How to move shared drives to sharepoint for small business australia

Summary

This guide helps you troubleshoot and resolve: How to move shared drives to sharepoint for small business australia. Follow the steps below to fix the issue.

Common Causes

Moving your business files from a local network drive or NAS device to Microsoft SharePoint Online removes the need for on-premise hardware and lets your team access documents securely from any location. SharePoint integrates directly with Microsoft Teams and OneDrive, enabling real-time co-authoring, automatic version history, and simplified permission management for small businesses across Australia.

Quick Fix Steps

1. Audit your current network drive (Z:\) and identify folders that should move to SharePoint versus OneDrive.
2. Create SharePoint sites in the Microsoft 365 admin centre to reflect your departmental structure.
3. Set up permissions and sharing links before migrating data.
4. Move files using SharePoint migration tools or manual drag-and-drop via File Explorer.
5. Train staff to open libraries in File Explorer and use co-authoring features in Microsoft 365 apps.

Detailed Instructions

1. Plan your SharePoint site structure

Before moving any data, decide how your folders will map to SharePoint sites. A common approach for small businesses is one SharePoint site per department (for example, Finance, Operations, Sales) rather than replicating a single massive network drive.

1. Sign in to the Microsoft 365 admin centre using your global administrator account.
2. Navigate to Active sites and select Add to create a new SharePoint site for each department.
3. Choose Team site if the department collaborates heavily in Microsoft Teams, or Communication site for organisation-wide announcements and policies.
4. Enter a clear site name (for example, Finance - Shared Documents) and assign site owners who will manage permissions.

Tip: Keep site names short and descriptive. Avoid using special characters that may cause issues when syncing to File Explorer.

2. Map permissions from your network drive

SharePoint permissions work differently than traditional NTFS permissions on a Z:\ drive. Instead of assigning access to individual folders deep in a tree, assign permissions at the site or document library level where possible.

1. Open your new SharePoint site in a web browser.
2. Select Settings (gear icon), then choose Site permissions.
3. Select Grant access to add security groups or individual users.
4. Assign the appropriate role: Members can edit content, while Visitors can view only.
5. For sensitive folders within a library, select the folder, choose Manage access, and stop inheriting permissions if stricter control is required.

Caution: Avoid breaking permission inheritance on too many sub-folders. This creates a complex permission model that is difficult to audit and troubleshoot later.

3. Move files from the network drive to SharePoint

There are two main methods for small businesses: manual migration for smaller volumes, or the SharePoint Migration Tool for larger file sets.

Option A: Manual migration (suitable for under 100 GB)

1. Open your SharePoint document library in a web browser.
2. Select Sync to connect the library to OneDrive on your workstation. This maps the SharePoint library to File Explorer.
3. Open a second File Explorer window and navigate to your existing network drive (for example, Z:\Shared).
4. Copy the folders and files you want to migrate.
5. Paste them into the synced SharePoint library folder in File Explorer. OneDrive will upload the files to SharePoint Online.
6. Monitor the OneDrive sync status icon in the system tray to ensure all files have uploaded successfully.

Option B: SharePoint Migration Tool (suitable for larger migrations)

1. Download the SharePoint Migration Tool from the Microsoft Download Centre.
2. Sign in with your Microsoft 365 global administrator credentials.
3. Select File share as the source and enter the path to your network drive (for example, Z:\).
4. Select the destination SharePoint site and document library.
5. Choose whether to migrate security settings and file metadata.
6. Start the migration and review the completion report for any failed files.

4. Set up seamless co-authoring

One of the biggest advantages of SharePoint is that multiple staff members can edit the same Word, Excel, or PowerPoint document at the same time.

1. Ensure staff are using Microsoft 365 Apps (Word, Excel, PowerPoint) rather than older perpetual versions such as Office 2016 or Office 2019.
2. Open a document from the SharePoint library in the desktop app or browser.
3. Select Edit Document and choose Open in Desktop App for full co-authoring support.
4. When a colleague opens the same file, their cursor will appear in a different colour, showing where they are typing.
5. Use AutoSave (toggle in the top-left of the Office ribbon) so changes save continuously to SharePoint.

Tip: If two people edit the same paragraph, Word will merge changes where possible. If a conflict occurs, Word will prompt you to choose which version to keep.

5. Recover previous versions

SharePoint keeps version history automatically, removing the need to manually save files as Document_v1_FINAL.docx.

1. Open the SharePoint document library in a web browser.
2. Select the file, then choose Version history from the command bar.
3. Select a previous version to view it, or select Restore to make it the current version.
4. In Microsoft 365 desktop apps, you can also select the file name in the title bar and choose Browse Version History.

Troubleshooting

Files are not syncing to SharePoint

• Check that the OneDrive sync client is running and signed in with the correct work account.
• Verify the file path is not too long. SharePoint has a combined path and file name limit of 400 characters.
• Ensure the file name does not contain blocked characters such as ", *, :, <, >, ?, /, or |.
• Pause and resume sync in the OneDrive system tray icon to force a re-check.

Users cannot access migrated folders

• Confirm the user has been added to the SharePoint site members group.
• Check if permission inheritance has been broken on a sub-folder, removing the user's access.
• Ask the user to clear their browser cache or open the library in an InPrivate window.

Co-authoring is not working

• Ensure all collaborators are using a Microsoft 365 subscription version of Office.
• Confirm AutoSave is turned on in the top-left corner of the application window.
• Save the document to SharePoint or OneDrive; co-authoring does not work on local desktop files.

Moving to SharePoint Online removes the maintenance burden of local servers and NAS devices while giving your team modern collaboration tools. If you need assistance planning your migration or configuring permissions, Open a Ticket.

If you host with us, you don't need to do this yourself — just Open a Ticket and our Brisbane team will get it sorted.

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