Migrate From OneDrive to OneDrive with External Shares

Preserving external shares during a OneDrive to OneDrive migration is one of the most complex and challenging tasks for IT teams.

External sharing links used by partners, vendors, and clients are vital to smooth collaboration. When these links break during migration, it disrupts workflows, causes issues with access, and leads to compliance risks.

In the guide, we explain how to migrate from OneDrive to OneDrive with external shares intact, native Microsoft limitations, and how we at CloudFuze help enterprises achieve zero-downtime tenant-to-tenant OneDrive migrations.

Why External Shares are important in OneDrive Cross-Tenant Migrations

OneDrive external shares include:

• Guest user access
• Anonymous “Anyone with the link” access
• Shared folders and files with non-tenant users
• Links that are controlled by Microsoft Entra B2B policies

These shares are often business-critical as well. When migrating OneDrive content:

• Unmapped guest users may lose access
• Anonymous links may break
• Note that permissions expiration settings may reset

Native Microsoft methodologies provide limited handling for these scenarios. Advanced OneDrive cross-tenant migration tools, such as CloudFuze Migrate, preserve external permissions, sharing links, and collaboration continuity.

Understanding OneDrive External Sharing Settings Before Migration

It is important to ensure that the external sharing policies of both the current OneDrive environment and the target environment in the new tenant are in sync before proceeding with the migration.

Organization-Level Sharing Controls

In the SharePoint Admin Center, the following sharing levels can be configured:

• SharePoint
• OneDrive

The OneDrive configuration may be more restrictive but never more permissive than the SharePoint one.

Currently, the sharing options are:

• Anyone: Anonymous access by links
• New or existing guests: Access for authenticated guests
• Only existing guests
• Only people in your organization: External sharing is disabled

All these settings influence external sharing and its behavior after migration.

Pre-Migration Checklist for OneDrive External Shares Preservation

Prior to starting the OneDrive migration, IT admins must follow these steps:

1. Inventory External Shares

Generate reports identifying all OneDrive files/folders with external sharing (anonymous links, specific people, organizations), including link expiration dates, access counts, and external recipient details. Categorize shares by type and priority to prioritize high-impact external relationships.

2. Review Sharing Policies

Verify source and target tenants have compatible external sharing settings (Anyone links, guest access, link expiration) in:

SharePoint Admin Center

Microsoft Entra external collaboration settings

3. Prepare Identity Mapping

Create pre-existing internal users and guests for the target tenant. Generate a CSV map file (source UPN to destination UPN, including guests) for permission translation.

4. Test Linking and Redirects

For migrating cross-tenant as a native process: Verify sharing URLs automatically redirect from target to source OneDrive until the source is cleaned up after migration. Run pilot migrations to test accounts sharing resources with external users to validate such redirect behavior and access continuity.

5. Communication and Validation Plan

Notify internal owners of shared content on external sites of the timeline of the migration and provide guidance on updating the links to the new site.

Create a post-migration validation checklist to ensure external links work properly, that access levels have been set appropriately, and incorporate key external collaborators’ feedback.

6. Run a Pre-Migration Scan

With CloudFuze, we provide reports on:

• External shares
• Permissions
• Versions
• Metadata
• Shared links

This helps enterprises to validate their scope and avoid possible risks before migrating from OneDrive for Business to another tenant. Don’t forget to checkout ours pre-scan checklist for OneDrive to OneDrive migration.

Our Hyperlink Fixer tool migrates all OneDrive files between tenants while preserving existing links. The platform also allows you to selectively migrate files along with required features such as permissions, metadata, and sharing settings.

Native Microsoft OneDrive Cross-Tenant Migration: What to Know

Microsoft offers native cross-tenant OneDrive migration tools using PowerShell.

High-Level Process

• Building tenant trust
• Define Identity Mapping Setup
• Start OneDrive Content Movement
• Follow migration reports

The challenges with the free options, although cost-effective, are

• Partial metadata preservation
• Limited external share remapping
• Minimal Reporting and Auditing
• Not ideal for large-scale enterprise migrations

When it comes to more complicated environments where a lot of external collaboration is involved, sometimes native solutions may be insufficient. Our Microsoft 365 to Microsoft 365 migration tool addresses these gaps by enabling full-fidelity, scalable enterprise migrations.

Best Tool to Migrate OneDrive with External Shares Intact

To ensure complete preservation of external shares, enterprises rely on CloudFuze’s OneDrive migration tool.

With CloudFuze, we enable:

• Full preservation of external sharing links
• Accurate permission and ownership mapping
• Metadata and version history retention
• Zero-downtime migration using delta syncs
• Detailed audit and compliance reports

5 Steps for OneDrive to OneDrive with External Shares Migration Using CloudFuze

Moving to OneDrive from OneDrive with CloudFuze is easy and secure. We ensure end-to-end security of your data while moving it to our cloud service via OAuth, encryption, and other high-end data migration security measures.

Step 1: Configure and Authenticate

Log in to the CloudFuze web application and select a multi-user, tenant-to-tenant migration for OneDrive. Both source and destination tenants must connect through OAuth.

Step 2: Prepare before Migration

Upload a user mapping file into a CSV file to correlate source and target accounts. Perform a pre-migration scan to assess data size, permissions, external shares, and look for issues.

Step 3: Configure migration options

Select what to migrate, like folders, permissions, time stamps, versions, and external shares. You also have the capability to enable delta syncs, scheduling, notifications, and throttling.

Step 4: Run and monitor

Begin the migration process and monitor the progress status in real-time using the dashboard. Our OneDrive migration tool also comes with the feature to automatically retry temporary failures/errors.

Step 5: Validate Results

Then, check files, permissions, and external sharing to ensure everything is accurate. Delta migrations can then run if necessary.

This way, there are no interruptions in access to external collaborators.

Before and After: Preserve External Sharing During OneDrive to OneDrive Migration using CloudFuze

Before Migration

In the source OneDrive tenant, files and folders are shared with external users with specific roles such as “Can edit” and “Can view“. These external collaborators rely on uninterrupted access via direct permission or links.

After Migration

After the migration from OneDrive to OneDrive with CloudFuze, all the external sharing configurations are maintained in the same state. External users remain mapped correctly, retain their original access levels, and continue collaborating without any link breaks or permission changes.

Post-Migration Validation: What to Check

After migrating OneDrive to OneDrive, IT teams should verify:

• Shared files can be accessed by external users
• Anonymous links work as expected
• Permissions match the source tenant
• Metadata, timestamps, and versions are preserved
• Full synchronization of incremental changes

We at CloudFuze provide audit reports after migration to confirm 100% accuracy.

Best Practices for Zero-Downtime OneDrive Tenant-to-Tenant Migration

• Start with a pilot migration (10-20 users)
• Migrate in phased waves
• Use Delta Syncs for ongoing changes
• Inform users of new file pathways
• Preserve source tenant redirects during verification
• Retain auditing logs that are essential for compliance and security

Migrate to OneDrive from OneDrive with CloudFuze Securely

Migrating content within OneDrive between Microsoft 365 tenants, while keeping its external shares intact, requires a deep level of technical proficiency and the right migration platform.

We at CloudFuze assist in the migration of OneDrive to OneDrive for enterprise with:

• Permissions external preserved
• Zero Downtime
• Complete metadata accuracy
• Enterprise-grade security and compliance

Need Expert Help?

If you are planning to do the OneDrive to OneDrive migration with external shares, contact CloudFuze today for a secure and disruption-free transition.

Frequently Asked Questions

What about the external guest permissions handled by CloudFuze?

CloudFuze maintains all the external guests’ permissions while migrating. This includes rights to shared files, folders, or links on all levels of the hierarchy. The external guests’ identity is synchronized using the CSV method or auto-mapping to support the same level of permissions, such as “view,” “edit,” or “contributor.”

Sharing links will be migrated completely without disrupting access, while the migrate permissions and sharing settings option ensures the post-migration report will verify correct permission levels for secure and compliant migration.

What kind of permission types can CloudFuze transfer?

CloudFuze allows users to easily migrate their permission types during cloud storage migration. The permission types supported include:

• Editing permissions: In most cases, editing permissions refer to the ability of the user to edit
• Viewing permissions: Read-only access
• Contributor permissions: It is an authorization capability that allows users to contribute their content.

What should I do prior to replicating files between OneDrive accounts if external shares are involved?

Prior to migration, review the external sharing settings of OneDrive and SharePoint, identify all files that have been shared externally and all guest users, synchronize policies across source and destination tenants, and build identity mappings of users as well as guests. Pre-migration scans can be done to verify links.

What actions do I need to take after migrating files so that the external shares are working correctly on OneDrive?

Testing access to other users after migration, checking and verifying share links and permissions, and checking audit reports to verify all other shares are functioning as expected.

Can I control external sharing behavior after migration?

Yes. The following ways enable administrators to control the external sharing of files

• SharePoint Admin Center organization settings
• Site sharing options
• Microsoft Entra external collaboration policies

Microsoft documents the above controls in detail in the OneDrive and SharePoint external sharing tutorials on Microsoft Learn.