Forum Discussion
Moving or Copying Files: Painfully Slow, Loss of Data
If you're using "Open in Explorer" I think that may be part of the issue, and I'm assuming that you're using Internet Explorer. From personal experience I never really got on with the piece of functionality. It worked well back in 2007 when I first used it, but now there are much better options available.
Option 1 - Move To
When you visit a document library in the modern experience, you can click on the ellipsis against the document and select move to (see attachment "Modern-MoveTo.docx". In Figure 1, you can see the option to move to, and then in Figure 2 you can see that you have a number of options to either move it to OneDrive for Business or to another SharePoint site. When I tested this with a document of approx 1mb it took about 5 seconds to get itself warmed up and then do the move.
Option 2 - OneDrive Sync
The alternative option which has been mentioned before is to use sync (see attachment Modern-Sync.docx). In Figure 1, you can see the ability to Sync your library to your local file system using the OneDrive Sync Client. By hitting the sync button, you'll see it connect to your sync client (Figure 2), and then it will be available from your Windows Explorer windows (Figure 3). Once it's been synced, you can copy and paste documents between synced libraries in the same way as you would with normal files. Again this took only a few seconds to copy, paste and sync between the libraries.
I hope this approaches are useful and that they work. If not, please let us know and we'll see what else we can come up with.
Hi Paul de Jong,
We actually arent uploading files to SharePoint - the users are moving files within SharePoint.
Currently our users prefer the "open in explorer" functionality - so they are copying files from one location to another in this setting. This is where all the slowness is occuring. I have tried to copy and move from the browser - same problem, slow pace.
File size varies, some of these data moves have hundreds of files with various sizes - it varies alot.
All files are being moved to the same company location (Vancouver, Canada) - not external.
Large file - good question - every data move is different, but on average the total size ranges from 45 MB to 256 MB and the largest I have seen is 1.86 GB (this size is extremely rare).
How does the one drive sync work exactly?
If you're using "Open in Explorer" I think that may be part of the issue, and I'm assuming that you're using Internet Explorer. From personal experience I never really got on with the piece of functionality. It worked well back in 2007 when I first used it, but now there are much better options available.
Option 1 - Move To
When you visit a document library in the modern experience, you can click on the ellipsis against the document and select move to (see attachment "Modern-MoveTo.docx". In Figure 1, you can see the option to move to, and then in Figure 2 you can see that you have a number of options to either move it to OneDrive for Business or to another SharePoint site. When I tested this with a document of approx 1mb it took about 5 seconds to get itself warmed up and then do the move.
Option 2 - OneDrive Sync
The alternative option which has been mentioned before is to use sync (see attachment Modern-Sync.docx). In Figure 1, you can see the ability to Sync your library to your local file system using the OneDrive Sync Client. By hitting the sync button, you'll see it connect to your sync client (Figure 2), and then it will be available from your Windows Explorer windows (Figure 3). Once it's been synced, you can copy and paste documents between synced libraries in the same way as you would with normal files. Again this took only a few seconds to copy, paste and sync between the libraries.
I hope this approaches are useful and that they work. If not, please let us know and we'll see what else we can come up with.
Hi Matt Weston
thanks for the help, when i attempted to complete the "sync" option, the following error pops up and doesnt allow it to happen.
Any ideas?
Hi Hillary Barter I think I've made an incorrect assumption that you're working in SharePoint Online rather than using the modern lists and libraries in SharePoint 2016. The ODFB Sync client unfortunately doesn't yet support syncing of on-prem libraries. Were you successful when trying the "move to" option?
Hi Matt Weston,
We are using SharePoint Online - we are not using on premise services.
You were not incorrect, we are using the online SP, and we should be able to sync, no?
