisitions in this scenario organizations may need to consolidate or separate different SharePoint Sites. Doing this can help them with unified management and resource management.
  • Reorganization: A migration scenario can also occur when an organization decides to restructure or rebrand its departments. If they are using SharePoint for collaboration and communication they may be required to merge and separate SharePoint sites within the same environments.
  • Resource Management: The non-functional sites are taking up storage and it is decided by the organizations that they no longer need to function. In this case, an organization may need to keep the sites for compliance purposes. The only solution is to migrate all nonfunctional sites into one site to manage the resources efficiently.
  • Simplified Management: Migrating all different site content that is similar into one site can decrease the burden of an admin. Which will lead to simplified management of sites.

Three Main Benefits of Merging SharePoint Site

  • Improved Management: Migrating sites can help admins manage the different sites of the same niche. For example, if you are managing 20 different sites and 5 sites are being used for the same purpose. Then it may consume more time to manage sites separately. If you don’t need that separate sites you can merge them into one.
  • Increased Productivity:  Migrating multiple sites into one can save you time to navigate them which will increase your productivity and remove overburden. For example: Working On 3-to 4 sites of the same niche can be hectic because you need to navigate to different sites for the same information or collaboration purposes. Which will ultimately affect your productivity.
  • Unified Storage: Merging SharePoint sites can facilitate a unified space to store the site content where you can access the content at once.

Before moving into how to migrate SharePoint site to another site let’s move into a general outline for the migration procedure.

General Guidelines to Follow for Migration Process of SharePoint Sites

Below we have discussed the general migration outline that will facilitate users to get an idea of the migration process and the steps involved in it. 

  1. Plan the Migration: Determine what content, features, and configurations need to be moved after that prepare a list of all contents like lists, documents, and libraries. In this phase, you need to finalize the migration method according to your needs.
  2. Prepare the Source and Destination Sites: Before moving further you need to ensure that you have taken the complete backup of your source site. After that prepare the destination site to accommodate your migrated content.
  3. Select a Migration Method: This is the main step, and you must choose the appropriate migration method or tool according to your needs. However, we will show migration methods in the upcoming section of this guide so you can choose from there.
  4. Execute the Migration: After following all the above steps you can directly move forward to the execution part. Here you have to verify the sites and content before executing migration. You can also prepare a log of migrated files.

After the successful migration, you can verify the completion of the migration by checking the content. However, this step is considered as part of post-migration steps.

4  Ways to Quickly Migrate SharePoint Site to Another Site

There are multiple manual processes to perform migration in SharePoint Online but it takes lots of effort and requires technical expertise. Therefore, an admin prefers to use the automated premium vendor tool to facilitate migration in SharePoint. Let’s discuss the advanced solution and the steps for SharePoint site migration.

#1. Solution for SharePoint Site Migration [Advanced Method]

To facilitate SharePoint migration whether it is site migration or only content migration. There is a best-automated method that can automate the process of migration. The SharePoint Migrator Software is most recommended and trusted by Microsoft 365 experts and professionals for SharePoint migration. This tool has an impactable record in successful SharePoint migration.

Here are some Features of This proficient Tool:

  • When moving SharePoint to a different SharePoint site it preserves metadata.
  • Transfers all SharePoint lists, folders, document sets, and document libraries at once.
  • Enables bulk and batch migration for effective use of time and resources.
  • Includes delta migration for transferring recently received data to the SharePoint site (When the previous migration is in progress).
  • Offers a date filter function in SharePoint to enable selective data migration.
  • Provides user mapping from source to destination to ensure a seamless migration.
  • Automatically monitors the migration progress using an interactive dashboard.

This tool’s features are not limited to only these features. It offers a lot of features that simplify SharePoint site migration.

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Steps of This Efficient Tool for SharePoint Migration

To Migrate SharePoint site to another site follow these  5 easy steps:

  1. Firstly, Download and install the software from above, Open the application and move to the Setup tab >> Now select Office 365 as both Source and Destination.
    Main Screen
  2. Secondly, scroll down and check the check box for Site including Document Library and  Generic list >> Click on Next
    Workload section Under Setup
  3. Thirdly, Enter the Microsoft 365 Admin Credentials for Source, and after validating >> click on Next >> Enter the same for the Destination after validating Read and Write rights click on Next.
    Admin Credential Validation
  4. Fourthly, map Source sites to Destination sites and click on validate. This tool also has the option to prioritize the selection which indicates what is to be migrated first. You can just click on the Star icon to prioritize.
    Validate Sites and Users
  5. Finally, After validating >> Click on the “Start Migration” Button at the top right corner.
    Start Migration and migrate SharePoint site to another site

After following these simple steps you can easily migrate the SharePoint site to another site.

SharePoint Site Migration Using Manual Methods

The traditional and native approaches of moving files, libraries, and lists from one SharePoint site to another site require concentration and lots of effort. Additionally, to perform this method you should have intermediate or expert-level technical skills. Although, after doing all these many users found these methods complicated and more complex. 

Here we are discussing three methods through which you can migrate SharePoint to another site. You should follow these steps correctly because these methods are prone to human errors and may result in losing your important data. We will also discuss its limitation

#2. Migrate Sites  Using “Save Site as Template” in SharePoint Online

These methods help you download a template of your source site which you can later upload to your destination site. Using this method you can able to migrate SharePoint site contents and settings. However, this method doesn’t let you choose what to migrate to the destination site. Therefore this method is suitable for migrating only smaller sizes of SharePoint sites. If you are here for large site migration we recommend you go with the advanced method that is discussed in the above section.

Note: You can only perform in the case of the classic SharePoint team’s site and communication sites. And you should have admin credentials.

Steps to be Performed For Using This Method:

Step 1: Firstly, navigate to your SharePoint site>>Click on “Site Settings” in the settings placed at the top right corner.

Step 2: Now find “Site Actions” >> Click on “Save site as a template” under site actions.

Step 3: Enter the name of your template in the given field >> Click on “Save” to save the template to the “Solutions” gallery.

Step 4:  Now you have to download the template file which is downloaded as the (.wsp) extension.

Step 5: Lastly, go to the destination SharePoint site>> Go to “Site Settings” >>Upload the template under “Solutions” or “Web Designer Galleries”.

Step 6: Finally you can use the uploaded template to create a new site on the destination SharePoint. 

After performing these steps in Classic SharePoint Online you can easily migrate SharePoint site to another site.

#3. PnP PowerShell Method for SharePoint Site Migration to Another Site

Another method for moving the SharePoint site to another site is to use PnP PowerShell commands. This method also requires technical skill and knowledge of shell scripting, and therefore it also requires proper concentration. Here, we are following the Export/Import Strategy to automate the steps using PnP PowerShell Scripts.  Additionally, we have divided the command execution into stages and you should follow these stages for a successful migration.

Note: This is the basic script for smaller migration tasks if you want to migrate large data you need to customize the script for additional functionality.

Additional considerations Before Following this Method:

  • If you are planning to migrate list structures and metadata.  You have to create lists and fields manually.
  • You may need to reconfigure permissions on the destination site.
  • Complex customizations and configurations might not be covered by these basic scripts.

PnP PowerShell Script for SharePoint Site Migration

Stage 1:  Install PnP PowerShell to migrate SharePoint site to another site.

Install-Module -Name PnP.PowerShell -AllowClobber

Stage 2:  Export Content from the Source Site

# Establish a connection to the source SharePoint site
Connect-PnPOnline -Url "use the Source site URL" -UseWebLogin
# Commands to export Document Library you can adjust paths accordingly
$libraryName = "Documents"
$localPath = "C:\SP_Migrations\Source_site" 
# Create local directory if it doesn't exist
if (-not (Test-Path -Path $localPath)) {
    New-Item -Path $localPath -ItemType Directory
}
# Commands to download all files from the library
Get-PnPListItem -List $libraryName | ForEach-Object {
    $fileUrl = $_.FieldValues.FileRef
    $fileName = [System.IO.Path]::GetFileName($fileUrl)
    $localFilePath = Join-Path -Path $localPath -ChildPath $fileName
    # Download file
    Get-PnPFile -Url $fileUrl -Path $localPath -FileName $fileName -AsFile

}

Stage 3: Importing Content to the Destination Site

# Eastablish Connection to the destination SharePoint site
Connect-PnPOnline -Url "use Destination site URL" -UseWebLogin
# Create a document library in the destination site (if it doesn't exist)
$libraryName = "Documents"
if (-not (Get-PnPList -Identity $libraryName -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue)) { New-PnPList -Title $libraryName -Template DocumentLibrary
}
# Upload all files from the local path to the destination library
$localPath = "C:\SP_Migrations\Source_site"
Get-ChildItem -Path $localPath | ForEach-Object {
    $filePath = $_.FullName
    $fileName = $_.Name
    $destinationUrl = "/sites/destination-site/$libraryName/$fileName"
    # Upload file
    Add-PnPFile -Path $filePath -Folder $destinationUrl
}

After executing these commands you have successfully learned how to migrate SharePoint site to another site using PnP PowerShell scripts.

#4. SharePoint Site to Another SharePoint site migration By “Move To”

Using this method you can move data to another site, however, this method can only move the data within the site collection. You can follow this method to simply move your site content to another site. Let’s directly move in and see the steps for migration.

Note: You should be logged in as Admin in SharePoint

Step 1: Firstly, click “SharePoint” to access the Microsoft 365 admin center.

Step 2: Secondly, from the list of Active sites, select the URL of the website you wish to Migrate.

Step 3: Thirdly, Click on “Site contents” after opening “Settings” placed at the top-right corner.

Step 4: Now, select “Site contents” by clicking the three dots next to the site in the “Subsites” list.

Step 5: Select the items from the Source site that you wish to relocate, then use the right-click menu to select “Move to.”

Step 6: Finally, choose the Destination site from the list of sites. 

After following these steps you can easily migrate the SharePoint sites.

Conclusion

To conclude, SharePoint is a web-based collaborative platform that can help its users get informed and access important documents from anywhere. However, many users are not aware of the SharePoint site migration capabilities. Therefore, we have discussed what are the possible methods to migrate SharePoint site to another site. Additionally, we have shown an Advanced and automated method through which you can easily migrate your site content in just 5 steps.