Auto populating columns

Deleted
Not applicable

I am trying to take old cluttered hard drives and upload them onto a SharePoint site that is easily searchable for others in the company. Is there a way I can do something in SharePoint that would allow me to upload a document in to a library and have it automatically populate columns with metadata from the file like dates, titles, author, etc. I'm also wondering if there is a way i can automatically generate tags for these docs to make them easier to find?

2 Replies
You can upload documents in SharePoint. While uploading, it would take few metadata automatically, name, created date and created by as person uploading it. Depending on the version of SharePoint you are using, we are write a utility to make changes to metadata. Additionally, the utility(powershell) could also be used to tag documents initially.

@Deleted 

Hi Jdelong,

First of all: smart move to consolidate the data into a single environment.

You have several options:
a. Use the OOTB "Open with Explorer" (using IE) or the SharePoint Online Modern view to upload complete folder structures.
You end up with new creation/modification dates and the metadata can only be extracted from Office files.

b. Use the Microsoft Migration tool (https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepointmigration/introducing-the-sharepoint-migration-tool)
This is a free tool. The metadata extraction is again very limited.

c. Use Enterprise migration tools (see https://directory.collab365.community/office365-sharepoint/best-sharepoint-migration-tools/)
These tools provide rich functionality to retain original modify dates or permissions. The ability to extract metadata from the document's various between the tools.

d. Use 3rd party apps that provide metadata extraction capabilities (e.g. http://www.slimapplications.com/product/explorer/)
The apps provide functionality to extract metadata from various types (Office, emails, PDFs, images, audio files, video files, ...) during uploading.
e. Use ODFB sync client
Though it allows uploading of files it does not support metadata. 

Paul | SLIM Applications