A new and improved version of Microsoft’s very own migration tool – SharePoint Migration Tool – version 2 was released yesterday. This tool is slowly gaining momentum with many developers, who are using it for quick, lightweight migrations. A few noteworthy additions in the open beta and version 2 releases are.
- Support for many other list types (Generic List, Survey, Picture Library, XML Form, etc.)
- JSON support for bulk migration.
- Site Structure creation, etc.
There are 3 modes of migration with this tool.
- SharePoint on-premises
- File Share
- JSON or CSV for bulk migration
In this article, we will have a look in detail at migrations using File Share and CSV.
This tool can be downloaded from - here.
Installation and Set Up
The tool size is approx. ~15 MB and can be downloaded using the above link. After clicking on the link, accept the agreements, and click install.
Once installed, you can login into the tool.
After successful login, it will prompt you for the source of data you wish to migrate. The current version of SharePoint Migrator has 3 options.
- SharePoint on-premises
- File Share
- JSON or CSV for bulk migration
- For SharePoint on-prem migrations, you need to enter the URL and credentials and then start off the migration.
- For File Share, you need to select the local folder where the files for upload exists, select it and click Next. You will get the option of entering the SharePoint online URL, i.e., the destination site. Also, you’ll get the option of selecting the document library as well, where the actual migration will happen.
![SharePoint]()
![SharePoint]()
Once the necessary selections have been made, the task will be created, and then the migration can be started.
The migration then starts, and the progress and reports can be viewed. Also, in my SharePoint online site, I can see my files being uploaded
- For JSON or CSV migrations
With this option, you can basically write instructions for the migration to happen in an automated manner.
The CSV file should contain row-based values in 6 columns.
| Column | What value to enter | Required/Optional |
| Column A | The file share path or an on-premises source SharePoint Server site URL | Required |
| Column B | The SharePoint source document library you are migrating. For all document, libraries leave it blank. For file share migrations, leave it blank | Optional |
| Column C | The name of the subfolder in the document library. If this column is left empty, the migration starts from the root. If there is a value in this column, the migrations start from the subfolder and down. Optional. | Optional |
| Column D | The SharePoint Online destination site URL | Required |
| Column E | The name of the document library in the SharePoint Online destination site | Required |
| Column F | The name of the subfolder in the document library. If this column is left empty then the files will be moved to the root level | Optional |
A very detailed instruction regarding the formatting usage of this CSV/JSON file can be found here.