"Copy To" reseted the modified & created dates for the files while will preseve them for the folders

[john john]

I want to move 10 folders from one-drive personal site to a sharepoint document library inside a modern team site.

so i went to the onedrive personal site >> select the 10 folders >> click on "Copy To" >> i select the "Documents" library inside the team site.

now the folders and files where copied to the destination site, but i have noted that the modified date and created date for the files (pdf and MS word) will be reset to match the copy time, while the modified date and created date will be preserved for the folders. so my question if i can force the modified date and created date to be preserved for the files as well?

[#2 · Accepted solution]

A copy is a new file. So not using that. You can use move to or sync the library and try moving files to sync location and it might keep the file dates but usually that happens when you copy.

[#3]

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@Chris Webb wrote:
A copy is a new file. So not using that. You can use move to or sync the library and try moving files to sync location and it might keep the file dates but usually that happens when you copy.

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@Chris Webbi do not want to use "Move to" as i need to keep the source files inside onedrive, so we can reapply the permission on the folders, since neither "copy to" nor "move to" will preserve the permissions, alos i need to keep the source files on onedrive for verification purposes (to make sure that everything has been moved correctly) . You mentioned using the sync, but can you advice how i can use sync to transfer files from one library to another?

[#4]

Setup both locations sync and copy across. You might also try move to and then restore from recycle bin.

[#5]

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@Chris Webb wrote:
Setup both locations sync and copy across. You might also try move to and then restore from recycle bin.

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@Chris Webb  so what will be the benefits of using Sync over using move-to or copy-to , i do not want to learn new appraoch if it will not provide any additional feature, will using sync preserve the permissions?

[#6]

No it won’t. It’s just an idea for you to try to preserve time stamps.

[#7]

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@Chris Webb wrote:
Setup both locations sync and copy across. You might also try move to and then restore from recycle bin.

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@Chris Webb  thanks for the idea.. i can use move-to then restore the files from the one-drive recycle bin.. i actually did not know that the moved files will be inside recycle, i thought they will get completely removed.. but do u know of any issue that can be raised if we restore a deleted file? let say a file has unique permission or it is been shared using a link,, will the restored file mimic 100% the deleted file..if it will mimic then i can use the move-to and restore the deleted files... in this case the moved files will preserve their created/modified dates + i will still have the source files for verification..

[#8]

No idea. You’ll have to test it and see what happenes.

[#9]

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@Chris Webb wrote:
No idea. You’ll have to test it and see what happenes.

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@Chris WebbBased on my test i found that everything will be restored correctly, but i am curious to know if there will be any limitation of deleting and restoring the folders/files?

[#10]

@john john Have You tried with the SharePoint Migration Tool? If You sync the files from Your OneDrive to your computer you can use SharePoint Migration Tool and choose to migrate from "File Share", then you have the option to point at Your syncronized folders and copy them to the SharePoint site. I am not sure of if it will preserve the dates but it is definetly worth a try.

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepointmigration/introducing-the-sharepoint-migration-tool

Regards, Magnus

[#11]

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@MagnusGoksoyrOLDProfile wrote:

@john john Have You tried with the SharePoint Migration Tool? If You sync the files from Your OneDrive to your computer you can use SharePoint Migration Tool and choose to migrate from "File Share", then you have the option to point at Your syncronized folders and copy them to the SharePoint site. I am not sure of if it will preserve the dates but it is definetly worth a try.

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepointmigration/introducing-the-sharepoint-migration-tool

Regards, Magnus

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@MagnusGoksoyrOLDProfile  I already tried this approach, where i sync the onedrvie files using my onedrive desktop app >> then i used sharepoint migration tool to migrate from file share to sharepoint ... where the migrated files did not preserve their permission , so i did not investigate on this appraoch any more.. i think i will go with using the "Move-To" >> so i can preserve the modified/created dates >> then will reapply the permission manually on the moved files...