The Complete SharePoint Migration Checklist for 2026

Why Most SharePoint Migrations Struggle

The migration itself is rarely the hard part. Tools like ShareGate and the SharePoint Migration Tool handle the mechanical data transfer competently. What trips organizations up is everything surrounding the migration: the planning, the data quality, the permission mapping, and the user communication.

After completing over 200 migrations, we’ve distilled the process into a checklist that addresses the actual failure points, not just the technical steps.

Phase 1: Discovery and Assessment

Before you move a single document, you need a complete picture of what you’re working with.

Environment inventory:

• Document all site collections, subsites, and their purposes
• Map content databases and their sizes
• Identify customizations: master pages, page layouts, web parts, workflows
• Catalog InfoPath forms and their dependencies
• List all third-party solutions and integrations

Content audit:

• Identify orphaned content (no owner, no recent access)
• Flag files exceeding SharePoint Online limits (15GB per file, 400-character path limits)
• Find special characters in file names that need remediation
• Assess total data volume and plan migration windows accordingly

Permission analysis:

• Export current permission structures across all site collections
• Identify broken inheritance patterns
• Map Active Directory groups to Azure AD groups
• Document external user access patterns

Phase 2: Remediation

This is where you save yourself weeks of post-migration firefighting.

Data cleanup:

• Remove or archive content that hasn’t been accessed in 24+ months
• Fix file naming violations (special characters, excessive path lengths)
• Consolidate duplicate content
• Validate that all content has appropriate metadata

Permission restructuring:

• Simplify overly complex permission models
• Remove stale user accounts and abandoned groups
• Document the target permission model for SharePoint Online
• Plan for Azure AD group structure

Customization assessment:

• Identify which customizations have modern equivalents
• Plan SPFx replacements for legacy web parts
• Document workflow logic for Power Automate rebuilds
• Flag any solutions that require complete redesign

Phase 3: Migration Execution

Pre-flight checks:

• Verify target SharePoint Online tenant configuration
• Confirm Azure AD sync is functioning correctly
• Validate network bandwidth for migration windows
• Set up monitoring and logging

Migration approach:

• Start with a pilot migration of a non-critical site
• Use incremental migration for large content databases
• Schedule final cutover during low-usage windows
• Maintain read-only access to source during transition

Validation:

• Verify document counts match source and target
• Spot-check permissions on critical document libraries
• Test search functionality across migrated content
• Validate metadata and content types transferred correctly

Phase 4: Post-Migration

User communication:

• Distribute updated URLs and bookmarks
• Provide quick-reference guides for the new interface
• Set up redirect rules from old URLs
• Establish a help desk process for migration-related issues

Monitoring:

• Track user adoption metrics for the first 30 days
• Monitor for permission-related access issues
• Watch for search index completeness
• Collect user feedback and address friction points quickly

Common Pitfalls to Avoid

Don’t migrate everything. A migration is your best opportunity to clean house. Content that nobody has touched in two years shouldn’t make the trip to the cloud.

Don’t underestimate permissions. Permission mapping is consistently the most time-consuming part of any migration. Budget accordingly.

Don’t skip the pilot. A pilot migration with a real site collection reveals issues that no amount of planning documentation will surface.

Don’t forget about workflows. SharePoint 2013 workflows don’t migrate to SharePoint Online. Every workflow needs to be rebuilt in Power Automate or retired.

Need Help With Your Migration?

A well-planned migration is a straightforward project. A poorly planned one becomes a multi-month ordeal. If you’d rather get it right the first time, we’re happy to help with a free migration assessment.