Introduction
Let us try to explore the mover migration process of content from a box to One Drive.
Mover is a 100% free service. Whether you are a single user or a larger partner, Mover is free.
Mover is exclusively for migrating data to Microsoft 365.
When a file/content is transferred, a temporary copy is downloaded from Box to a temporary server and then uploaded to OneDrive for Business.
Upon successful upload, that file is deleted from the temporary server.
When the migration is completed, the temporary server is destroyed. Any log data expires in 90 days and is not retained. There are no more actions beyond copying files and folders and sharing permissions. No delete operations are done in this process.
Prerequisites
- Source setting up of Box Environment
- Target setting up of O365 Account to Support One Drive Accounts
- The rest of the steps and concepts
Migration Information Checklist
- Number of users to migrate
- Data ownership
- Data distribution
- Amount of data to move
- Number of files to move
- Individual file sizes and/or file sizes on average
- Who is your migration team?
- Who is your designated contact with us?
- Who is our point of contact with you?
The scan identifies how many users own data and how much there is to move. It is available in our Migration Manager once you have first set up a migration.
Architectural Overview of the Process
Sample Mover Migration Process Document for Box to One Drive Account
Please check my zipped folder: MoverProcess.Zip for all related documentation, the sample migration process & log files.
Quick Notes
Supported destinations:
- OneDrive
- OneDrive for Business
- SharePoint Online sites
- Teams sites
- Azure Blob Storage
The Migration Manager is the key part of the application itself and the main screen you will be interacting with during the data migration process.
Click
here to open a Mover support request with Microsoft Support.
Mover automatically removes invalid characters and replaces them with an underscore.
Authorization is lost when you delete the Connector, delete your account with us, or revoke our access through your cloud service's security settings.
Which Connector to Use for Each Microsoft Service
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Microsoft Service
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Which Mover Connector to Use
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Azure Blob Storage
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Azure Blob Storage Connector
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OneDrive Consumer
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OneDrive Consumer Connector
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OneDrive for Business (Administrator)
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Office 365 Connector
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OneDrive for Business (User)
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OneDrive for Business (User) Connector
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SharePoint Online
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Office 365 Connector
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SharePoint on-premise
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Agent Connector (source Connector only) or the Microsoft SharePoint Migration Tool
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Best Practices
An IT Manager or the Head of IT could be a good choice for our point of contact because they will understand the ins and outs of your organization's systems.
Any major changes in directory structure should happen before or after your migration. It is also not a good idea to use the app to rearrange content.
Users with large content, say 10TB, must be migrated batch-wise to avoid delay/hangover problems.
Let’s try for greater speed optimization by following the steps referred to
here.
When migrating from Box to OneDrive for Business, you need to ensure all your users are active and accessible.
We recommend migrating during a slower organizational period, such as the weekend, to avoid work interruptions.
Reauthorizing a Connector is sometimes necessary if we lose authorization or access to your cloud storage accounts or web servers. It is also a good first step in trying to resolve most issues with your Connectors.
Do not share content with external collaborators. This policy is in place to protect your organization, and industry best practice is to never automatically share sensitive internal data with external users.
Precautions
Global Admin Account is a mandate for the Target One Drive supported O365 Environment.
Prescanning before Migration is important to identify any Migration Risks like Long File Paths, Unsupported Folder names, etc.
Turn off the OneDrive for Business sync client during the Migration for unwanted Content Transferring.
Pros
- Nothing to install
- Mass migrations
- Scheduling
- Real-Time Logging
- Security
- Powerful Infrastructure
- Very Fast Migration
- Connectors will be deauthorized automatically if they have not transferred any data in the last 90 days.
- The most recent version of a file will be transferred from Box to OneDrive for Business during a migration.
- End Users are not bombarded with excessive notifications about the data during the Migration Process.
Cons + Limitations
You need to fix long paths before you migrate.
Changes to files or data in Box after this time will not be moved.
The app does not currently support Box Notes conversion.
Mover can only migrate data to sites, libraries, and users that exist. If they do not exist, there is nowhere for the data to go.
No Timestamps For folders But Maintained for files.
No version history Maintained but only maintains the Latest Version mostly updated during the Delta Migration.
User Accounts accessible Content can only be migrated.
If a user has only shared data, and with no owned data, No Migration possible from Box to OneDrive for Business for that User.
- Shared data are files and folders that are not owned by the user. When permissions are applied in OneDrive for Business after transferring, folders will be shared again with the appropriate users.
- Owned data are files and folders that are owned by the user. Data almost always needs to have an owner within your organization. This is the only data that we actually transfer.
- Ownership is typically determined by who created the file or folder, but in some cases, it can depend on the owner or creator of the parent (upper or top-level) folder.
Content changes
If a document is edited in your source or you have added a few new files, we will copy them to your destination on the next incremental run, overwriting the previously existing file(s) in the destination.
Name changes
If the name of a file or folder changes in Box, we will treat it as a brand new object. This can lead to duplicate files being migrated to OneDrive for Business, or worse: entire folders worth of data being duplicated from the changed folder downwards.
External sharing links must be set in the destination manually after migration.
Quick References
- https://mover.io/guides/migrating-box-to-onedrive
- https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepointmigration/box-to-onedrive-and-sharepoint-migration-guide
- https://mover.io/blog/
- https://mover.io/blog/2019/09/24/migrating-to-office-365-top-7-questions/
YouTube References
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tfc-ukwA8ZA&t=1246s
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kJE6doYDvt8
Happy Box to OneDrive Smooth Migration using the Mover Tool.
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