Onboarding | Project Phases | Best Practices | Glossary of Key Terms

File Migration Methodologies

Transend’s file migration methodologies are designed to ensure an efficient cutover, with an optimized user experience. As a result, we offer two default file migration methodologies: A Staged Migration and a Post-Cutover Single-pass Migration.

Note: If your Agreement is dated February 6, 2026 or prior, it included a legacy file migration methodology, which is a 3-Stage migration approach for User Drives and a Post-Cutover Single-pass approach for Shared Drives. Effective February 7, 2026 the 3-Stage migration approach was replaced with a 2-Stage migration approach for User Drives, and the Post-Cutover Single-pass approach for Shared Drives was replaced with a 2-Stage approach.

  • User Drives: OneDrive, Google User (My) Drives, Dropbox user accounts
  • Shared Drives / Company Drives: SharePoint, Google Shared Drives, Dropbox company/shared accounts

Staged Migration

For most projects, this is the recommended file migration methodology.

The Staged Migration approach is designed to ensure most files are migrated before the Cutover, allowing a smoother transition at Cutover. User disruption is minimized by having nearly all files available when users “go live” in their new target account.

  • Stage-1 – All files in User and Shared Drives (migrated pre-cutover)
  • Cutover – Update DNS records to change mail routing to target (Users “go live” in target)
  • Stage-2 – Stage-1 delta (new/changed files migrated post-cutover)

Pros – Enables a smoother, more seamless user experience at Cutover. Minimizes disruption by having the majority of legacy data available at “go-live”.

Cons – Depending on the number of users and data storage, Stage-1 may extend the timeline before Cutover can occur.

Important duplication considerations:

When performing a Staged migration, the following duplication considerations are important to understand:

  • If a source file’s body is modified by a user after Stage-1 but before Stage-2, the most recent version of the source file will be migrated to the target and will override the previously migrated version, so only the most recent version of the source file exists in the target.
  • If a source file is renamed or moved to a different folder after Stage-1, but before Stage-2, the file will be duplicated in the target.

Notes:

  • The Staged file migration is not available when performing a Move operation between Google Drives. Only the Single-pass migration option is available for Google Drive-to-Google Drive Move operations.

Single-pass migration

Alternatively, Transend can perform a Single-pass file migration after the Cutover is completed.

  • Cutover – Update DNS records to change mail routing to target (Users “go live” in target)
  • Single-pass file migration – Perform Single-pass migration of all user files in scope

Pros – Allows Cutover to occur as quickly as possible. Reduces upfront migration time prior to “go-live”.

Cons – Users “go live” in the target platform without access to legacy data initially. Legacy data becomes available only after the Post-Cutover migration completes.

Other Considerations

The following considerations are important to understand so you can communicate expected file migration behavior to users.

Copy operation

By default, Transend will create replicas of source files and copy them into the target drive. Files will continue to exist in the source drive after migration. All files will be migrated into the target drive as Microsoft file formats.

Note: The only exception is the optional Move operation when migrating between Google Workspace tenants. The Google Drive-to-Google Drive Move operation requires additional fees.

Sharing Permissions

Unless it is specifically defined otherwise in your Project Plan, it is Customer’s responsibility to recreate file and/or folder permissions in the target after the file migration has completed.

  • User Drive sharing permissions – Select file and folder sharing permissions can be migrated between User Drives (My Drive/OneDrive), to be defined in your Project Plan. Shortcuts must be recreated in the target by Customer.

  • Shared Drive sharing permissions – File/folder sharing permissions are not migrated between Shared Drives. It is recommended after the Shared Drive migration is complete customers recreate sharing permissions by adding members to the appropriate Shared Drives and/or folders.

Note: If your Project Plan defines that sharing permissions are to be preserved in target User Drives, the following considerations are important to understand:

Platform specific considerations:

Microsoft OneDrive notifications

By default, Microsoft 365 sends email notifications to users when files they own in OneDrive are shared with external users. If permissions are maintained when migrating files to OneDrive, this can cause a notification storm being sent to the OneDrive owner during migration.

To prevent this notification storm during migration, Transend will temporarily disable notifications in the target tenant by running a PowerShell command to disable the “NotifyOwnersWhenItemsReshared” setting.

When your project is complete, Transend will re-enable the “NotifyOwnersWhenItemsReshared” notification setting back to its original state. If you do not want Transend to temporarily disable notifications in your tenant, please contact your project manager.