Plan & Prepare

What Is Migrated During SharePoint Migration

Understand exactly what content, structure, and settings are transferred during SharePoint Online migrations with Cloudiway.

Overview

Cloudiway's SharePoint migration transfers a comprehensive set of site elements, content, and metadata. This guide details exactly what is migrated and identifies items that require manual configuration after migration.

Migration Scope

Cloudiway supports migration from SharePoint On-Premises, SharePoint Online, and Google Sites to SharePoint Online. The migrated elements may vary slightly depending on the source platform.

Core Site Elements

The following structural elements are migrated to preserve your site's navigation and organization:

Top Navigation Bar

Global navigation links and structure

Quick Launch Bar

Left navigation menu items

Site Structure

Hierarchy of sites and subsites

Welcome Page

Site homepage content

Site-Level Permissions

User and group access rights

URL Rewriting

Internal links automatically updated

Content Components

Cloudiway migrates a comprehensive set of content types and list structures:

Migrated Content Types

Document Libraries

  • Files and folders
  • Version history
  • Metadata columns
  • Content types

List Types

  • Discussion boards
  • Announcements
  • Event lists / Calendars
  • Task lists
  • Generic lists
  • Microfeeds

Additional Migrated Elements

Structure

  • • Web parts
  • • Site columns
  • • Content types

Metadata

  • • Taxonomy/Terms
  • • Lookup columns
  • • Attachments

Features

  • • Delta migration
  • • Site metadata
  • • Webfields

Design & Customization

Cloudiway preserves visual elements to maintain site appearance:

Composed Look (SharePoint Foundation themes)
Menu configurations
Site content structure
Classic and modern site types supported

What's Not Migrated

Certain elements have technical limitations and are not transferred during migration:

Important Limitations

Review these limitations before migration to plan for any manual configuration needed post-migration.

Not Migrated

  • Structural navigation

    Currently not migrated - requires manual configuration

  • Custom MasterPages

    Custom branding templates are not transferred

  • Inheritance flags

    Theme and master page inheritance settings

  • Library-level permissions

    Permissions on document libraries are not migrated

  • Folder color customizations

    Color customizations applied to folders are not retained

Site Creation Behavior

Cloudiway intelligently handles target site creation during migration:

New Sites

Site collections and subsites are automatically created if they don't already exist in the target environment.

Existing Sites

If the site collection already exists, migrated data will be appended to the existing content.

Best Practice

For clean migrations, consider migrating to new site collections first, then reorganizing content as needed. This prevents potential conflicts with existing content.

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