1. BitTitan Help Center
  2. Perform a Migration
  3. Other Document Migration Types
  4. Dropbox Migrations

Dropbox to SharePoint Migration Guide

This is the complete onboarding task flow for migrating folders and documents from Dropbox to SharePoint.

First migration?

We’ve created a guide on scoping, planning, and managing the migration process for your use. If this is your first migration, we recommend reading this guide carefully.

MigrationWiz

MigrationWiz is a migration tool, not a syncing tool. If changes are made at the source after migration, they will not sync to the destination, nor will changes made at the destination sync to the source. We do not have “live” monitoring of changes (as with a sync agent) and we cannot handle scenarios such as conflict resolution without user interaction.

Prerequisites

It is important to highlight and meet the following prerequisites for a smooth migration project.

Licensing

The Dropbox to SharePoint migration is supported by the Shared Document License type.

  • Both licenses Shared Document 50GB or Shared Document 100GB can be utilized.
  • Each license allows up to the maximum quantity of data it permits to be migrated per Site.
  • If more than 100GB of data per Site is being migrated, purchase enough licenses to cover the total data being migrated. For example, if you have six Sites and two have 200GB of embedded data you must purchase eight licenses. 
Purchase licenses Considerations

Purchase licenses by following the steps below.

  1. Sign in to your BitTitan account. 
  2. In the top navigation bar, click Purchase.
  3. Click the Select button and choose the license type you need.
  4. Enter the number of licenses you want to purchase. Click Buy Now.
  5. Enter a Billing address if applicable.
  6. Click Next.
  7. Review the Order Summary and enter a payment method.
  8. Click Place Your Order.

Limitations

Consider the following limitations when performing this type of migration.

  • Due to the latest Dropbox update, admin access is no longer automatic. Moving forward, to have access to a team folder by default, you will need to add yourself to the folder from the admin console. Admins will always have access to all team folders in the admin console on the Team Folders page.
  • MigrationWiz does not support the migration of Dropbox Teams Folders from the home location at this time. If you want to migrate a Teams Folder, it has to be copied under the owner’s folder in the home location. Please see the Advanced Options section below for more details.
  • MigrationWiz currently does not support migration for new Team Space in Dropbox.
    As per Dropbox help documentation, ‘Some teams have access to the new team folder structure. If you see a purple folder icon with one person on it on dropbox.com, you have the new team space.’
  • To enable folder mapping during your migration, see Dropbox Migration FAQs.
  • We recommend using Microsoft-provided Azure storage only when the migration project size is less than 5GB. Use Custom Azure storage if the migration project is larger than 5GB.
  • Folder permissions are not migrated.

SharePoint Limitations

SharePoint has certain limitations. Before you start your migration, it's important to understand these limitations.

File Path Limitation

SharePoint and OneDrive for Business have a 400-character limit for file paths and file names. Character limits might not be enforced in other document storage services, like Google Drive or Dropbox. When migrating from one of those platforms to SharePoint or OneDrive for Business, you might need to shrink file paths and file names. Use the "ShrinkFoldersMaxLength=300" advanced option as described in the Advance Options portion of this migration guide. 

File and Folder Name Extension Limitation

Microsoft has a list of file extensions that are not allowed to be created inside SharePoint and OneDrive for Business.

The list currently contains .ashx, .asmx, .json, .soap, .svc, and .xamlx as blocked by default when working with the SharePoint server. In addition, folder names may not end with any of the following strings: .files, _files, -Dateien, _fichiers, _bestanden, _file, _archivos, -filer, _tiedostot, _pliki, _soubory, _elemei, _ficheiros, _arquivos, _dosyalar, _datoteke, _fitxers, _failid, _fails, _bylos, _fajlovi, _fitxategiak There are currently no file type limitations for SharePoint.

This may be changed at any time by Microsoft. Additionally, an administrator may add other extensions to this list.

Review the following links before starting with the migration. 

Migrated Items

Which items are migrated?
  • Folders
  • Shared Folders
  • Code Files
  • Documents
  • Last Modified Date (Documents Only)
  • Images
  • Forms
  • Executables
  • Videos
  • Audio Files
Which items are not migrated?
  • Dropbox shared folder permissions
  • Dropbox Notes
  • Dropbox Bookmarks
  • Dropbox Tags
  • Dropbox Teams
  • Version History
  • Folder Last Modified Date
  • .paper files

MigrationWiz supports the capability to share migration projects across a Workgroup. When the Project Sharing feature is turned on, all Agents besides those who are Inactive can view all migrations projects. 

We are not able to support migrations with two-factor or multifactor authentication. 

Prepare the Source Dropbox Environment

  1. Create a Dropbox Business user account that will be used for the migration, and grant team administrator privileges to the user. Follow the instructions in the Dropbox admin guide from Dropbox.
  2. Create a list of the Dropbox user accounts that need to be migrated from the Source.

Prepare Azure Environment

Microsoft-provided Azure storage

We recommend using Microsoft-provided Azure storage only when the migration project size is less than 5GB. Use Custom Azure storage if the migration project is larger than 5GB.

Refer to Microsoft documentation for more details. If you choose this option, skip to Prepare Destination Environment.

Own Azure storage

If you plan to use your own Azure storage, refer to the following steps to prepare your Azure environment. We recommend that you create your Azure storage account in the same Microsoft data center as the destination Microsoft 365 tenant. You do not need to create any Azure containers for this migration.

  1. Estimate Azure storage costs. This step is optional but is useful to provide the customer with up-front storage costs ahead of time. 
  2. Buy an Azure subscription (or use the free one-month trial, and be aware that this option is only viable if you are performing a very small migration). 
  3. Create an Azure storage account. You will need to set up a STORAGE (General Purpose v2) account rather than a storage blob.
  4. Take note of the storage account name and the primary access key. (In Azure, from the storage screen, click Manage Access Keys at the bottom of the screen.) These need to be entered into the MigrationWiz migration project when specifying the destination settings. 

To create the Azure storage account:

  1. Visit the Azure portal.
  2. Click New.
  3. Select Storage > Storage account.
  4. Enter a name for your storage account.
  5. Choose Resource manager for the Deployment model.
  6. Choose STORAGE (General Purpose v2)
  7. Record the storage account name (-accesskey, example: “accountname”) and primary access key (-secretkey, example: “W1RrDfkPNkfYfdVqizMNJjn5mXchwMP5uYBY8MsMqWTA7EubG911+4fZlki0Gag==”)
  8. In the Replication field, select Locally Redundant Storage (LRS).
  9. Select the subscription in which you want to create the new storage account.
  10. Specify a new resource group or select an existing resource group.
  11. Select the geographic location for your storage account.
  12. Click Create to create the storage account.

Now the storage account appears in the storage list.

Prepare the Destination SharePoint Environment

Prepare the destination environment by following the steps below:

  1. Create the SharePoint site and make a note of the site URL where the document libraries are stored.
  2. Create the document libraries on the destination SharePoint Online site (optional). To learn how to create it, follow the steps from Microsoft: Create your document library.

    Save Library Templates

    This is an optional step and it is only required if you want to apply templates from your source libraries to your destination libraries. 
  3. Ensure all necessary users/groups (including external users, if any) are set up at the SharePoint site and available for your destination document library.

Application Permissions for SharePoint

Continue configuring your destination environment by selecting one of these application permissions options and following the steps to enable permission levels at the destination.

Delegated Authentication App-Based Authentication

The easiest approach is to use the global admin account set up at the time of tenant creation. However, if you do not wish to use this global admin account during migration, then a new user account can be created instead. This user account needs to have a license assigned that includes SharePoint and be granted Site Collection Administrator privileges to the SharePoint site in the project.

  1. Create a user in Microsoft 365 and assign a license that includes SharePoint. For step-by-step instructions, see the Microsoft article Add users individually or in bulk to Office 365.

  2. Set the administration privileges. Grant one of the permission levels listed below to the user account to be user as the administrator for the endpoint in the project.

  3. Add the admin account, created in step 2, as a Site Collection Admin to the endpoint.

    Important

    The Global Admin or SharePoint Admin role does not automatically grant Site Collection Admin rights to a SharePoint site.
  4. Go to MigrationWiz-SharePoint-Delegated and consent to the app access when prompted. Once you click on Accept, you will be redirected to the BitTitan login page. This is normal and the page can be closed.

Steps to remove these permissions are provided below in the Post-Migration section.  

MigrationWiz Steps

Create a Document Project

  1. Log in to MigrationWiz.
  2. Click the Go to My Projects button.
  3. Click the Create Project button.
  4. Select the Document project type. 
  5. Click Next Step.
  6. Enter a Project name and select a Customer.
  7. Click Next Step.
  8. Select endpoints or follow the steps below to create new endpoints. 

Endpoints

Endpoints are now created through MigrationWiz, rather than through MSPComplete. The steps for this section outline how to create the endpoints in MigrationWiz.

If you are selecting an existing endpoint, keep in mind that only ten endpoints will show in the drop-down. If you have more than ten, you may need to search. Endpoint search is case and character-specific. For example, Cust0mer will not show up if the search is customer. We recommend keeping a list of endpoints you have created, along with any unique spellings or capitalization you may have used.

You may either use existing endpoints or create new ones. 

Create a Source Endpoint

  1. Click Endpoints
  2. Click Add Endpoint
  3. Select Dropbox. 
  4. Leave the Provide Credentials option selected.
  5. Click Add Endpoint. 

Create a Destination Endpoint

  1. Click Endpoints
  2. Click Add Endpoint 
  3. Enter endpoint name
  4. For the endpoint type, select SharePoint.
  5. Enter the Site Collection URL for the top-level SharePoint document library, i.e., the site URL displayed in the SharePoint Admin Center.
  6. Enter the administrator username and password in the fields. This must be either a Global administrator, SharePoint administrator, or a Site Collection administrator account.
  7. Select Which Azure Storage to use
    • If using Custom Azure Storage enter the Storage Account Name and Access Key that was acquired in the `Prepare Azure Storage` section earlier in this guide. 
    • When entering the Azure Storage Account Name for the destination endpoint, only numbers and lowercase letters can be used. If you enter an upper case letter, your migration will fail.
  8. Click Add Endpoint

Authorization

At the Authorization tab, click the Request Access Token button. On the page entitled 'Dropbox -API Request Authorization', enter the email address and password for the Dropbox administrator account, and click the Allow button at the next screen.

Add Users

SharePoint URL

The name that needs to be entered under Destination in MigrationWiz will be the text that is at the end of the site URL. Most commonly you'll have a custom site collection created, if you navigate to the SharePoint site you want to migrate data from, the URL format you should see is:

https://tenant.sharepoint.com/sites/site-name

This would be the URL to specify in the endpoint of the project. If you see something like this:

https://tenant.sharepoint.com/sites/site-name/SitePages/page-name.aspx

You would exclude `SitePages/page-name.aspx`.

Destination library

Most commonly all of the data for a SharePoint site is within the default library which will simply be Shared Documents. 

To verify or find out what to input as the Document Library in the project, navigate to the SharePoint site and open one of the libraries, usually on the left-hand side of the main page, and the URL will be formatted as:

https://tenant.sharepoint.com/sites/site-name/Library%20Name/Forms/AllItems.axpx

The Document Library name is Library%20Name, you'll remove the %20 and use Library Name for the project.

Configuring the destination library occurs during the following "Add Users" stage. Configuration may be done via the "Destination Email" field in the CSV for Bulk Add projects, or it can be manually added during the Quick Add process.

Adding Users

Add the user accounts that will be migrated to the project. MigrationWiz allows you to bulk import users into the system.

You may use Bulk Add, Quick Add, or add the accounts to the MSPComplete customer. 

Quick Add
This option allows you to add items one at a time. To do so, you only have to provide an email address if you entered administrative credentials when setting up the project. If you did not, enter the following user information:
  • An email address
  • Login name
  • Password
  • Mailbox status
Bulk Add

Bulk Add uses a CSV containing the source and destination email addresses for the users to add the users to the project. If migrating only a specific group from a tenant, we recommend using the Bulk Add option.

MigrationWiz allows you to bulk import mailboxes into the system.

To import one or more mailboxes:

  1. Sign in to your MigrationWiz account.
  2. Select the Project for which you want to perform the bulk import.
  3. Click Add.
  4. Click Bulk Add.
  5. Follow the instructions on the page.

Advanced Options

Team folders are a feature of Dropbox Business that allows admins to create folders that are instantly shared with all members of their team or organization. However, unlike standard shared folders, team folders don't have an owner assigned to them in Dropbox, and so they are not migrated by default as part of a document migration project.

Support Tab

  • InitializationTimeout=8 This will increase the timeout initialization timeout window to 8 hours. There are no spaces on either side of the "=" sign, and the entries are case-sensitive, so pay special attention to the capital letters in the commands above. 
  • ShouldMigrateSharedWithMeFolderAsSource=1 
  • TeamFolderOwnerEmail=<team admin email address> This migrates the team folder only under the defined team admin account. 

Run Verify Credentials

  1. ​Sign in to your MigrationWiz account.
  2. Open the Project containing items you wish to validate.
  3. Select the items you wish to validate.
  4. Click on the Start button in your dashboard.
  5. Select Verify Credentials from the drop-down list.

Once complete, the results of the verification will be shown in the Status section.​ 

Notify Users

Notify users that a migration is occurring. Send an email to all users telling them the time and date of the migration. During this time, they should not modify any documents in their Source Dropbox accounts, because any modifications will not be included in the migration.

Run Migration

For small migrations, we suggest skipping the pre-stage pass and simply performing the full migration. However, for large migrations with more than fifty users, we recommend the pre-stage migration.

Pre-Stage pass

  1. Select the users you wish to migrate.
  2. Click the Start button from the top.
  3. Select Pre-Stage Migration.
  4. Under the Migration Scheduling section, from the drop-down list, select 90 days ago
  5. Click Start Migration.

Full pass

  1. Select the users.
  2. Click the Start button from the top.
  3. Select Full Migration.
  4. Click Start Migration.

Run Retry Errors

Look through the user list and click any red "failed migration" errors. Review the information and act accordingly.

If problems persist contact Support.

Request Statistics

Click the pie chart icon in the MigrationWiz dashboard to receive an email containing all the project migration statistics.

Post Migration

Suspend the Source Dropbox user accounts to prevent users from inadvertently logging in and using the wrong accounts. Follow the instructions in the How do I suspend a team member's account on my Dropbox Business team? article from Dropbox.

Remove the Authentication App

You can remove the Authentication App in Entra Center.

  1. Sign in to Microsoft Entra admin center.
  2. Select Microsoft Entra ID.
  3. Go to Identity > Applications > Enterprise applications, in the left bar of the window.
  4. In the Manage section, select All applications, look for the application permission you configured (MigrationWiz-SharePoint-Delegated or MigrationWiz-SharePoint-FullControl), and select it.
  5. Go to Manage > Properties, and select Delete from the properties bar.
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