Leveraging The Modern Experience To Retain Version History When Moving Files In Office 365
The Problem: Lost Version History During Migration
When moving or migrating files in Office 365, users can unintentionally lose important version history information. This metadata includes details on previous iterations of the file, who made changes and when, and more. Losing this context during a migration can limit visibility into the evolution of content and collaboration between users.
There are a few key reasons version history can be lost:
- Using legacy migration tools that don’t retain all metadata
- Shifting files between sites using drag and drop or manual copy methods
- Incorrect configuration of migration settings in SharePoint Online
Losing this information impacts end users’ ability to:
- View, restore, or revert to previous iterations of a file
- Understand who has contributed to a document over time
- Meet audit or compliance requirements that depend on detailed version histories
Fortunately, Office 365 and SharePoint Online offer robust version history capabilities and modern migration tools that can prevent this issue.
Leveraging Modern Experiences in SharePoint Online
Microsoft has invested heavily in delivering streamlined, user-friendly experiences across Office 365 apps and services. These modern experiences take advantage of new cloud architectures, machine learning, and intelligent algorithms to improve productivity.
SharePoint Online has adopted modern experiences across many aspects of the platform, including:
- A refreshed responsive user interface
- Integrations with Microsoft Teams, OneDrive, and Office apps
- AI-powered search and recommendations
- Enhanced permissions management
Additionally, SharePoint now offers:
- Robust version history tracking for Office documents, with the ability to see iterative changes across a file’s lifetime.
- Seamless integration with Office apps allows multi-user co-authoring with detailed editing notes.
- Rules-based retention policies to persist version history and metadata at scale.
Together, these enhanced tools and experiences empower end users while giving administrators enterprise-grade control over content. For migrating files and retaining version data, SharePoint Online offers significant advantages.
Using the SharePoint Migration Tool
To properly retain version history when moving files into SharePoint Online, the SharePoint Migration Tool (SPMT) is recommended.
SPMT is a free, open-source command line tool designed specifically for migrating on-premises SharePoint sites and content to the cloud. Key benefits include:
- Preserves all metadata and version history by default
- Built-in mapping of users and permissions
- Flexible configuration of jobs and tasks
- Automatable via scripts for large-scale migrations
Follow these steps to install and use SPMT:
- Download SPMT as a ZIP file from https://spmt.sharepointonline.com
- Extract the ZIP file contents to your local environment
- Open PowerShell and navigate to the SPMT folder
- Create a migration configuration file called config.xml to specify source and destination environments
- Execute migration jobs with commands like:
Spmt migrate -ConfigFile .\config.xml -SourceUrl [source url] -TargetUrl [destination url] - Monitor progress in the logs and report files
As SPMT copies content to SharePoint Online, version history and precursor documents are automatically retained thanks to built-in preservation features.
Troubleshooting Tips
When migrating a large volume of files, there are often issues that arise surrounding version retention. Some common problems include:
- Throttling errors interrupting transfer of version history data
- Timeouts when iterating through long version chains
- Skipped files due to length limits of migration jobs
Solutions to avoid losing version history include:
- Break up migration batches into smaller segments
- Use PowerShell loops to retry failed items
- Adjust throttling behavior in both source and destination environments
- Route verbose logs to capture detail errors for debugging
Testing migration workflows and monitoring logs carefully is key to ensuring complete retention of all version metadata when moving files into Office 365.
Best Practices for Retaining Metadata
The key to preventing loss of important version history and metadata during migration is planning.
For administrators overseeing the migration effort, best practices include:
- Auditing existing file shares and SharePoint environments to understand breadth of metadata in use
- Documenting specific compliance needs related to version histories
- Examining destination options in SharePoint Online to determine optimal retention policies
- Setting up test migrations to validate metadata preservation
Additionally, end users should be instructed to:
- Retain predecessor documents before migration if feasible
- Confirm version histories are intact post-migration through sampling
- Tag critical retention policies to migrated content libraries
Following standardized processes and validating results is critical for complex enterprise migrations to Office 365.
Additional Resources
For further guidance, refer to:
