How to migrate SharePoint lists and libraries without breaking links

Transcript

Runtime 8:09. Created by the Cognillo product team. Narrated with an AI-generated voice.

0:00 Thanks for joining. Before we begin, a quick disclaimer: this video was written by the Cognillo team, and the voice-over is AI-generated. In this video we'll migrate SharePoint lists, libraries and pages to a new site with full fidelity, and keep every link working: links inside Word, Excel, PowerPoint and PDF files, sharing links, Document ID links, and links on pages.

0:24 Our source is the Architecture knowledge base. On Tasks, pick the site. Under Links, in the Migration group, choose Prepare site for link correction. We run it before anything moves.

0:41 Click Next. Step one runs on the source. For every page, folder, file and item it records every form its link can take, including the Document ID link, and stamps them on the item in two hidden columns: SPE Source URLs and SPE Source Key. In Settings, turn on Record sharing links, so the anyone and people links that were shared from here are captured too. Nothing else is written, and no Modified date changes.

1:06 Run it. Twenty-four items across Project Codes, Project Delivery and Site Pages are stamped in a few seconds. The report lists each item, its URL forms, its Document ID, and the sharing links found on it. Those stamps now travel with the content, whatever tool moves it.

1:29 Now the migration. With the three lists selected, under Copy and move, choose Copy sites, then Next: Pick target. The summary explains what the job carries over: structure, columns, content types, views, permissions, and every item with its full version history.

1:51 On the Target tab, add the destination: the Analytics Showcase site. The toolkit maps each source list to its new location, and shows the three lists that will be created there.

2:06 On the Site tab we leave navigation and theme off, since this target has its own. Settings confirms the engine: the high-fidelity bulk copy through the SharePoint Migration API. Item IDs, unique IDs, lookups, managed metadata, authors and dates and every version come across as they are. Run now.

2:28 A couple of minutes later the copy is complete: twenty-four of twenty-four items and files copied, with nothing left behind. The only skip is the target's own home page, which already existed. The report shows each list, every file and folder, and where it landed.

2:50 Here is the new Project Delivery library in SharePoint. The Project lookup column still resolves to the Project Codes list we copied alongside it, the Document Status managed metadata terms are intact, and Review Date and the other columns came across untouched.

3:05 Open the version history of the Project Handbook: all twelve versions are there, with the original authors, dates and comments. Same IDs, same metadata, same history, now on the new site.

3:18 Now the old site is retired, and that is where migrations usually break. Every link that pointed at the old library, inside documents, on pages and in sharing links, now goes nowhere. Let's measure it. Pick the Analytics Showcase site, its Project Delivery library and Site Pages, and under Links choose Find broken links.

3:37 Click Next and run. The job opens every page and file and tests each link. Fifty-two links, and twenty-two of them are broken.

3:51 Switch to All broken links. Every one returns a 404, and they all point at the old Architecture site: links inside the PDF, the Word handbook, the PowerPoint deck and the Excel tracker, a URL shortcut file, and the links on the Team Links and Project Resources pages.

4:08 This is what the stamps are for. Add Project Codes to the selection, click Change, and open Prepare site for link correction again. This time pick Step two: Run on target, build mapping.

4:25 Click Next. Step two reads the stamped columns on the moved items, pairs each one with its old address, and builds the Find and Replace mapping. In Settings, the mapping source is the SPE Source Key column, the sharing links come from the step one run automatically, and the toolkit leads with site, list and folder prefix rules, so most links are covered by a handful of rules.

4:48 Build mapping. It finishes in seconds: twenty-three items paired by their source key. For each one the report shows the old URL, how many URL forms it had, its Document ID, its new URL on the target, and the number of rules generated for it.

5:08 Build Find and Replace Mapping File shows what the mapping covers: twenty-eight Document ID links, over a hundred GUID based links like WOPI frame and short links, the three sharing links found on the source, and twenty-five list item form links. Build it, and the toolkit writes an Excel workbook and a CSV: two hundred eighty-two rules in total.

5:28 You could import that file anywhere, but there's a shortcut. In this run's options, under Settings, the toolkit notes it already built a mapping. Click Fix links now.

5:40 Fix or replace links in bulk opens with the target site selected and all two hundred eighty-two rules loaded. Each rule turns an old value into a new one: list form links, WOPI frame links, sharing links and Document ID links, all pointing at the new site. Flag only is on, so the first run is a preview that changes nothing.

6:00 Run now. Forty-four links match a rule, and none are replaced yet. The Validate Find and Replace view puts the new link next to the current one, so you can check every rewrite before anything is written.

6:17 Happy with the preview? Edit Options, turn Flag only off, and run again. This time the links are rewritten in place, inside the Office files, the PDF, the shortcut file and the pages. Forty-four links replaced. Preserve Author is on, so the files keep their authors and the version history stays clean.

6:41 Scroll down to the pages: a sharing link became the file's address on the new site, the WOPI frame link now opens the moved document, and a list item link points at the new Project Codes list.

6:53 Let's verify. Run Find broken links on the target again. From twenty-two broken links we are down to two, and both are expected: a page link to a list we chose not to migrate, and a navigation link that was already broken on this site. Everything that moved is reachable again.

7:15 Last, the clean-up. Open Prepare site for link correction one more time and pick Step three: Remove the stamped columns. Remove columns deletes SPE Source URLs and SPE Source Key from every list that has them, again without touching the items' Modified dates. Three lists cleaned.

7:41 Back in SharePoint, the Team Links page on the new site. Every link, including the ones that were sharing links and Word Online links, now points at Analytics Showcase. Migrated with full fidelity, and not a single link left behind.

7:55 That's the migration workflow in SharePoint Essentials Toolkit: prepare, copy with full fidelity, map, fix, verify, clean up. Thanks for watching.