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Copy/Move Files Between OneDrive and SharePoint

Copy/Move Files Between OneDrive and SharePoint

UConn faculty, staff, and students can easily share files between OneDrive and SharePoint sites, and vice versa.

  1. If you are transferring files from

    1. OneDrive, navigate to s.uconn.edu/onedrive

    2. SharePoint, navigate to s.uconn.edu/sharepoint

  2. Find the files/folders you would like to transfer and select them by checking their circle to the left.

  3. Click on Move to or Copy to in the top toolbar.

    1. A Move will keep attributes of the file, such as CreationDate, Last Modified, and Version History.

    2. A Copy will create a new, discrete file in your destination folder with a CreationDate of today.
      You may Copy the files to the new location, verify the files in the new location, and then delete the original files.

  4. In the popup window,

    1. If you are transferring to a SharePoint, choose it from the list on the left

    2. If you are transferring to your personal OneDrive, choose My Files at the top of the list on the left.

  5. Use the window to navigate to the exact desired destination of the items.

  6. Click on Move here or Copy here to begin the transfer.

  7. To view the status of the file transfer, click on Moving items or Copying items in the top right

For large file transfers, ITS recommends using the website.

If you were to conduct the transfer in File Explorer (Windows) or Finder (macOS), your computer would need to first download all the selected files, transfer them to another folder on your computer, and then upload the changes back to OneDrive/SharePoint. You may also run into file-lock issues if the file is in use by someone. There may be a temporary lock placed on the file by your computer. This means you would need to catch the error, if you are notified, and then hunt down that file and manually move it again once it is no longer locked. This greatly increases the time commitment and uses space on your computer*. Using the website removes the need for you and your computer to act as a “middleman”.

In summary, since the files are already on OneDrive/SharePoint, there’s no need to download them and reupload them. Instead, by using the website to transfer them, we’re really only telling OneDrive to change access permissions on the files.

*You will need to have enough space on your hard drive to hold the data during the transfer.