Today, in this SharePoint migration article, I am going to explain how to migrate files or documents from file share to SharePoint online document library using the Microsoft SharePoint migration tool.
We will discuss, how to migrate files from file share to SharePoint online document library by using the free SharePoint migration tool from Microsoft.
Microsoft SharePoint migration tool
SharePoint Migration Tool is a free tool from Microsoft which you can use for migrating files from your SharePoint on-premises document libraries or from your on-premises file shares to SharePoint Online or OneDrive in Office 365.
If you are new to the Microsoft SharePoint Migration tool, check out the below two articles where I have explained how to install and use the SharePoint Migration Tool.
- Free SharePoint Migration Tool from Microsoft step by step migration from SharePoint 2016 on-premise to SharePoint Online
Here I have a few documents in a shared folder on my local drive in my system. Here we will see how to migrate these file share documents to SharePoint online document library by using the SharePoint migration tool.
You can have a look at the documents in the screenshots below:

File share to sharepoint migration using the SharePoint migration tool
Follow the below steps to migrate files from a file share or from a shared drive to SharePoint online document library.
First, download and install the SharePoint Migration Tool.
Now, open the SharePoint Migration Tool.

Next, click on the Sign-in button, enter your SharePoint online credential (username and password) for Sign in.
Once sign-in is successful, it will display “Where is your data?” dialog box with below options:
- SharePoint On-premises
- File Share
- JSOM or CSV file for bulk migration
Here I have chosen “File Share” as my data source.

Now it will open select a source and destination window. Here it will ask what file share do you want to migrate?. Click on Choose Folder, select folder from your local drive as shown below. Next click on ok. Over choose the folder which you want to migrate.

After clicking on OK, the folder path will appear like below:

Now we need to provide details about our SharePoint online site and document library.
Now Click on Next, here enter your SharePoint Online site URL, then it will displays all the lists and document libraries from that site to the dropdown.
Next, Choose the Library to which you want to migrate the documents, from the drop-down list as shown below and click on the Add button.

Next click on the Migrate button as shown below.
If you want to migrate more files from other file shares, you can add those by clicking on Add a task button. And when you click on the Migrate button, all the tasks will proceed at once.

After the migration is completed it will display a report which shows:
- How much time the migration took to complete
- Total how many items scanned, how many items with scanned issues, etc.
- How many items have been migrated out of how many items
- What is the total size and what is the total size it migrated.
You can also download the report by clicking on the Open Report button.
Also, it will display a message like “The migration finished. Do you want to keep this migration for future incremental runs?. Click on Yes. if not needed click on No.

Verify SharePoint Migration Status
Now go to your SharePoint Online site, open your Document library, and you can see all files are uploaded here as shown below.
Look at created and modified columns as it is uploaded with the date when those files are created in your local system.

You may also like following SharePoint migration tutorials:
- Google G Suite to Office 365 migration tools rolled out by Microsoft
- Migrate email from one Office 365 tenant to another Office 365 tenant
- SharePoint 2010 to SharePoint Online Migration Steps using Metalogix tool
- SharePoint 2010 to SharePoint 2013/2016/2019 Migration Steps (Database attach method)
- Lotus Notes to SharePoint Migration-Your FAQs Answered
- Lotus Notes to SharePoint Migration Blog
- SharePoint 2013 migration issues File not found and 404 not found issue
- SharePoint 2013 Document library checkboxes missing after migration from Moss 2007 to SharePoint 2013
- Office 365 SharePoint Easy Migration
- Approaches for migration from SharePoint 2007 to SharePoint 2013
- SharePoint 2007 to SharePoint 2013 migration challenges tips to know
This SharePoint migration tutorial, we learned how to use the free Microsoft SharePoint migration tool? Also, we learned how to migrate files or documents from file share to SharePoint online document library by using the Microsoft SharePoint Migration Tool FREE.
Also, we checked file share to sharepoint migration using the sharepoint migration tool and how we to check the migration status through the Migration report and status option presented in the SharePoint migration tool.
I am Bijay a Microsoft MVP (8 times – My MVP Profile) in SharePoint and have more than 15 years of expertise in SharePoint Online Office 365, SharePoint subscription edition, and SharePoint 2019/2016/2013. Currently working in my own venture TSInfo Technologies a SharePoint development, consulting, and training company. I also run the popular SharePoint website EnjoySharePoint.com
Hi, thanks for sharing. Can the tool migrate the following:
1) pages as well as documents?
2) content (pages and files ) from several sites to several new sites (shells)?
3) migrate content from a SharePoint Teams site to a SharePoint Communications site?
Thanks