Forum Discussion
SharePoint sites vs. Site Collections - CONFUSED!
Thanks Dean_Gross - more useful information to help me plan the restructure. I think I'm now sorted for projects (i.e. a new site collection (via a Group) for each) and just have to decide for the other bits and pieces. That said, I now understand how it all works much better so it should be an easier task. The only thing that's still unclear I how I physically restructure existing sites / content (i.e. move document / libraries from one site / site collection to another). Thanks again, Oz
There are several ways to reorg content:
1. use a 3rd party tool, this provides the ability to keep all metadata, schedule jobs, do batches and much more.
2. drag/drop files - easy, but tedious, and it changes the Created/Modified info and it doesn't work if you have existing custom metadata
3. Use workflows to send files from one location to another - typically not practical if you have a lot of existing data, but can work well to help during a tranistion period.
4. If you have Publishing Infrastructure feature enabled, use the Site Contents and Structure tool to rearrange the Site Collection , this won't help across collections.
5. some others that I'm not thinking of at this time:)
Thanks Dean_Gross. I don't think the people who setup the existing SharePoint infrastructure have used any of the SharePoint functionality other than filing documents in folders - hopefully drag and drop will therefore be an option despite the change to created / modified information and loss of versions. My other option is probably the third party tools you mention so I need to go and research those. A lot of my reading to date has ended up at ShareGate's website so I guess that may be a place to start. Thanks again, Oz.
Another option is to use the Content Organizer, you can send files to a Drop Off library where the get assigned a Content Type, tagged with Metadata and then automatically routed to a final destination. see https://support.office.com/en-us/article/Configure-the-Content-Organizer-to-route-documents-B0875658-69BC-4F48-ADDB-E3C5F01F2D9A
Thanks again Dean_Gross. I've read up on the Content Organiser - it suggests that you can use this to route documents when you upload them, but does it work for docs which have already been uploaded? Thanks, Oz
ShareGate is well respected and used by many. Other options include tools from Metalogix and AvePoint