Moving or Copying Files: Painfully Slow, Loss of Data

[Hillary Barter]

Hello All! 

Our company transitioned over to SharePoint Online about a year ago.

One of the largest complaints I have to date, is the time it takes to move or copy files. In cases of one or two files, the time is minimal. But in cases where larger file moves are taking place - the pace of transfer is painfully slow. 

For example, today it took approx. 30 mins to transfer only 45.8 MB. 

Earlier this month, an employee spent the entire day waiting for files to transfer, only for her computer to stop responding, and have to re-start the entire process the next day. On our previous server based environment, the same transfer would take less than 30 minutes. 

Additionally, in some of these larger file moves, users have reported large losses of data. The files were moved, and confirmed, only to come in the next day and they have disappeared. 

This issue is decreasing adoption and causing our IT team multiple headaches.

Any suggestions or helpful feedback?

[#2]

We are having all the same problems. Moving large numbers of files between libraries in Sharepoint Online - even a few GBs - is painfully slow. Always surprised when functionality like this is so broken in a main product of one of the world's largest tech companies.

[#3]

@Birgir Rafn Þráinsson 

Hi

I am having the same issue as you have mentioned here. I requested our IT provider use the migration tool to upload our companies data and the company data that we merged with to a new team site, however, the migration didn't go to plan and we now have to separate libraries within the team site. 

I am trying to find an simpler way to combine the to document libraries, preferably by copying or moving one documents library into another. When I have done this as a test I find that if I copy more than a few files with a max of 5GB in total then I will come back to my computer and the page will have timed out and there is no way, other than individually checking each folder, to see what has gone and what hasn't.

If this is the only way to move data around it is not really suitable as you have mentioned as it means I will need to make multiple trips to the office over the weekend when everyone is out of the office to make sure that the files are being moved.

If anyone has any suggestions as to how this can be done more efficiently it would be greatly appreciated. 

Thanks 

[#4]

Hello ,

I mapped SharePoint site to my PC , 

I am trying to move a 10GB file from a SharePoint Site to another SharePoint site which has been mapped to my PC, I get an error message "error 0x800700DF:The file size exceeds the limit allowed and cannot be saved " 

I have edited the registry to 4294967295 and restarted the Pc and the web client still the same error.  when I navigate to the SharePoint online it gets stocked on 50% for hours . 

Is there anything I can do move the file ?

Or is there a maximum file size of file I can move between sites ?

Thank you 

[#5]

@Ezekiel_Ope 

Can you check the following:
1. Did you change the FileSizeLimitInBytes parameter to 4294967295? This is only 4 GB whereas you need at least 10 GB.
2. Are you moving the file within the same SharePoint system? or between SharePoint systems?
Note: that SharePoint 2013 has a 2 GB limit.
3. Are you able to download the 10 GB to your local computer?
4. How do you connect to SharePoint? via OneDrive client or File explorer or ...

Paul | SLIM Applications (https://www.slimapplications.com)

[#6]

@paul
1. I used the 4294967295 in the regedit
2. I am moving from a sharepoint online site to another site .
3. The sharepoint was connected using the file explorer , it was mapped like a network drive .
4

[#7]

Same issues here, and look everyone - the usual from Microsoft and their apologists: NOTHING. Brahman garbage, all of your online crap.

[#8]

@Hillary Barter we are having the same issues in the company I am currently working for. However, this painful process can happen with just one folder and/or file! 

This happens with all the current browsers we have which are Internet Explorer, Google Chrome & Microsoft Edge.

I even recorded a video internally to show how ludicrous this is. It is something that seems to be an ongoing issue for many.

There is yet to be an actual solution. Using File Explorer to move files (as stated in "view best response") actually caused one drive to get stuck in a loop, the solution was to sign out and sign back in which then caused duplicate files to be made everywhere and it was an absolute headache to get everything back to normal.

[#9]

@Hillary Barter Same issue with us. We have recently moved to SPoint and moving any files/folders more than around 100MB is painfully slow. Whether using ODFB sync client or the Web interface and choosing Move To or Copy To it makes no difference, it takes massively more time to complete the task than doing it on our file server. Using the web interface I have currently set a task to move folder containing 682MB of files, it has so far taken 45 minutes, and the progress indicator has been indicating 50% for the past 30 minutes. I suspect it may have stalled. But what logs can I check? There seems to be very little feedback to users in sharepoint. 

[#10]

Seeing the same issue between SP and ODB. I'm trying to copy a folder with 1GB of mixed files (documents, video) and after 30min it is STILL showing 50%. Ridiculous. At this point even if I wanted to move these files to a more reliable cloud (like DropBox) I don't see how I could do it. Oh and I'm trying "copy" since when I earlier tried a move (with a much smaller folder) I was told "Done" but only TWO of the 8 files actually moved. Really Microsoft??

[#11]

@Seed90 

Hi

Moving files and folders within or between document libraries within SharePoint Online can only be described in a single way: An utter and complete nightmare and the the variety of error messages is highly confusing and inconclusive.

If you needed any proof that Microsoft's mission statement "to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more.” is a complete joke, look no further than moving files on Sharepoint Online, the possibly most basic IT activity there is.

If anybody finds a solution to moving large numbers of files within SharePoint Online (Office 365), then please let us know. 

[#12]

@Hillary BarterI recently uploaded 3.48 GB of data and here is what I found.  It took several hours to upload (drag and drop), but the biggest problem is the properties listed on the file jump drive verses SharePoint don't match.  I went through every folder and completed a comparison and the files matched!  What doesn't make sense, if the files are there, why are they not being counted in the properties size or contains xxx files, xxx folders? I completed the whole transfer a second time, completed the same review and one again the files properties don't match or the number of files and folders.  It seems Microsoft has an issue with cloud storage. Has any one else experienced this issue?

[#13]

Hi @Angel105, yes I'm seeing exactly the same - not one of the file attributes is left unchanged, except the file type, in the transfer. Looking at file properties within File explorer. In my screenshots below the properties on the left are from the original file on our file server and the right from the same file on SP. The file has not been modified in any way since moving from the file server so all changes in the properties are from moving to SP.

[#14]

OK but what I have found is, if you choose to "Always keep on this device" then at least the document Origin and Content details do come across as unchanged:

So I guess MSs answer would be something like Oh yes, this is intended behaviour, isn't it beautiful?! They would see it as no problem at all because all you have to do is to choose "Keep on this device" for all your files. Like everyone is going to rush to do that. 

So I just had the thought that M$ want us to use the web interface to get file details (and therefore possibly access the details via PowerShell) but looking at the file details via the web interface is woeful:

Those two panels there are the sum total of the details you get on a file. Maybe we have access to the document metrics via PowerShell. I haven't tried that.

[#15]

@KarlInOz1I don't seem to have the same detail available.  My properties are General, Sharing, Security, Previous Version and Customize.

[#16]

Actually, it looks like you are looking at a single file. I'm looking at the folder level, since it contains tons of files. What I don't understand is why the size of the file would change at the folder level, including the number of files? The same number of files ARE there, but they are not being counted as a file. Very disappointed when some people heavily rely on this information.

[#17]

@KarlInOz1 RE: if you choose to "Always keep on this device" then at least the document Origin and Content details do come across as unchanged:

Yeah, I found out the same thing, as monthly or so I am trying to relocate large media files off of SP storage and move them over to ODFB storage.
First step is to sync a SP location (which goes somewhere on, but not in, my ODFB), wait for that...doesn't take long since it just builds the structure/stubs. Then I mark a group of those files "Always...", then wait until they sync down. Then I copy those to the target ODFB location, wait for that to complete. Then I go back to the synced ODFB and "Free up space" on the SP files, wait for that to complete. Then finally delete the SP files (stubs) from my synced ODFB location which removes them from SP.
RPITA 

[#18]

2021, this is still an issue. SP Online, attempt to move folders from one SharePoint site to another in the same tenant often does not move all the files of leaves a mess of mostly empty folders.

Trying the same process with OneDrive, the files moved locally but OneDrive is in a state of "Moving Shared Items" after 24 hours.

This simple, most basic task of file maintenance needs to be easy and reliable. I am frustrated how this does not work.

[#19]

We are also seeing major problems doing basic file moves. Even on moderate folders with a few hundred files in the tree, using the Move To, runs, says it is complete. The source folder and many files and sub folders are still there. Over time some additional folder move but it never seems to complete.

We are left with a mess of some un-copied files and some duplicates left behind in the source. Non of these are that large. Simple files like a 70k XL file are left behind.

[#20]

Can we get an official response from someone at MS? I have read and agree with all the above statements. I am currently migrating a companies data from a onedrive business folder to their sharepoint library on the same account. They have 1.1 TB of data. I would be better off downloading all 1.1 TB of data and re-uploading it from scratch than moving the data piecemeal at a time. It is taking forever. However, I want to keep all the versioning for them so this isn't an option.

I dont want to use one drive sync. I am not downloading an end users data to my server. I am simply using your tools, being a cloud provider, to move data from 1 cloud location to another. 

And why do you make it so difficult to see file data, size, etc? 

Every answer I see from a MS Rep or Volunteer, "Oh just use one drive sync and File explorer". 

Why even have the online piece then? 

[#21]

Same here, moving is almost impossible slow - not moving via Online Sharepoint, but with file explorer and Onedrive sync. I downloaded all files in one group (Always keep on this device), and transfered them in another group. Its 15.000 scanned PDF-s (so it doesn't have versioning), about 10GB in size, after more than two days of syncing I can't wait any longer (internet speed is 100/100 Mbps here), preparing to stop it all, and use copy instead.