FAQ: Planning the migration

Every group of questions: Nextcloud FAQ

Plan and run a migration, wave by wave
Cutover: Traditional and Enhanced Migration
Why replace SharePoint files with .url links
Restore: files back from Nextcloud to SharePoint Online or a file share
Digital Resilience Operation (DORA)
Scheduling, recurrence and priority
Estimate volume and duration

Plan and run a migration, wave by wave

These questions are explained in full in Plan and run a migration, wave by wave

What are the steps of a migration?

Set up, discover, decide, organise the waves, configure, test, migrate, check, cut over and document.

How big should a migration wave be?

Small enough for the owners to check in a few days, shaped by team rather than alphabet, and measured by volume including versions.

Why start with a pilot wave?

It shows how naming, folders, metadata and permissions work out, and measures the speed to plan the rest.

How do I keep Nextcloud current when a department cannot switch in one day?

Give its jobs a recurrence: each run copies what is new or changed.

Cutover: Traditional and Enhanced Migration

These questions are explained in full in Cutover: Traditional and Enhanced Migration

What is the difference between Traditional and Enhanced Migration?

Traditional copies the files and switches users on a planned day; Enhanced replaces each migrated SharePoint file with a .url link to it in Nextcloud.

How do I replace SharePoint files with links to Nextcloud?

Switch on Replace SharePoint Online source Document Library item with a .url link to Nextcloud on the Source step, in Advanced Settings.

What must be in place before the source files are replaced with links?

A backup of the source, since the files' content is removed there, and write permissions to the source for the App Registration used by the SMART Migration Server.

What must be ready in Nextcloud before users arrive?

The members of each Team Folder, tested with a few real users — SharePoint permissions are not migrated.

Can a migration to Nextcloud be reversed?

Yes, for SharePoint Online and file shares: a Migration job with Restore on — on the Action step, with Advanced Settings on — copies the files back from Nextcloud — .url links filled again, the versions added in Nextcloud added to the originals, and new files copied. SharePoint on-premises or a new location goes through the SMART Migration IDE — ask your partner.

Why replace SharePoint files with .url links

These questions are explained in full in Why replace SharePoint files with .url links

Why replace the SharePoint files with .url links to Nextcloud?

To free the SharePoint storage the files took, and to lead users to each file in Nextcloud from the place they always found it — which helps them adopt Nextcloud.

How much SharePoint storage does Microsoft 365 include?

1 TB for the organization plus 10 GB for each licensed user, shared by every SharePoint site and team. Extra storage costs about USD 2,400 per TB per year at Microsoft's list price.

Why do so many organizations exceed the included SharePoint storage?

Videos, pictures, scans, technical drawings and models are large, SharePoint counts every version of a file, and copies in several libraries count again.

How much can replacing SharePoint files with links save?

Every TB brought back within what the licences include saves about USD 2,400 a year: an organization of 500 users with 20 TB in SharePoint pays about USD 33,600 a year for the 14 TB above its 6 TB.

How do I find which libraries cost the most storage?

Run a Discovery: the Power BI report shows the volume of every library and OneDrive, versions included. Migrate the largest first.

Do the links reduce OneDrive storage costs too?

No: each OneDrive has its own storage per user, outside the SharePoint pool. Links in OneDrive serve adoption and one active copy.

How do .url links help users adopt Nextcloud?

Users keep looking where they always did, in SharePoint, Teams or OneDrive, and each click on a file opens it in Nextcloud. Nobody loses a file, nobody edits an old copy, and Nextcloud becomes the habit.

How do I get a file back after it was replaced with a .url link?

Open the job that migrated it, switch on Advanced Settings, tick Restore on the Action step and set it to Ready: the link is filled again with the file from Nextcloud, with its version history, the versions created in Nextcloud since, and its metadata and permissions as they were.

How do .url links make the transition to Nextcloud gradual?

A department moves in its own time while others stay in SharePoint and Teams: there is one copy of each file, and the old places keep leading to it.

These questions are explained in full in Restore: files back from Nextcloud to SharePoint Online or a file share

What does Restore do with a file that was replaced by a .url link?

It fills the link with the file again: the original content and version history, the versions added in Nextcloud on top, and the item's metadata and permissions as they were. Users find the real file where the link was.

Which sources can files be restored to?

SharePoint Online libraries and file shares, from a Migration job into a Team Folder or a user's files — or a Test Migration job, which writes nothing and reports what a restore would change. Not SharePoint on-premises, OneDrive, a File List CSV or a Dynamic BI data query, and not from an Import job.

Can I see what a restore will change before it runs?

Yes: run the job as a Test Migration with Restore on. It writes nothing to the source and reports file by file what would get new versions, be filled again, be copied or be overwritten. Then switch it to Migration.

Are files created in Nextcloud copied back to the source too?

Yes. A file created in the job's Nextcloud folder is copied to the source, into the folder that matches its own; a file changed in Nextcloud gets its new versions added in SharePoint Online, or overwrites the file on a file share.

What happens to permissions when files are restored to a file share?

An overwritten file takes the permissions of its folder: any permissions set on the file itself are lost. Find those files before the run and set their permissions again afterwards. In SharePoint Online, metadata and permissions are kept.

Do I need a new job to restore files?

No. Open the job that migrated the files, switch on Advanced Settings, tick Restore on the Action step and set it to Ready: it already has the source and the Nextcloud folder, and the restore run joins its Run History. Untick Restore afterwards when the job should copy into Nextcloud again.

Why did my finished job go on Hold when I switched Restore on?

Finished and the result belong to the runs of one mode, with Restore or without: a finished migration is not a finished restore. Switching Restore on or off works as a change of mode — a Finished job is saved Hold, and switched back it is Finished again when its latest run of that kind finished.

Digital Resilience Operation (DORA)

These questions are explained in full in Digital Resilience Operation (DORA)

What is DORA, and who does it apply to?

The EU Digital Operational Resilience Act, Regulation (EU) 2022/2554, binding on financial entities since January 2025.

How can Nextcloud reduce concentration risk?

By keeping an independent, current copy of critical documents outside the main provider.

How do I bring the work done in Nextcloud back after a DORA emergency?

Tick Restore on the recurring DORA job and set it to Ready: its run takes every file changed or created in Nextcloud during the emergency back to SharePoint Online or the file share. Then untick Restore, and the job keeps the copy again.

How do I show an auditor what was copied, and when?

Run History and the reports record every run; a refreshed SMART BI.pbix saved at each milestone is point-in-time evidence.

Scheduling, recurrence and priority

These questions are explained in full in Scheduling, recurrence and priority

How often should a resilience copy be refreshed?

As often as the content changes: daily for active documents, weekly for reference material.

Estimate volume and duration

These questions are explained in full in Estimate volume and duration

How do I estimate how long the migration will take?

Divide each wave's volume including versions, from Discovery, by the speed one job reached in the pilot, and that by four for the jobs running at once. Add time for checking each wave, and a margin for the interruptions every real migration meets.