Microsoft Teams Migration Guide: Complete Process Overview
Comprehensive guide to Microsoft Teams migration with Cloudiway. Learn about the three-phase process, what gets migrated, limitations, and best practices for Teams-to-Teams migration.
Overview
Microsoft Teams migration involves transferring Teams, channels, conversations, files, and associated content from one Microsoft 365 tenant to another. Cloudiway's Teams migration follows a structured three-phase process to ensure complete and accurate data transfer.
This guide covers the entire migration process, including what content is migrated, known limitations, and best practices for a successful Teams migration.
Teams Import APIs
Migration Phases
Discovery Phase
The system scans and identifies all Teams within the source environment. This phase creates an inventory of Teams, channels, and membership data.
Preprocessing Phase
This critical phase recreates all Teams structure in the target tenant:
- Creates Teams with settings and logos
- Creates associated SharePoint sites
- Migrates memberships (Owners and Members)
Migration Phase
The final phase handles the actual content migration:
- Channels and channel tabs
- Files and OneNote content
- Conversations and Planner tasks
- Associated mailboxes
What Gets Migrated
Teams Infrastructure
- Team logos and descriptions
- Team settings (specific configs)
- Private channels
- External user permissions
- Owner and member roles
- Office 365 group emails
Content
- Channel conversations (as HTML)
- Private chats (to OneDrive)
- Files and OneNote
- Default wiki pages
Channel Tabs
- Conversations tab
- Files tab
- Planner tab
- OneNote tab
- Office document tabs
Planner Tasks
- Task titles and details
- Buckets
- Assignees and due dates
- Labels and checklists
- Attachments
Conversation Limit
Limitations
Due to Microsoft API limitations, the following content cannot be migrated:
Not Migrated
- Channel-specific settings
- Non-default wikis
- Team calendar events
- File version histories
Also Not Migrated
- Apps and bots
- Activity logs
- Call histories
- Meeting invitations (links break)
Planner Limitations
Due to API restrictions, task metadata like creation dates and comments cannot be transferred. Tasks will appear with the migration date as their creation date.
Best Practices
Run Discovery First
Always run the discovery phase before migration to understand the scope and identify any potential issues with Teams structure.
Prepare User Mapping
Ensure all users are properly mapped between source and target tenants before running preprocessing. Unmapped users won't be added as members.
Export Important Conversations
For channels with more than 1,000 messages, consider exporting older conversations to HTML or another format before migration.
Communicate with Users
Inform users about what will and won't migrate. Especially note that meeting links will need to be recreated and apps will need to be reinstalled.
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