Exploring the Microsoft SharePoint Migration Tool limitations: ShareGate’s take on the newest version

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We know how intimidating it can be to move huge amounts of content in SharePoint migrations. So, our experts tested the latest version of the SharePoint Migration Tool (SPMT) so we could give you our impressions.

In our never-ending quest to make your migration as simple as possible, we listed everything the SharePoint Migration Tool can (and can’t) do and assessed how well it performs. This way, you can make an informed decision on whether the free tool is enough to complete your migration project successfully.

This article will walk you through the migration process step by step using the SharePoint Migration Tool so you can see how it works with a relatively simple migration project.

We’ll also cover the limitations of the SharePoint Migration Tool in more detail and provide some best practices for evaluating whether it’s the best tool for your migration project and for using it more effectively if you do.

Related: A side-by-side comparison of the ShareGate SharePoint Migration tool vs. SPMT


SharePoint Migration Tool features

Microsoft developed the SharePoint Migration Tool (SPMT) to make migrating on-premises SharePoint Server sites to SharePoint Online and Microsoft 365 easier.

With the SPMT, you can migrate SharePoint sites created in SharePoint Server 2010, 2013, 2016, and 2019 and SharePoint Foundation 2010 and 2013. The tool can also help you migrate workflows created in SharePoint Server 2010 and SharePoint Designer 2010 and 2013. 

Here’s a brief rundown of the SPMT’s basic features:  

  • Content migration: With the SPMT, you can migrate data that include files, folders, documents, and lists from your on-premises SharePoint server as well as document libraries, file shares, and other cloud storage platforms, to SharePoint Online and OneDrive for Business.
  • Configuration migration: The tool supports migrating basic configurations such as site structure, permissions, and metadata from SharePoint Server to SharePoint Online.
  • Easy-to-use interface: SPMT’s intuitive interface helps to simplify the migration process, making it accessible to users with varying levels of technical expertise.
  • Error handling and reporting: The tool provides basic error handling and reporting capabilities that help you track the progress of your migration project and identify any migration issues that occur during the process. 
  • Limited customization support: While the SPMT accommodates basic migration needs, it may lack advanced features and automation options for complex scenarios involving custom workflows.
  • Compatibility: The tool was built for and primarily supports migrations from SharePoint Server 2013 and later versions, as well as SharePoint Online. Given this, support for legacy versions of SharePoint Server and other document management systems may be limited.

How to use the Microsoft SharePoint Migration Tool (SPMT)

The SPMT is available to all Microsoft 365 subscribers for free. It features a minimalist UI that lets you get up and running quickly. Here’s what setting up a migration with the tool looks like:

SharePoint Migration Tool initial screen

Step 1: Sign in to your tenant.

Microsoft SPMT Sign-in

Step 2: Select your source environment (SharePoint 2013, file share, or JSON/CSV file) and sign in.

Microsoft SPMT select source

Step 3: Enter the URL of your destination site, then sign in. Select the list or library you’d like to migrate your data to.

Microsoft SPMT set destination

Step 4: You can line up multiple migrations by clicking on Add a task and repeating the three steps above.

Microsoft SPMT set other migrations

Make sure to double-check your source and destination before you connect because there’s no way to navigate back. If you make a mistake, your only option is to close the app and start over.

Step 5: Adjust your advanced settings

On a positive note, the tool provides quite a few options to customize your content migration:

Microsoft SPMT advanced settings

The Microsoft SharePoint Migration Tool is easy to use and great for smaller migration projects. Here’s how one organization needed the intuitive features of ShareGate to perform a successful SharePoint migration from on-premise to online.

Noteworthy advanced settings include:

  • Enable incremental migration. This option is set to On by default. If you’re running a proof of concept on the SPMT and want to estimate the migration time, note that the incremental mode will flag items skipped on incremental copy as having been migrated. This can give the impression that a terabyte of data was migrated in one minute when really, only a 2MB file was moved.
  • Migrate files created after date
  • Migrate files modified after date

Step 7: Complete your migration

When you’re done tweaking your settings, click Migrate and let the tool run.

Once the migration process is complete, you’ll get reports in the same format as the ones generated during the scanning operation. One thing we noted is that investigating errors is somewhat difficult using only the SPMT’s built-in reporting. We migrated one folder containing seven files and ended up with lots of reports:

Microsoft SPMT reporting

The next step is to save your migration settings for future incremental runs. Once that’s taken care of, the only thing you can do is close the tool. The fact that there’s no option to navigate back to previous screens left us rather unsatisfied.


Exploring SharePoint Migration tool limitations

SharePoint migration is a crucial step in managing a successful IT infrastructure in the cloud. As an IT admin, you must be aware of the limitations associated with the SharePoint migration tool to plan and execute migration projects effectively.

Understanding the limitations of the SharePoint Migration Tool (SPMT) is essential for two reasons. For one, knowing its limitations can help inform your decision about whether or not it’s the best tool for the job. Secondly, if you decide to use it, understanding what it can and can’t do will help you anticipate the challenges you’re likely to encounter to devise appropriate strategies to mitigate the potential risks. 

Limited source and target support

If you’re considering using the SPMT for your migration, it’s vital to assess the compatibility of your source environment with the tool’s capabilities to ensure a seamless file migration. This is particularly true if you’re migrating a legacy version of SharePoint or some other document management system because the SPMT provides limited support for these types of source systems.

If the SPMT can’t fully support your specific migration scenario, you may need to consider alternative migration options. 

No support for custom solutions

If your current SharePoint environment includes significant customization, you’ll probably find the SPMT too limiting for your needs. With no direct support for custom solutions like workflows, complex web parts, or branding, exploring alternative approaches or third-party tools may be necessary to ensure a smooth SharePoint migration. 

During your migration planning, make sure first to assess the complexity of any custom solutions you’re using so you can better evaluate them in the context of the SPMT’s limitations. Doing this will help you determine if you need to explore alternatives.

​​​​​​​​​​​​​​Limited granularity and mapping options

Another limitation of the SPMT is that it lacks detailed mapping options for custom metadata and managed properties. This potentially significant limitation can result in data loss during migration or inconsistencies in your data afterward. 

Given the critical role that managed metadata plays in your SharePoint environment, you need to carefully consider whether the SPMT can handle the complexity of your current system to ensure your metadata and managed properties can be fully and accurately transferred.

File size limitations and potential performance issues

Due to file size limitations, you can expect to encounter performance issues and timeouts if you use the SPMT for large-scale migration. The maximum file size supported by the tool is 250 GB, which can make migrating a long and painful slog if you’re dealing with huge document libraries and site collections.

Handling and reporting

The SPMT lacks detailed insights into specific migration errors or exceptions, making it more difficult to troubleshoot any problems during your migration. So, if you use the SPMT, be prepared to build some extra time and resources into your migration plan to allow for thorough testing and monitoring during and after your migration to ensure that all your data is transferred and everything works as expected. 

Lack of automation

As you’ve seen in the previous section, the SPMT provides a user-friendly migration interface. However, this simplicity is achieved at the expense of advanced features and automation options. For example, if your migration requires sophisticated scheduling, content transformation, or systems integrations, you can expect to set those up manually, which can take a lot of time.

While it’s possible to automate parts of your migration with Microsoft PowerShell, doing so requires a fair amount of technical expertise. Based on your specific needs and available resources, though, you may find the automations available in third-party tools like ShareGate a better choice.


How to determine whether the SharePoint Migration Tool is right for you

If you decide to use the SharePoint Migration Tool (SPMT) for your migration, implementing the following set of best practices can help your migration go more smoothly, despite the limitations inherent in the tool.  

  • Thorough planning: Planning is critical to any successful SharePoint migration. Knowing ahead of time where you’re likely to encounter problems in your migration can help you either avoid them or devise strategies to overcome them. If you use the SPMT, ensure your plan includes a thorough evaluation of the tool’s limitations against your specific migration scenario to identify any potential problems you might encounter. 
  • Evaluating compatibility: During your migration planning, if you’re considering using the SPMT, you should first verify its compatibility with your source and target environments. If not, you must seek an alternative approach out of the gate.  
  • Assessing customization needs: Carefully consider whether the SPMT can support any custom workflows or SharePoint sites your current system contains. This is a significant limitation that may make it necessary to seek alternative approaches because there aren’t a lot of workarounds for it. A third-party tool like ShareGate may be your best option if your current implementation is highly customized. Otherwise, you’re looking at a lot of painstaking manual effort to ensure a smooth migration.   
  • Conducting pilot migrations: Performing pilot migrations is a great way to test and validate the SPMT’s capabilities relative to your needs. Doing so will not only help you determine whether the potential problems you identified during your planning process are valid concerns but also help you identify others that you may have missed. 
  • Data validation: Validating and verifying data integrity and accuracy at different points during the migration process can help you quickly detect and address any missing data or inconsistencies. Catching such issues early allows you to troubleshoot and fix them before your migration is complete, resulting in fewer problems to address after the migration.    
  • Exploring third-party tools: If the SharePoint Migration Tool lacks specific features or automation options to make your migration smoother (even if it does), it’s always a good idea to consider all your options. Third-party options like ShareGate can automate much of the work, making any migration easier, especially those involving large, complex SharePoint environments, and include features to ensure a smooth SharePoint implementation once your migration is complete.  

Our review of the SharePoint Migration Tool

Microsoft’s free SharePoint Migration Tool is good for simple file migrations from file shares. It also performs well when migrating from a vanilla document library without document sets, lookups, or custom metadata.

Challenges with the SharePoint Migration Tool for advanced migrations

For more complex migrations, however, the SharePoint Migration Tool falls short. It doesn’t offer guidance throughout the migration, for example, which most businesses look for to enhance security and ensure data integrity.

Key reporting feature limitations

From a big-picture perspective, the SPMT lacks some key features. Its reporting capabilities are limited and often hard to understand, and there’s no way to bulk manage metadata or migrate customized metadata you would find in a document library. Moreover, the tool doesn’t allow running multiple migration instances concurrently on the same machine.

Room for enhancing user experience and migration reports

Last but not least, the user experience and migration reports could be given more love. Ideally, the navigation—which can be frustrating at times—will be improved in upcoming versions, but we aren’t getting our hopes up too high. Microsoft’s goal with this tool is to provide organizations with a free option to move to the cloud, end of story.


TLDR; Microsoft SharePoint Migration Tool cheat sheet

Discover if the SharePoint Migration Tool is right for your migration project with this comprehensive list of what the tool can and cannot do.

Supported sources

  • File shares
  • SharePoint 2013
  • JSON (new in V2) and CSV files for bulk migrations (see how to format your files here)
  • On the roadmap for 2019: SharePoint 2010 and SharePoint 2016

Supported destinations

  • SharePoint Online
  • OneDrive

Required permission levels

  • Source: Read
  • Destination: Site collection administrator

Supported items

  • New in V2: Some list templates (see which ones here)
  • Files
  • Permissions (see limitations and further specifics here)
  • Authors
  • Timestamps (date created, date last modified)
  • Metadata: Basic metadata only (more support on roadmap)
  • Content types: currently only native document content types (more support on roadmap)
  • On the roadmap for 2019: Full support for SharePoint 2013 site migration, including metadata, subsites, navigation structure, pages and web parts

Unsupported items

  • Views
  • Alerts
  • Workflows
  • Users and groups
  • Welcome pages
  • Customized metadata fields

SPMT features

  • New in V2: All migration features available via PowerShell cmdlets
  • New in V2: Ability to save migration sessions and resume them at a later date (initial settings cannot be edited)
  • Incremental migration mode
  • Ability to line up multiple migrations. While they’re running, however, no further migrations can be started unless you close the app and reopen it.
  • Ability to migrate to and from specific subfolders
  • Auto-creates vanilla lists and libraries when they don’t exist in your destination site
  • Support for bulk migrations using JSON (new in V2) or CSV files
  • Pre-migration scanning
  • Support for user mappings
  • Filtering options

SPMT limitations

  • No scheduling feature
  • No content export or export to enhance metadata while migrating
  • No bulk editing capabilities
  • Doesn’t migrate customized lists or libraries
  • Doesn’t support running multiple instances per machine

Performance, logging and support

  • Migration speeds can be affected by several factors, from network and internet speeds to the volume of metadata associated with the migrated content.
  • Review the factors that influence speeds while using the SharePoint Migration API, which the SPMT depends on, and keep in mind that Azure import speeds tend to be highly variable.
  • Logging: CSV and text files on disk, no search or filtering on previous sessions. For flat files on disk, you can use Windows Explorer.
  • Support: No built-in support available for the free SPMT. Support for data migrations to SharePoint Online is available through Microsoft’s FastTrack service (at no additional cost benefit with the purchase of an eligble SKU).

Enhancing SharePoint migrations with ShareGate

While the SPMT can make your SharePoint migration project easier, you may find you need a more robust tool to handle your migration if you have a very large and complex on-premises implementation. That’s why so many organizations rely on ShareGate in their SharePoint server migrations. Let’s see one example now.

Avvenire’s success with ShareGate: Reducing SharePoint migration time

Avvenire is a solutions provider specializing in Microsoft technologies that uses ShareGate for all its clients’ SharePoint server migrations. With ShareGate’s migration tool, Avvenire has been able to reduce the migration time by 15% for its Fortune 500 clients, even for the most complex migrations.

Avvenire is able to achieve these results, in part, by leveraging ShareGate’s Source Analysis report to identify and fix potential issues before they begin a migration. This, among others, is a feature that the SPMT doesn’t provide.


Simplifying your migration project

While the SharePoint Migration Tool offers an easy, intuitive interface, its limitations make it challenging to use successfully with all but simple file share migrations. If you’re migrating a large SharePoint environment or one that has been highly customized, you’ll find out quickly that the SPMT is not robust enough for your needs and quickly exceeds the maximum file size.

What then? Well, you have a couple of options. One is to do your migration manually, which is never a good option. Suppose you try to tackle your migration that way. In that case, you’re in for a long haul before, during, and after your migration because, like the SharePoint Migration Tool, manual migrations are only suitable for the simplest migrations. 

Your second and best option is to use a third-party tool like ShareGate and a migration checklist. ShareGate eliminates all the heavy lifting a migration typically requires, with easy automations and data validation before and after your migration. 

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