Cloning a Team and including all files + project plan

Copper Contributor

Hi folks - 

I've looked around and found ways to do one or the other, but I can't find a good way to do both in the same Team

 

We've got a process here that we follow for each new project.  There's a defined set of files that need to be completed by different people, and there's a specific project plan for the sequence in which those things need to be done.

 

I can create a "template" group that has

  1. All of the files, as templates, in their channels by phase of the project
  2. A default project plan with all of the tasks (unassigned/no due dates) sorted into the phases of the project

What I want to do is create a new Team by cloning this one, with all of the channels, including all of the template docs in their appropriate channels, and the blank project plan with the tasks in their appropriate phases.  That way we can assign the people to the project and the PM puts names/dates to the tasks based on who is assigned to the project, but none of the tasks are left out or forgotten.

 

What currently happens when I clone the group is

  1. The channels are created but the file libraries are empty.  No folders, no files, no nothing
  2. The planner tab is copied, but not the plan.

 

What I've found so far in the techcommunity discussions:

  1. You can move the files around in Sharepoint, just cloning the libraries, but that doesn't clone/replicate the project plan
  2. You can copy the project plan and use the O365 "group" that creates in the background as the basis for the new Team, but that doesn't clone/replicate the doc libraries

 

What I'm looking for is some way to do all this in as few steps as possible so that I'm not forced to

  1. Copy the project plan
  2. Use that to create a new team
  3. Rebuild the channels in the new team for each phase of documentation
  4. Copy multiple Sharepoint file libraries into place
  5. Assign team members, and hope the permissions match btw Sharepoint/Teams (and yes, we've had problems with this before)

 

Is there a simpler / more elegant way to clone a Team and everything that it contains?  Or am I stuck doing a lot of manual cutting & pasting, because that's gonna suuuuuuuuuck.

11 Replies
There isn't currently a silver bullet, i don't think, but you could use Flow to copy the required files into the channel folders, and you could also use it to copy tasks from one plan to another.

Other that identifying the existence of a thing called "Flow" in the Sharepoint interface, I know nothing about it. Is there an easy on-ramp / Flow-for-Dummies somewhere I could use to get up and running?

Thanks :)

Hello @brantguillory,

we have exactly the same need here. Do you have found a solution ?

Best regards.

zigune

@zigune 

 

Nothing that we've found.  At this point, we just brute-force our way through the setup of each team with a lot of copy/paste

So it's been a while, curious if there is a solution found. I'm looking to do the same for our school. Especially the assignments. Would save heaps of time if I didn't have to copy them over individually each year...

@Rob Ellis - would you use Flow to copy files, if a new team was copied from a specific extisting team/group - or how did you see Flow applied here?

No, this doesn't help. The question was to copy a Teams team lock stock & barrel, e.g. including all folders and files. The latter part is the one requiring so much effort and time.

@ArthurWW I have exactly the same issue.  I have just found a product called nBold that is a well priced plugin app for ateams that is meant to provide this functionality.  Their website also has instructions on how to create the same function via powerautomate if really wanted to.

Disclaimer - i have not yet tested this out - still waiting to hear bakc from them to do a demo.

This looks promising. I've also ordered a demo. Wondering if Planner can maintain the links to files in the Team.