OneDrive Migration Best Practices For Business – Complete Guide

The brief version: OneDrive is designed for personal data storage. The OneDrive account can be availed with an Outlook.com id or any Skype/Microsoft/ Xbox Live account. One can access its files from anywhere. On the other hand, OneDrive for Business is a part of Office 365 (or SharePoint Server). It provides a place in the cloud where they can save, share, and sync all their work files. A OneDrive for Business account is administrated by any organization, which lets its employees use this platform to work collaboratively and share files with colleagues.

Since we have done a general comparison between OneDrive and OneDrive for Business account so, next we will talk about how to transfer files from OneDrive personal to OneDrive for business account. However, before going further let us understand the need for such migration with the help of some user queries taken from forum websites:

Larry Glod: “There is approximately 370 GB of database saved in my Personal OneDrive account. Because of some professional necessities, I want to move the entire data to my OneDrive Business account that comes up with Office 365 subscription. But, I would like to do this without incurring 500+ GB of network traffic. Is there any technique to migrate data from OneDrive to OneDrive for Business? If so, how?”

Zac Goodlet: “I am the owner of a Personal OneDrive account that contains few project files and I want to share them with an organization. Sadly, these files becomes mixed up with my personal data and we are not allowed to access our personal accounts while we are on job. Thus, can someone recommend me a quick and simple technique to move files from OneDrive to OneDrive for Business account.”

Move Files from OneDrive Personal to OneDrive Business

If you are having the local access to your OneDrive data then, you can migrate files to OneDrive for Business just via uploading them in a web browser. Yet, one can use a new OneDrive sync client for more efficiency. Below are the guidelines to move files to OneDrive for Business account:

Step 1: Sync OneDrive for Business to Local Computer

Synchronizing your files with OneDrive desktop app makes it easy to migrate your OneDrive files around just as any other file of your computer. It is an easy and quick way as you are no more dependant on the network.

Important

• One cannot use the OneDrive desktop app to migrate OneNote notebooks
• The OneDrive desktop app is not capable to move more than 300,000 files

Follow below guidelines to set up the sync connection with OneDrive Business account:

Note: If you already have set this up this then, skip this section.

• Sign in to your Office 365 account.
• Choose the white/ blue OneDrive cloud icon from the Windows taskbar.
• Now, in the activity center, choose More >> Settings.
• In Settings wizard, select Account >> Add an account.
• In Set up OneDrive window, enter the email address of your new account, click Sign in.

Step 2: Move OneDrive Files to Synced OneDrive for Business Folder

• Open the synced OneDrive folder in File Explorer.
• Default location of OneDrive folder – c:\users\username\OneDrive.
• Drag the desired files to your synced OneDrive Business folder.

Note: In case, if you need to move a large number of files then, it is recommended to move files in a batch of no more than 100 files each.

After moving the files to synced library folder, they will automatically become uploaded to OneDrive for Business account on Office 365. Now, you can preview the moved files within OneDrive Business Account

Important About Moving Files from OneDrive Personal to OneDrive Business

• All the files you move from OneDrive to OneDrive for Business are basically acknowledged as new files. Hence, these files do not retain the metadata information such as Modified and Modified By.
• OneDrive Business limits certain file types.

To Move More than 300,000 files to OneDrive for Business

One can move as many files as possible using OneDrive desktop app

• Upload the files in a batch of 100 items (files/ folders) at a time.
• After starting to approach the 300,000 mark, Stop syncing with the OneDrive for Business app.
• Now, upload all left items to OneDrive for Business account in a web browser via Upload command.

Concluding Lines

Executing OneDrive to OneDrive for Business migration will be no more complex task as we have come up with this article. Here, we have discussed a complete method to move files from OneDrive to OneDrive for Business account quickly and seamlessly.