OneDrive to OneDrive for Business (with Versions and Metadata) migration guide
This guide for OneDrive for Business to OneDrive for Business migrations includes versions and metadata. Review ALL the steps and dropdown lists carefully and ensure all the prerequisites are met before a migration.
12/15/202412 min read
Migration Wiz
This guide for OneDrive for Business to OneDrive for Business migrations includes versions and metadata. Review ALL the steps and dropdown lists carefully and ensure all the prerequisites are met before a migration.
For more information on OneDrive migrations, review our FAQ.
If you perform a GCC High/China migration, use the OneDrive for Business to OneDrive GCC High/China Migration Guide instead.
Prerequisites
Please consider meeting the following prerequisites before starting your migration process.
The source endpoint for this migration must be OneDrive for Business, and the destination endpoint must be OneDrive for Business (with Versions and Metadata). No other endpoints are supported for this migration type.
Licensing
We recommend that you purchase User Migration Bundle licenses for this migration scenario. User Migration Bundle licenses allow the performance of multiple migrations with a single license. For questions on licensing, visit MigrationWiz Licenses.
To use your license by following the next steps:
Purchase Licenses.
Create a Customer.
Apply Licenses.
Review Considerations.
Purchase Licenses
In the top navigation bar, click Purchase.
Click the Select button and choose User Migration Bundle licenses.
Enter the number of licenses you want to purchase. Click Buy Now.
Enter a Billing address if applicable.
Click Next.
Review the Order Summary and enter a payment method.
Click Place Your Order.
Create a Customer
Click the Add button in the top navigation bar
Click the Add Customer button on the All Customers page
Select the appropriate workgroup in the left navigation pane and click All Customers.
Click Add Customer.
Enter the new customer’s information in the Add Customer form. Primary Email Domain and Company Name are required. The rest are optional.
Click Save.
Repeat steps 1 through 4 for each customer you want to add.
Apply Licenses
Select the correct workgroup on the top of the left navigation pane.
Click Customers on the left navigation pane.
Click the customer that employs the user to whom you want to use the User Migration Bundle license.
Click the Users tab at the top of the page.
Apply the license to the users by checking the box to the left of their emails.
Click the Apply User Migration Bundle License button at the top of the page.
Click Confirm if at least one unassigned User Migration Bundle license is available for each selected user.
Limitations
Consider the following limitations for this type of migration.
Migrations from a GoDaddy tenant are supported. In most cases, the steps are exactly as outlined below. However, in some cases, special steps may be needed for a GoDaddy-hosted O365 tenant. Those steps are outlined in this article.
On-Premise OneDrive for Business is not supported.
The maximum single file size for migration through MigrationWiz varies by migration type and environment but may never exceed 60GB.
Versions for OneNote files are not supported. Since OneNote Online does not support the Page level versions, Only the Desktop OneNote supports Page level versions.
Migrated Items
Information about the types of items migrated with this scenario, including metadata and versions, can be found in the following tabs. More information about metadata and versions is found later in the article.
In the list below, you can find the expected migrated items.
Folders
Shared Folders
Permissions are set at the individual folder or item level that have been granted to specific users/email addresses
Code Files
Documents
Images
Forms
Executables
Videos
Audio Files
Original metadata and BitTitan migration metadata (author, editor, created time, modified time, name, file size, type, MigrationWizId, MigrationWizPermissionId)
Document attributes (Created by (person) and (time))
Modified by (person) and (time))
Versions & Metadata migrations only: Creation Date
Not Migrated
In the list below, you can find the non-migrated items.
Versions for OneNote files are not supported. Efforts are being made to manage this issue as soon as possible.
Non-Versions & Metadata migrations:
Creation date (Creation date gets changed to the "date of migration" date)
Version History
Links giving access
Shared permissions for files/folders with symbols in the name
Metadata Types
The following metadata types will be migrated:
Single line of text
Choice
Single select
Multi-select Currency
Date and Time
Number
Person or Group (should be available at destination)
Yes/No
URL/ Hyperlink
Picture
Location
Calculated
The following metadata types are currently not supported:
Any metadata referencing outside information from the document library is not migrated (such as lists or other site-level data).
External data
Managed metadata
Lookup
Retention policy tags/retention labels
Preparing the Source Environment
Please consider the following information when preparing your source environment.
Users being migrated need to be licensed to use OneDrive in the source tenant.
Users being migrated must not be blocked from signing into the source tenant.
Source OneDrives must not be set to read-only. This is initially for setup. Steps for setting up for read-only can be found under the Run Verify Credentials section later in the guide.
OneDrive Prerequisites
Create an admin account in Microsoft 365 for the migration, or use the global admin account for the tenant.
The easiest approach to follow is to use the global admin account. This was set up at the time of tenant creation. However, if you do not wish to use this global admin account during migration, then a new user account can be created instead. This will then need to be granted full access rights to each user.
The admin account must have a full license assigned to it, to provision OneDrive for Business profiles for each user during the migration process.
Application Permissions for OneDrive
Continue configuring your destination environment by selecting one of these application permissions options and following the steps to enable permission levels at the destination.
Delegated Authentication
The easiest approach is to use the global admin account set up at the time of tenant creation. However, if you do not wish to use this global admin account during migration, then a new user account can be created instead. This user account needs to have a license assigned that includes OneDrive and be granted Site Collection Administrator privileges to OneDrive in the project.
Create a user in Microsoft 365 and assign a license that includes SharePoint. For step-by-step instructions, see the Microsoft article Add users individually or in bulk to Office 365.
Set the administration privileges. Grant one of the permission levels listed below to the user account to be user as the administrator for the endpoint in the project.
Global Admin. Microsoft has instructions to set these permissions here: Assign admin roles.
SharePoint Admin. For specific permissions and project settings to be used with a Site Collection Administrator, see MigrationWiz Permission Requirements.
Add the admin account, created in step 2, as a Site Collection Admin to the endpoint.
Go to MigrationWiz-SharePoint-Delegated and consent to the app access when prompted. Once you click on Accept, you will be redirected to the BitTitan login page. This is normal and the page can be closed.
App-Based Authentication
BitTitan uses app-based authentication for OneDrive, providing greater security and reducing the potential of Microsoft throttling. It replaces the previous Microsoft 365 authentication, which has been subject to increased throttling by Microsoft. This app-based authentication method is specific for Microsoft 365 tenants.
Ensure you are signed in as a Global Admin.
Go to MigrationWiz-SharePoint-FullControl and consent to the app access when prompted.
Create a new Security Group named “MigrationWiz” on the Office 365 Admin Portal.
Create a new user that is not having data migrated in the project. This account does not require any administrator roles to be assigned. If you already have an existing user, that should be fine. This user must have a SharePoint license applied.
Add the new (or existing) user to the previously created security group as a Member. Adding it as an Owner does not work here.
Create MigrationWiz project.
When creating the source and destination endpoints, enter the user credentials in step 4 that correspond with the endpoint to which the user belongs.
Add the support option UseApplicationPermission=1 to the advanced options of the MigrationWiz project under Support Options.
Export the Migrating User List to a CSV File
This can be used when bulk-adding users to your MigrationWiz project later. You can copy and paste the user list into the Source and Destination Email columns within your MigrationWiz project dashboard under Add > Bulk Add.
To export the user list:
Go to the Microsoft 365 admin portal.
Click Users.
Click Active Users.
Click Export.
Click Continue.
Be sure to save the CSV somewhere you can access it for uploading users into the migration project.
Preparing the Destination Environment
Please consider the following information when preparing your destination environment.
Users being migrated need to be licensed to use OneDrive in the destination tenant.
Users being migrated must not be blocked from signing into the destination tenant.
Destination OneDrives must not be set to read-only.
Apply the administration permissions of your preference by meeting the OneDrive Prerequisites and considering the Application Permissions for OneDrive steps outlined in the section above.
Prepare Azure Environment for Destination Endpoint
An Azure Storage account is required when creating the destination endpoint for this project type (steps for setting up the endpoints are listed later in the guide)
Using Microsoft-provided Azure storage
We recommend using Microsoft-provided Azure storage for this migration. Refer to Microsoft documentation for more details. If you choose not to use this option, see Using your own Azure storage below.
MigrationWiz Steps
Create a Document Project
Log in to MigrationWiz.
Click the Go to My Projects button.
Click the Create Project button.
Select the Document project type.
Click Next Step.
Enter a Project name and select a Customer. If no customer exists yet other than the Default customer. Click on New and create a customer for the project.
Click Next Step.
Select endpoints or follow the steps below to create new endpoints.
Endpoints
Endpoints are created through MigrationWiz. If you select an existing endpoint from the dropdown, it will only show ten endpoints. If you have more than ten, you may need to search it.
Consider that endpoint search is case and character-specific. For example, Cust0mer will not show up if the search is customer. We recommend keeping a list of endpoints you have created, along with any unique spellings or capitalization you may have used.
Create your Endpoints
Please review the following tabs to create your destination and source endpoints.
Source Endpoint
Create your source endpoint by following the next steps:
Click SOURCE SETTINGS.
Click New.
Name the endpoint. It is recommended that the endpoint name is unique for the project.
Under Endpoint Type, select OneDrive for Business from the dropdown menu.
Choose one of the administrator login options:
Provide credentials, when selecting this option you must complete the Administrator Username and Password in the proper fields.
Do not provide credentials.
Click Add.
Destination Endpoint
Create your destination endpoint by following the next steps:
Click DESTINATION SETTINGS.
Click New.
Under Endpoint Type, select OneDrive for Business.
Select the radio button named OneDrive for Business (Office 365 User) - Documents, Permissions, Versions, and Metadata.
Complete the Administrator Username and Password in the proper fields.
Choose one of the Azure Storage options:
Use Microsoft Provided Azure Storage, in this case, you can pass to step 7.
Use Custom Azure Account Name, enter the Azure Storage Account Name and Azure Access Key (if using your own Azure storage). In this case, only numbers and lowercase letters can be used. If you enter an upper case letter, your migration will fail.
Click Add.
Choose a Region of destination Tenant from the dropdown menu.
Click Save Project.
Region of Destination Tenant
The Region of Destination Tenant feature optimizes the migration performance and speed by choosing the region closest to the destination tenant. MigrationWiz displays a dropdown that allows you to select the destination region when configuring your destination endpoint.
Add Items to the Project
You can add the user accounts (also called "Line Items") that will be migrated into the project using the CSV file created in the Preparing the Source section, click "Add" in the menu dashboard, and select Bulk Add.
If you are also running a Mailbox Project for the users that will be migrated here, you can use the Add from MSPComplete option. Verify the users are licensed in MSPComplete or the Mailbox project before adding them.
Advanced Options
The following advanced options show you some options that will help you to perform o complete a migration.
Support Tab
Consider that each Support Option includes the "=" character and is to be entered under the Support tab in the section named Support Options.
Add additional blank fields for new Support Options by clicking on the "+" button. In case you want to delete a field click the trash can icon.
Required Settings
InitializationTimeout=8 This increases the initialization timeout window to eight hours. This is especially useful for large migrations.
DestPersonalSiteIsProvisioned=1 This option tells MigrationWiz that the destination OneDrives has been provisioned, as this migration scenario does not support MigrationWiz to provision OneDrives. This is mentioned near the beginning of the guide under OneDrive migrations.
UseApplicationPermission=1 This option is mandatory in case you use app-based authentication permissions
UseApplicationPermissionAtSource=0 and UseApplicationPermissionAtDestination=0 These options are mandatory in case you use delegated authentication permissions.
Optional Settings
Migrations of over 15GB are now supported, but this must be set up in Advanced Options. These settings will prevent timeout errors when a Speedster import takes more than 10 minutes to complete.
LargeFileMigrations=1
LargeFileMigrationsTimeout=7200000
Required for Multi-Geo migrations: For custom non-standard URLs being used for the SharePoint Admin center in O365, add OneDriveProExportAdminUrl=<non-standard URL> (Source tenant) and/or OneDriveProImportAdminUrl=<non-standard URL> (Destination tenant). Replace "<non-standard URL>" with your custom URL (do not include the ") being used for the SharePoint Admin center.
Permission mapping for files and folders: The two Advanced Options outlined below function independently of each other. However, they are complementary options that can be used together. We suggest using MapPermissionEmailByPairsInProject as your primary auto-mapping option and then adding UserMapping to take care of any outliers and avoid interruptions to your migration.
MapPermissionEmailByPairsInProject=1 When OneDrive is the destination, this option can be used to map permissions by pairs in the project. user@domain.com to firstinitial.lastname@domain.com.
In scenarios where the prefix of the User Principle Names are to change during a migration, you will need to add the following for automapping of permissions based on the source and destination User Principle Names you have entered in the project. This option is only valid where OneDrive for Business is the destination.
Important
If you have user OneDrives migrating for the same customer in multiple projects, you must enter the following support option in each project instead of MapPermissionEmailByPairsInProject: MapPermissionEmailByPairsInCustomer=1UserMapping="user1@source-domain.com->user5@destination-domain.com" Use the UserMapping advanced option when you want to customize the permission mapping for a user or group.
Please note that the destination user/group (user5@destination-domain.com) must have been commissioned and be available at the destination document library before migration.
Filtering Tab
Please be aware that OneNote does not support versioning. To avoid creating duplicate content, it is crucial to migrate your OneNote files just once. Each subsequent migration attempt could result in new versions of your OneNote files being generated as separate new files.
To prevent this, we advise filtering out OneNote files during various stages of the migration process by adding one in the Advanced Options. Consider excluding OneNote files during Trial Migration and Pre-Stage Migration.
We recommend you only include them in the final Full Migration stage to ensure a smooth and efficient migration process. To ensure the successful migration of OneNote folders and files, particularly after initially excluding them, it is necessary to remove the one extension from the filtering tab in the Advanced Options.
Source/Destination Tab
You can configure the number of versions to migrate under the Source/Destination tab of the Advanced Options.
To do so, set the number of the document versions to be migrated (including the current version) as per project requirement and click Save.
Consider that the minimum number of versions is one and the maximum is 25. The default number of versions is three.
Multi-Pass Behavior for Migrating File Versions
During the first migration pass/run, a file and its associated versions will be migrated to the destination. In subsequent passes, the destination will be overwritten only with the latest version only if the source file has a new version at the source.
If the source file content has not been modified in subsequent passes, files & versions will not be migrated, i.e. there will be no change at the destination.
If a version is deleted for a source file, it is not identified as a change in the file content. This change (reduction in versions at source) will not be migrated in subsequent passes unless the source file has a new version due to content change at the source.
Run Verify Credentials
Open the Project containing the items you wish to validate.
Select the items you wish to validate.
Click on the Start button in your dashboard.
Select Verify Credentials from the drop-down list.
Once complete, the results of the verification will be shown in the Status section.
To lock (set to ReadOnly) the OneDrive items before migration:
Make sure all OneDrive line items are not locked.
Run Verify Credentials pass for all OneDrive line items. This will add the provided credentials as a site collection administrator for these items.
You can now lock all the OneDrive line items.
Run a full migration pass.
Notify Users
Send out the final notification that the migration is beginning. Include when the migration will start, the expected duration, any usage instructions during migration, and any expected steps or notifications for the post-migration timeline. Remind them to avoid modifying any documents at the Source, as this may cause corrupt data or an incomplete migration.
Run Migration
If you do not wish to perform a Pre-Stage pass, skip to the Full Migration Pass steps.
Pre-Stage pass
Select the users you wish to migrate.
Click the Start button from the top.
Select Pre-Stage Migration.
Under the Migration Scheduling section, from the drop-down list, select 30, 60, or 90 days ago.
Click Start Migration.
Perform a Full Migration
Select the users.
Click the Start button from the top.
Select Full Migration from the drop-down list.
Ensure that the Documents, Document Permissions, Metadata, and Versioning checkboxes are selected. By default, the latest three versions will be migrated. The number of versions to migrate can be updated in the Advanced Options section on the source/destination tab. (Steps outlined earlier in this migration guide)
Click Start Migration.
Once complete, the results of the migration will be shown in the Status section.
Request Statistics
On the All Projects page in MigrationWiz, click the pie chart icon for the project you want to request a statistics report (far right-hand side of the page). An email containing all the project migration statistics will be sent to the BitTitan account for the project.
Post Migration Steps
Remove the Authentication App
You can remove the Authentication App in Entra Center.
Sign in to Microsoft Entra admin center.
Select Microsoft Entra ID.
Go to Identity > Applications > Enterprise applications, in the left bar of the window.
In the Manage section, select All applications, look for the application permission you configured (MigrationWiz-SharePoint-Delegated or MigrationWiz-SharePoint-FullControl), and select it.
Go to Manage > Properties, and select Delete from the properties bar.
Decommission Source Accounts
To prevent users from inadvertently logging in and using their Source accounts, decommission their Source OneDrive for Business user accounts, or change the passwords for the source accounts.
Notify users
Notify users once the migration has been completed. If you set the MigrationWiz Advanced Option for Notifications, they will receive an email upon migration completion. Assist them with setting up access to their OneDrive for Business accounts, and setting up their synchronization settings.
Reference Article:
OneDrive to OneDrive for Business (with Versions and Metadata) migration guide