How To Copy and Move Files in SharePoint

Organizations often need to change how their file system works. They need to Copy and Move Files in SharePoint from one place to another to help with this process. But if you have a lot of data and are reorganizing your file system in a big way, you should think about using 3rd party migration tools. But the following method will work for simple moves.

SharePoint is a good online service for sharing files and storing them in the cloud, especially for business documents. But, to my surprise, it’s not always easy to manage files in SharePoint. Organizations and teams sometimes need to reorganize their SharePoint file systems so that they can manage files in a more organized way. In SharePoint, files and folders may need to be copied or moved from one place to another to help with this process.

How To Copy Files in SharePoint

1. The system will replicate the files and folders to the target site — leaving the original ones intact on the source site.
2. In contrast to moving files, copying files will only copy the latest version of the file version history.

Steps Move Files in SharePoint

1.  Log in to SharePoint Online and choose a SharePoint site.
2. Open a documents library and tick the files and folders that you want to move.
3. Click “Move to” or “Copy to” in the feature bar.
4.  In the pop-up window, choose the destination of your moved files.
5.  Click “Move here” and the files will be moved to the target place at once.

Notes to think about when you move or copy files

• There is a limit to how much you can copy at once. Currently, that’s less than 100 GB total file size and each file must be less than 15 GB.
• If you copy a folder at once, make sure there are only less than 30,000 files (including the ones in the subfolders).
• If you want to include exact metadata when copying or moving files, make sure to create the same metadata columns in the destination document library.
• Currently, you won’t be able to copy metadata specified in the term store.
• To copy files, you must have a “Read” permission on the source site and a “Contribute” permission on the target site.
• To move files, you must have at least “Contribute” permission on both source and target sites.
• Guess can’t copy or move files and folders despite being able to see the options in the command bar and having the correct permission levels.

FAQ