How to migrate SharePoint MySites

Information about the closure of MySites (also known as OneDrive On-Premise) in SharePoint 2013

Alongside the closure of the SharePoint On-Premise service, and the closure of unit, college or department level site collections, the MySite portion of SharePoint 2013 will also be closing.

What is a MySite / OneDrive on Premise?

Your MySite / OneDrive on Premise has a URL in the format: https://mysites.nexus.ox.ac.uk/personal/<youroxfordusername> 

It can be accessed directly from the URL, or via the link at the top of any SharePoint On-Prem page:  

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When you visit the URL or select that link, you will see your on-premise OneDrive. This is an example, not heavily used or customised but will typically look like a SharePoint document library: 

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Not all users will have one (MySites were created on request and usually only for Staff members) so if you select the link or visit the URL and just see a SharePoint Profile page, you likely never had a MySite set up.  

What can I do with my content in MySite / OneDrive on Premise?

Most MySites are less than 2GB in size. The majority only have 1 or 2 MB of files in them. 

See the sections below for the options users have, when moving content.

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This is the most obvious and preferable route. Download any documents you have in your MySite and move them to a location or folder within your OneDrive for Business instance on Nexus365.

To access your OneDrive for Business instance, log in to Nexus365 and click on the Waffle (the little grid of dots in the top left hand corner) and then select OneDrive from the menu. 

Your OneDrive for Business instance will have a URL like the following:  https://unioxfordnexus-my.sharepoint.com/personal/<youroxfordusername>_o...

Please ensure that if you are moving any documents from your MySite to OneDrive for Business that you familiarise yourself with the information governance guidelines around any sensitive or personal data: Information Security guidance and policy

This may also be an option if you need to share documents with others in an easy-to-manage way. Request a Microsoft Team using the Oxford Self Service Portal: Create Nexus365 Team or Group

Once your Team has been created you can move your content into the Files area of a channel.

Add members to your team accordingly but note that Teams is NOT designed for complex sharing / permissions and access control. Microsoft Teams is designed with a flat permissions structure of ownership or membership, and in some cases external guest membership – all of which will by default have access to any content placed in that Team. For more information see Overview: Microsoft Teams and Teams: Owners guide.

If you are a Site Administrator, Site Owner or Site Member of an existing SharePoint Online site, you can optionally move any business-critical content to the site. If you are a Site Member, please check with the Site Owner, Site Administrator or your unit’s SharePoint Network Administrator.

A list of SharePoint Network Administrators (SNAs) can be found at the Onboarded Entities Public List.

 

Note: Sites cannot be requested by individuals for their own use

All requests should be cleared with your unit’s SharePoint Network Administrator before you request a site through the Oxford IT Self-Service portal.

 

There is an option to download documents from your MySite and store them in a location maintained by your unit. Some colleges and departments make use of network storage systems or other content management systems not maintained by IT Services or the Nexus Team. Contact your Local IT Support Staff to check whether they allow such use of their systems.

Some content will be incompatible to move to the Nexus365 service. Examples of content that cannot be moved from MySites include:

  • Any site pages 
  • Blogs or forums 
  • Workflows (either SharePoint workflows or Nintex Workflows) 
  • Nintex Forms 
  • Infopath Forms or Infopath Form Libraries 

Site page content can be copied / pasted into “Modern” site pages in a SharePoint Online site but cannot be downloaded / re-uploaded into SharePoint Online, Teams or OneDrive.  

There are no modern equivalents of Personal Blogs or Forums in Modern SharePoint Online sites.  

Any SharePoint lists in MySites can be exported to Excel. The article Export an external list to Excel details how to export lists from SharePoint 2013 sites.

Lists can be created in Microsoft Lists, the ‘modern’ equivalent of MySite lists. See Microsoft Lists resources for information about Microsoft Lists.

Lists can also be created in SharePoint Online sites: Create a list - Microsoft SharePoint and Microsoft Teams: Get started with Lists in Teams

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