Forum Discussion
Migration Manager for Dropbox to Sharepoint
Hello, we've just migrated some dropbox folders and files across and noticed that the dates modified are wrong and aren't correctly showing within sharepoint or file explorer (via sync).
Has anyone experienced similar issues with migration manager? Client is requesting for us to have this resolved and to ensure that the date modified shows the correct dates as shown in dropbox.
Thank you
2 Replies
This is expected behavior, not a bug, because Migration Manager treats migrated files as new uploads. Please use the SharePoint Migration Tool (SPMT) or PnP PowerShell if you need to preserve timestamps.
Hi,
Yes, this is a known sore spot with the Dropbox connector specifically. It comes up regularly on MS Q&A, and Microsoft support's own guidance in at least one of those threads was to use SPMT instead, because in their testing SPMT preserved Created/Modified while Migration Manager did not. The file-share source path in SPMT handles timestamps reliably; the cloud connectors (Dropbox, Box, Google) are much weaker on metadata. Worth remembering too that Migration Manager only brings the latest version of each file from Dropbox, so version history is gone regardless.
and below realistic path : Re-migrate via SPMT. Sync the Dropbox content down with the Dropbox desktop client, then run SPMT from that local file share. The Dropbox client preserves the original modified timestamps on download, so Modified comes across correctly. Created will be the download date, so be clear with the client about that up front.
And finally If preserving Dropbox metadata and version history is genuinely contractual, the are third party solution that handle the Dropbox source better than Migration Manager does. Sometimes the cheapest answer is a short-term tool licence rather than two weeks of remediation scripting.
Regards
