How to Migrate Home Drives to OneDrive for Business?

“Hello! I have been assigned with the task for migrating mapped network drive data of users to OneDrive Business account. We have 200+ employees in our organization, it is not possible to move files manually for each of them. I know that we can move to a desktop file using OneDrive application, but this method cannot migrate home drives to OneDrive for business. Please, provide a solution to solve this problem. Thanks!!

In almost all the organizations that are using cloud-based email client, most of the users generally store their files on a local computer or network drive. They have huge piles of data stored on their local server rather than cloud storage. Due to this, there cannot access those files from outside the organization.

In this blog, we will solve the generally asked query “how to migrate home drive to OneDrive for Business”. We have found two solutions for solving your problem:

1. Transfer Mapped Network Drive Data to OneDrive Using PowerShell
2. Professional Solution to Migrate Home Drive to OneDrive for Business

Method #1: Migrate Home Drive Data Using PowerShell Command

Before starting with the migration task using PowerShell command, you need to take care of the following thinks:

• Configure Group policies settings, Review Admin settings of OneDrive

• Check the file name and path. The file name should be valid & the path should not be too long.

• Get your Office 365 tenant id for migration

Steps to get Office 365 Tenant Id:

1. Open the PowerShell command line on your system.
2. To connect to Azure active directory use connect-azuread
3. In the result, you will get, Azure Cloud
4. Also get tenant details using get-azureadtenantdetail command (optional)
5. For new GPO policies, go to Computer Configuration\Policies\Administrative Templates\OneDrive
6. Import the DLL file to check if the OneDrive is connected (else download OneDriveDLL file)
   1. Import-Module \\contoso.local\netlogon\OnedriveLib.dll
7. Look for OneDrive folder
   $path = $env:OneDriveCommercial
8. Now to get the OneDrive $ODStatus = Get-ODStatus -ByPath $path
9. if ($ODStatus -eq ‘UpToDate’ -or $ODStatus -eq ‘Syncing’) {
   #OneDrive is connected
   write-host ‘OneDrive connected and found’
   robocopy $env:HOMESHARE $env:OneDriveCommercial /E /SEC
   new-item $env:HOMESHARE -name ‘_FILES COPIED TO ONEDRIVE.txt’ -ItemType ‘file’ -Value ‘Files Copied
   }

After this, all the data from the home drive will be synced with the OneDrive Business account. But as you can see the method to complex to operate on. Additionally, after connecting home drives with OneDrive there will a huge spike in the network traffic which could slow down the other works.

Method #2: Professional Solution to Migrate Home Drive to OneDrive for Business

There are many organization who finds methods difficulty in using PowerShell commands as the single mistake can waste a lot of time. In case you don’t want to trouble yourself then we recommended to use a professional tool like PCVITA PC to Cloud backup tool. This automated tool is desired to migrate local computer as well as mapped network drive also into OneDrive business account. Additionally, the tool provides user-friendly interface and multiple filter options to migrate only selective data from home drive.

Comparative Features of Automated Tools

1. Doesn’t require Powershell commands knowledge

2. User-friendly interface for easy and quick migration

3. Folder, File Type, File Size, Date filters for selective data migration

4. Increment migration features to skip already transferred data

5. Option to migrate mapped network drive data

6. Provides a detailed report after completion for future use.

Concluding Words

In this blog, we have provided two solutions for commonly asked queries “how to migrate home drive to OneDrive for business”. You can either use PowerShell command or professional tool for the migration task. As we have explained, above the Powershell commands require high technical knowledge and patience and need to perform the same approach for all users. Whereas, professional tool migrate mapped network drive as well as desktop files to OneDrive business account. Depending upon the requirements and expertise you can select the method you like.