Bulk migrating files to OneDrive from Local user homedrives?

EnterpriseArchitect 4,781 Reputation points
2021-06-06T14:15:26.503+00:00

Hi People,

I have the need to migrate the HomeDrive of all users into OneDrive for all 800+ user directories.

All of the users have been assigned minimum Enterprise E1 and E3 licenses to allow 1 TB OneDrive.
The office client is already using Office 365 with Windows 10.

Group Policy is mapping H: drive into \DFS-SVR01\HomeDirs\%USERNAME%

How can I transfer all of their data into the OneDrive without manual Cut & Pasting to C:\Users\%USERNAME% \OneDrive\ local directory?

Thank you in advance.

OneDrive Management
OneDrive Management
OneDrive: A Microsoft file hosting and synchronization service.Management: The act or process of organizing, handling, directing or controlling something.
1,138 questions
0 comments No comments
{count} votes

2 answers

Sort by: Most helpful
  1. Emily Hua-MSFT 27,531 Reputation points
    2021-06-07T07:17:40.697+00:00

    @EnterpriseArchitect ,

    According to your description, it is recommended to use SharePoint Migration Tool to migrate files from Home Drives to OneDrive for Business.
    Please note, to migrate at the organization-level, you must sign in as a Global or SharePoint admin in Microsoft 365.

    And here is a similar thread "Migrating home folders to OneDrive for Business", you may have a look.

    Besides, due to we focuse more on general issue about OneDrive client, if you have any issues about SharePoint Migration Tool later, to better help you, you could post a new thread with "office-sharepoint-online" tag in Q&A.

    Hope the information could be helpful to you.


    If an Answer is helpful, please click "Accept Answer" and upvote it.
    Note: Please follow the steps in our documentation to enable e-mail notifications if you want to receive the related email notification for this thread.

    3 people found this answer helpful.

  2. cloudhal 11 Reputation points
    2021-06-12T16:43:04.553+00:00

    I've done this before, if your H drive is mapped to a DFS or server path, I'm guessing that you also use folder redirection, so e.g. if a user clicks on Documents, it also shows the Documents location inside the H drive.
    So the H drive mapping is the easy part, the tricky part is folder redirection, because you cannot enable KFM whist you have a folder redirection group policy enabled.
    So, the way I do this is:

    • When the user is logged off or overnight, copy the users folders from the server, into their onedrive using your migration tool of choice (e.g. SPMT, ShareGate etc). You should copy into the same folders in onedrive, e.g. into a folder called Documents not into the root. Delete or archive the contents of the folder on the server.
    • Apply a GPO to the users to remove folder redirection, and also set OneDrive settings and silent login and KFM. Also disable offline files.
    • User needs to log on and off twice to have the folder redirection policy apply
    • Then the GPO applies KFM, user hits OK and folders are redirected to OneDrive and they see all their docs as before.
    • Remove H drive in user props in AD or wherever that is set.

    Another option is to use KFM to move everything for you. So remove folder redirection as before but make sure it copies everything to the local machine when removed. Then KFM kicks in and that will upload all the files using the users own OneDrive client. Downside of this is that it may take a VERY long time to copy all the folders down when folder redirection is removed, especially if the user is remote, so may be better to migrate for them.

    Also note that folder redirection GPO will only be applied if the user has sight of a DC when logging in, i.e. you need always on VPN or be connected to the office LAN.

    2 people found this answer helpful.