SharePoint Link Hygiene After Migration, Renames and Retirements

Last updated: 2026-10-16

Find and fix broken SharePoint links with SharePoint Essentials Toolkit after migrations and site-address changes, and identify dependencies on retired services.

Inventory links, diagnose their failures, and test replacements safely.

How do I find and fix broken links after a SharePoint migration using the SharePoint Essentials Toolkit?

Run a Broken Links Report and inventory references to old addresses across navigation, pages, web parts and supported documents. Confirm each destination before replacing URLs; a permission error is not necessarily a dead link. Preview replacements, test a small scope, then rescan. Community and Professional Find & Replace applies only to lists with fewer than 100 items. View detailed steps in https://cognillo.com/support help guides.

  1. Keep a source-to-target URL mapping for the migration.

  2. Run a link inventory and broken-link scan against selected sites.

  3. Check a sample manually with the intended user’s permissions.

  4. Use Flag only to preview supported replacements, approve them, apply a pilot and rescan.

What breaks when a SharePoint site address changes?

Changing a SharePoint Online site address creates a redirect at the old URL to help existing links continue working. That does not prove every embedded or external reference has been rewritten, and removing the redirect can break old links. Inventory hard-coded addresses and test integrations separately; changing a display name is different from changing the site’s URL.

  1. Retain the old-to-new address mapping and record any redirect sites.

  2. Test navigation, embedded document links and external integrations.

  3. Do not delete the redirect until owners have verified the old references are no longer needed.

Which Microsoft retirement dates matter for link cleanup?

SharePoint 2013 workflows in Microsoft 365 retired on April 2, 2026. SharePoint Server 2016, Server 2019 and Designer 2013 reached end of extended support in July 2026. Those events justify reviewing legacy dependencies, but they do not mean all links automatically break.

  1. Inventory legacy workflows, on-premises dependencies and links to retired services.

  2. Separate unsupported software risk from a verified unreachable destination.

  3. Assign each dependency an owner and replacement plan; verify dates against official lifecycle notices.

How does Preserve Author affect Find & Replace version history?

Preserve Author restores supported author and last-modified information during a replacement, but it should not be described as leaving version history untouched. Library version settings and publication state can affect the resulting versions. Review the user guide’s major-only, draft and published examples, then test a representative document before changing a production library.

  1. Open the document’s version history and record its current state.

  2. Test a supported replacement with Preserve Author using the library’s actual version settings.

  3. Compare author information and the resulting versions with the Preserve Author screenshots.

Sources and next steps

Start with the Community Edition reporting limits and SharePoint Essentials Toolkit.