Why replace SharePoint files with .url links

Two gains from one option
Storage costs: what SharePoint storage costs
Storage costs: what replacing the files saves
Adoption: every link leads to Nextcloud
Transition: from coexistence to Nextcloud
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Two gains from one option

The option is Replace SharePoint Online source Document Library item with a .url link to Nextcloud, on the Source step of a migration job, in Advanced Settings. After a file has been migrated, SMART Migration replaces it in SharePoint Online or OneDrive with a .url file that opens it in Nextcloud.

Less SharePoint storage to pay for

Each file's content leaves SharePoint and a link of less than 1 KB takes its place. The storage is freed as each wave migrates, not on a cutover day years from now — and the extra storage the organization buys can shrink with it.

Users find their files in Nextcloud

Wherever users look for a file — a SharePoint library, the Files tab of a Teams channel, OneDrive — its link opens it in Nextcloud, wherever it went. Nobody has to learn where each file moved, and every click takes them to Nextcloud.

Storage costs: what SharePoint storage costs

Microsoft 365 gives an organization one pool of SharePoint storage, shared by every SharePoint site and every team in Teams: 1 TB, plus 10 GB for each licensed user. Above that, storage is bought as Office 365 Extra File Storage, at a list price of USD 0.20 per GB per month — about USD 2,400 per TB per year. It is paid every year the content stays, and grows with it.

Licensed users	Storage included
100	2 TB
500	6 TB
2,000	21 TB
10,000	101 TB

The pool is easily passed. Office documents are small, but much of what organizations keep is not:

Video: recorded meetings, training and marketing films — a single hour can take several GB.
Pictures and scans: site photos, inspection reports, scanned archives.
Technical drawings and models: CAD drawings, 3D models, GIS data and their exports.
Version history: SharePoint keeps versions of every file and counts each of them against the storage. A large file edited often can take many times its own size.
Copies: the same file saved in several libraries and teams, each copy counted again.

Engineering, construction, manufacturing, media, healthcare and the public sector often store tens of terabytes above what is included, and pay for every one of them each year.

Prices differ between agreements

The figures here are Microsoft's list prices and the storage included with most business and enterprise plans. Discounts, plans and prices change: check the organization's own Microsoft agreement and its storage in the Microsoft 365 admin center before you calculate the savings.

Storage costs: what replacing the files saves

When the files are replaced with links, the content they took leaves the pool. Once the organization is back within what its licences include, the extra storage no longer has to be bought.

Licensed users	Included	Content in SharePoint	Extra storage	Cost per year	Over five years
200	3 TB	10 TB	7 TB	about USD 16,800	about USD 84,000
500	6 TB	20 TB	14 TB	about USD 33,600	about USD 168,000
2,000	21 TB	60 TB	39 TB	about USD 93,600	about USD 468,000

The savings start with the first wave and grow with each one, because every migrated file stops counting at once. Move the largest content first, and most of the extra storage can go early in the project.

Find what costs most. A Discovery measures every library and OneDrive, versions included, and the Power BI report shows which sites, libraries and file types take the most storage.
Count the versions. Version history is often a large share of the volume. Decide which versions to migrate; see Version history
Check the result. After a wave, the Microsoft 365 admin center shows the storage the organization uses. SharePoint also counts deleted items in its recycle bins, so the freed storage shows in full once they are cleared.

OneDrive is counted apart

Each OneDrive has its own storage per user, outside the organization's SharePoint pool. Replacing OneDrive files with links serves adoption and one active copy; the storage bill is cut by replacing the files of SharePoint sites and teams.

Adoption: every link leads to Nextcloud

A migration succeeds when people work in Nextcloud, not when the files arrive there. The usual risk after a migration is that users go on looking where they always looked: they find an old copy and keep editing it, or find nothing and call the helpdesk.

With a link in place of each file, the old places answer the question themselves. Users open the library, the Teams channel or the OneDrive folder they always used, click the file, and land on it in Nextcloud. Every click is a small lesson in where the files live now, given at the moment the user needs the file.

Habits kept, not broken

People keep the way they find files. Nothing has to be relearned before they can work, so the first day in Nextcloud is an ordinary working day.

No lost files

Nobody has to ask where a document went: the place it used to be leads to it. Fewer helpdesk calls, and fewer files saved twice because the first one could not be found.

One active copy

The link is all that is left in SharePoint, so no one can go on editing an old copy there. Every edit lands in the one file in Nextcloud.

Nextcloud becomes the habit

Each link brings users to Nextcloud, where they see its folders, search and sharing. Over time they start there directly, and the links are needed less and less.

A link opens the file only for someone who has access to it in Nextcloud: SharePoint permissions are not migrated, so the members of each Team Folder have to be set up before the links are made.

Transition: from coexistence to Nextcloud

A Traditional Migration copies the files and leaves the originals in place until a planned switch: until then the storage is still paid, and there are two editable copies. Replacing the files with links changes that.

	Traditional Migration	Enhanced Migration, with .url links
SharePoint storage	Still used until the originals are deleted	Freed as each file migrates
Where users go	Told on the day of the switch	Led by the link every time they look
Copies of a file	Two, both editable, until the switch	One, in Nextcloud
Pace	One switch date for everyone in a wave	Each wave, department or library in its own time
SharePoint and Teams	Left behind at the switch	Kept as the way in, for as long as needed

That makes a gradual transition safe: a department can move while others still work in SharePoint and Teams, and Teams chats, meetings and channels keep working while the files live in Nextcloud.

The source is changed

Each migrated file's content is removed from SharePoint and only the link is left. Your organization should always have a backup of the source in place, so a file can be restored if anything requires it, and the App Registration used by the SMART Migration Server needs write permissions to the source.

Restoring a file in place of its link

The links are not a one-way street. A file replaced by a .url link can be put back in SharePoint from its copy in Nextcloud: a Migration job with Restore on, on the Action step, fills each link with its file again — its original version history, the versions created in Nextcloud since, and its metadata and permissions as they were.

Settle the structure first

A link survives a move within the same Team Folder or user account, but breaks when the file moves to another Team Folder or user, because Nextcloud gives it a new ID there. Decide where each library goes before you replace its files.

Get started

Measure the storage
Run a Discovery and refresh the Power BI report: the volume of every library and OneDrive, versions included. Compare it with the storage the licences include.
Prepare Nextcloud
Create the Team Folders, set up their members, and test with a few real users that they can open their files.
Migrate the largest content first
Run each wave as a Test Migration, then a Migration. Start with the libraries that take most storage.
Turn on the links
On the Source step, in Advanced Settings, switch on Replace SharePoint Online source Document Library item with a .url link to Nextcloud, and confirm.
Tell the users
Before the wave, tell its users that their files open in Nextcloud from now on, and that a click on a file in SharePoint or Teams takes them there.
Follow it up
The run's Source converted to .url field in Run History shows Yes when its files were replaced. Check the organization's storage in the Microsoft 365 admin center after each wave.

The option is part of the Enterprise and Enterprise+ licences, with every other feature of a migration to Nextcloud; see Trial and licences