Forum Discussion

gjayne84's avatar
gjayne84
Brass Contributor
Apr 30, 2019

Migrate documents from library with folders to 'flat' library

Hi everyone

 

We currently have an on-premise SharePoint 2010 farm, which has one large document library.  All the files in this library are stored in a nested folder structure, which goes four or five levels deep.  I've setup a new team site on SharePoint Online and I now want to migrate the content from SP2010 to Online.  this new library has no folders and is setup to display the files grouped by metadata.

 

I'm using third party software called Layer2 Cloud Connector to migrate the content over but this moves the folders over to the new library.  I can't seem to find a way of migrating all the files from the old library over to the new one without the folders.  Does anyone know a way of doing this?

 

At the moment the only workaround I can find is to change the view on the new library on SPO to not display items in folders.  I'd be grateful if anyone who has done something like this before could let me know if there's a better way.

 

Thanks in advance for your help.

SharePoint Online
  • administrator's avatar
    administrator
    Brass Contributor
    Apr 30, 2019

    gjayne84 

    There are tools that allow flattening of folder structures during the migration to SharePoint. I am aware of at least one tool (SLIM Companion Explorer) because I am affiliated with the vendor.
    The folder structure can be skipped and the original path can be captured into a SharePoint column. Please note that the original SharePoint 2010 content needs to be accessible via explorer view (or mapped drive).
    Another option is to look for a PowerShell script that removes the folder structure of the migrated content.

    Irrespective of the tool / solution you choose make sure that the tool can handle duplicate file names. Also be careful with the List View Threshold if you are moving large numbers of items. Your views need to cater for this.
    Another aspect you may want to take into account is to keep the original modification dates.

    Paul | SLIM Applications

Resources