OneDrive Cross-Tenant Migration: Complete Guide for Admins

What One Understands By Cross-Tenant OneDrive Migration?

This term “OneDrive Migration Between Tenants” can be described as the act of transferring data of users’ OneDrive for Business to the new tenant from the Microsoft 365 tenant. For this objective, Microsoft has designed its own solution based on SharePoint Online migration and the following aspects:

• Trust between source and target tenants
• Destination users must be created prior
• Mapping identity of both user tenants
• Provisioning OneDrive to the tenant
• Orchestrated migration through PowerShell

The end goal of cross-tenant migration Microsoft 365 is to ensure the preservation of users’ files, folders, and data ownership during the migration process from one tenant to another. It must be noted that OneDrive migration involves identity-aware file ownership, permission sharing, and sync behaviors, unlike mailbox migration. Therefore, unplanned migrations can result in inaccessible M365 files, broken shared links, and user disruption within OneDrive.

How to Plan Your OneDrive Cross-Tenant Sync?

If you are ready to move your Microsoft drive data, you must fulfil the Microsoft 365 Tenant Migration Checklist as stated below:

• Manage all users, owners, and storage usage of your OneDrive account. 
• Identify your data volume (high file counts and large OneDrive libraries).
• Provide admin licensing to both source and target tenant accounts. 
• Avoid migration during business hours and prepare a rollback plan. 
• Let your users know about the migration timeline, changes, and syncs. 
• Always run a pilot migration first with a small batch for evaluation. 

Feasibility Matrix of OneDrive Cross-Tenant Migration

Other Common Prerequisites You Must Consider

• SharePoint Admin Permissions for both tenants 
• Installation of SharePoint Online Management Shell 
• Target OneDrive users created in the Destination tenant 
• No provisioned OneDrive account for the target users 
• Configured cross-tenant trust relationships and CSV user mapping 
• Data threshold limits of 2 TB or 1 million items including individual file versions
• No active legal holds on the OneDrive tenant accounts 
• Path limit of 400 characters is maintained 
• Remove duplicate or inactive accounts and validate domain changes 

Note: As a Microsoft native migration doesn’t support merging data into existing target OneDrive, the destination drive must be treated as a new authoritative location for the users being migrated. 

Understanding these, let’s further move ahead with the general solutions for Office 365 tenant to tenant migration for OneDrive between the tenant accounts accurately and precisely. 

Microsoft Cross-Tenant OneDrive Migration 

This is a generic solution provided by Microsoft without the use of any third-party application. The steps to follow for the OneDrive migration using the Cross-Tenant User Data Migration (CTUDM) add-on are:

1. Initially, assign the required CTUDM add–on licence to all the user objects. 
2. Next, pre-create user accounts in the target tenant via Microsoft Entra ID. 
3. Cross-verify that the target OneDrive sites are not self-provisioned. 
4. Further, open the SharePoint Online Management Shell and log in with both accounts using the given commands:

Install the SharePoint Online Management Shell and the PnP PowerShell module. Install-Module -Name Microsoft.Online.SharePoint.PowerShell -Force -AllowClobber Install-Module SharePointPnPPowerShellOnline Connect-SPOService -Url https://source-tenant-admin.sharepoint.com Connect-PnPOnline -Url https://source-tenant-admin.sharepoint.com -UseWebLogin Connect-SPOService -Url https://destination-tenant-admin.sharepoint.com Connect-PnPOnline -Url https://destination-tenant-admin.sharepoint.com -UseWebLogin

5. Afterward, run the given commands on both source and destination to establish a secure connection and trust:

Get-SPOCrossTenantHostUrl Set-SPOCrossTenantRelationship

6. Furthermore, prepare a mapping CSV file to pair every source User Principal Name (UPN) identically to the OneDrive URL. 
7. Finally, use the given command to start the migration:

Start-SPOCrossTenantUserContentMove -NoAzureACSAuth Start-SPOSiteMigration -SourceUrl -NoAzureACSAuth //Import to destination tenant

8. Monitor your migration status in the dashboard and validate ownership, sync, and UAT for assurance. 

Note: Admins are allowed to concurrently batch migrate upto 4,000 accounts. Also, old shared links are left on the source target, which helps automatic user redirection to the new target account upon clicking. 

To sum this cross-tenant OneDrive Migration by Microsoft up in a more enhanced way, check out this infographic:

Safe OneDrive to OneDrive Cross-Tenant Migration 

Even though a native Microsoft solution is available for the migration, it requires expertise in PowerShell, proper admin control and timelines, tenant preparation, identity mapping, and continuous monitoring. When enterprises need to manage this on a large-scale, it becomes complex. Hence, users prefer the SysInfo Microsoft 365 Tenant-to-Tenant Migration Tool for all tech and non-tech users to streamline the process. With the user-friendly GUI and simplified workflow, it helps reduce administrative costs and efforts. 

Working Process to Execute OneDrive Cross-Tenant Sync

1. Launch the OneDrive Tenant-to-Tenant Migration Tool and click Copy OneDrive. 
   
2. Then, choose Modern OAuth or Admin Impersonation and log in to your tenant. 
   
3. Further, select the OneDrive account for the transfer and click Next. 
   
4. Afterward, sign in to your target tenant and pick destination drive accounts. 
   
5. Next, map the source and target tenant OneDrive. Press Map Selected >> Next. 
   
   
6. Finally, choose the filters you want to apply and click Start Migration to complete. 
   

Why SysInfo OneDrive Tenant Migrator?

Enterprises often rely on quick, secure, and scalable M365 tenant migration software that simplifies their task and completes the process. Microsoft’s migration framework is built for professionals with M365 admin and PowerShell expertise. But they consume time, require a lot of effort, and constant checks. Therefore, businesses interested in reducing their migration hassle prefer this utility with the following available features:

• Bulk migrate data from multiple sources to MS OneDrive. 
• Delta migration syncs only the newly added files. 
• Manual and automated user mapping for OneDrive cross-tenant migration
• Filter files and folders by date range, size, or extensions. 
• Maintain permissions, ownership, and other crucial data. 
• Use log reports and a real-time dashboard for analysis. 
• Achieve 24*7 tech support for any concerns or queries. 

Best Practices to Consider for OneDrive Tenant Migration

If you plan to have a successful and complete OneDrive migration, then managing these practices can be beneficial:

• Running pilot migrations with a few users 
• Proper licensing and account provision validations
• Avoiding identity mismatches with absolute mapping 
• Minimizing user disruption by scheduling batches 
• Monitoring throttling issues and limits by Microsoft 
• Reviewing migration logs and verifying source data in the target tenant
• Keeping the source tenant available until the stakeholders confirm 
• Documenting the entire process for audit, compliance, and references 

Conclusion

OneDrive Cross-Tenant Migration is more than what it seems on the surface. Users need secure solutions to ensure business continuity with careful planning, identity management, and operational views. Though native Microsoft capabilities allow OneDrive-to-OneDrive tenant migration, it also requires proper user mapping, tenant preparation, pilot testing, and complete post-migration validation. 

This is when enterprise users often find flexibility and speed issues and switch to professional solutions like the SysInfo Microsoft 365 Migration Tool. This helps eliminate redundancy with smart deduplication, provides demos for pilot tests and evaluation, and ensures control with automation for maximum efficiency and results.

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About The Author:

Simran Bhatia

Simran Bhatia is a technical content writer engaged in writing clear, concise, and SEO-optimized content. With a background in computer science and a passion for writing, I thrive to deliver complex technical content in simple layman terms.