How to Migrate Dropbox to OneDrive? (2023 Guide)

1. Introduction

Is your company planning to migrate Dropbox to OneDrive? CloudFuze offers an easy and quick migration that not only transfers files but also sharing permissions, metadata, Dropbox-specific features (e.g. Dropbox Paper) and more.
In this guide, get actionable insights into strategizing your company’s plan to move from Dropbox to OneDrive preparing the scope of work, and reaching all business-aligned migration goals with CloudFuze’s marketing leading Dropbox to Office 365 migration capabilities.
If you are an IT admin exploring ways to migrate data from Dropbox to OneDrive, continue reading this guide or watch the migration video. The video walks you through all the crucial steps to transfer Dropbox files to OneDrive.

Alternatively, you can contact our migration team for a business trial, customized demo, assisted POC, or price quote.

2. Dropbox vs OneDrive

Dropbox and OneDrive share the fundamental similarity of being cloud-based file hosting/storage services. Both cloud storage services come on par with each other in terms of integration and desktop synchronization. However, OneDrive offers more business-centric features, such as integration with Office 365 apps under the Microsoft 365 cloud suite ecosystem.

Businesses planning to switch from Dropbox to OneDrive can benefit from OneDrive in these critical areas:

• Seamless integration with email (Outlook) and team drive (SharePoint Online)
• Compatibility with a host of other apps included in the Microsoft 365 cloud suite
• Effortless OneDrive content sharing through Microsoft Teams
• Less pricing than Dropbox

Companies can also reap the same benefits when migrating from Dropbox to SharePoint Online.

3. Why Move Data from Dropbox to OneDrive

There are a lot of reasons why companies migrate from Dropbox to OneDrive for Business. From our experience of helping enterprises such as Michigan State University migrate successfully, we have found that the below factors (use cases) are some of the common reasons for companies to leave Dropbox and adopt OneDrive:

• Cost-savings
• Improving business process outcomes
• Digital transformation in a robust cloud suite ecosystem
• Mergers and acquisitions
• Enterprise-grade security
• Consolidation and standardization of platforms 
• Data governance  

Learn more about use cases that are common among global enterprises, SMBs, and MSPs.

Challenges associated with internal business processes 

Many businesses also face challenges that are not directly associated with the migration processes. These types of challenges can occur during onboarding discussions involving risk assessments, legal processes, and, indeed, commercials. 

It is crucial for SMBs and enterprises to choose a migration platform that is flexible enough to overcome all types of potential challenges and streamline all processes to copy Dropbox to OneDrive. 

4. Challenges for Businesses to Migrate Dropbox to OneDrive

Dropbox to OneDrive migration for businesses is more complex than personal requirements.

Businesses face challenges not only to transfer Dropbox to OneDrive but also in making internal decisions, e.g., streamlining the migration project with the legal team.

Challenges related to the migration processes

Adhering to the limitations in OneDrive for Business comes as the first level of challenge for IT admins to move files from Dropbox to OneDrive.

When migrating Dropbox data to OneDrive for Business, it is important to make sure that the files and folder names do not include these characters: ~ ” # % & * : < > ? / \ { | }

OneDrive for Business does not support specific file/folder names as well:

Also, OneDrive for Business does not accept more than 400 characters in file paths.

The second level of challenge within the migration processes comes with migrating features that are specific to Dropbox such as Dropbox Paper.

Advanced challenges to move Dropbox to OneDrive:

• Migrating sharing permissions
• Migrating internal and external shares
• Migrating timestamps
• Migrating versions and selective versions
• Migrating Dropbox version history

Challenges associated with internal business processes

Many businesses also face challenges that are not directly associated with the migration processes. These types of challenges can occur during onboarding discussions involving risk assessments, legal processes, and, indeed, commercials.

It is crucial for SMBs and enterprises to choose a migration platform that is flexible enough to overcome all types of potential challenges.

5. CloudFuze Offers Bespoke Migration Solutions

With bespoke migration solutions, CloudFuze helps SMBs, enterprises, and MSPs move data from Dropbox to OneDrive and SharePoint Online while catering to every specific need.

As a cloud data migration platform, CloudFuze offers infrastructural flexibility, such as allocating private SaaS servers, performing the entire migration in the customer’s data center, and facilitating multiple incremental migrations on request, and more.

CloudFuze can also adapt to the changing needs of businesses during product demos, migration project realization, risk assessment, legal processes, commercials, and final onboarding.

6. CloudFuze Dropbox to OneDrive Migration Tools vs Competitor Tools

CloudFuze’s business data migration tool helps enterprises, SMBs, and MSPs copy Dropbox files to OneDrive along with all the critical features. Here is a detailed comparison of CloudFuze’s migration features against other solutions in the market.

7. How CloudFuze Migrates Permissions from Dropbox to OneDrive

CloudFuze replicates the user roles of Dropbox user accounts in OneDrive. The accurate replication helps ensure that the file and folder sharing hierarchy is not affected.

8. Steps to Transfer Dropbox to OneDrive

Transfer files from Dropbox to OneDrive by adding both clouds, authenticating them, mapping user accounts, and choosing all the features and metadata to migrate. After the one-time migration is complete, initiate delta migration to transfer all the incremental changes.

You can also get in touch with our business migration team to learn how to transfer data from Dropbox to OneDrive while meeting your company’s various migration needs.

Step 1: Create a CloudFuze Account 

You need a CloudFuze account to access the migration platform and migrate files from Dropbox to OneDrive. 

Request a free trial account and access CloudFuze migration dashboard. 

CloudFuze offers a limited free trial account for IT admins to let them test the platform and its features to copy Dropbox data to OneDrive for a couple of demo user batches. 

Step 2: Add Dropbox Account to CloudFuze

CloudFuze requires your company’s Dropbox and OneDrive (Microsoft 365) accounts added and authorized to transfer data from Dropbox to OneDrive.

Click on the Dropbox logo in the business clouds list. Then, a pop-up appears where you need to enter the Dropbox admin credentials.

Note: Only admin accounts have the required permissions to migrate from Dropbox to OneDrive.

Step 3: Enter Dropbox Admin Login Credentials

Enter the Dropbox admin login credentials and click on the “Sign-in” button.

Step 4: Add OneDrive for Business Account

To migrate Dropbox to OneDrive, you also need to add your company’s OneDrive for Business account to CloudFuze.

Note: OneDrive doesn’t have separate login information. You need to use your company’s Microsoft 365 admin login details.

Step 5: Enter the Microsoft 365 Login Credentials

Enter the login credentials and click on the Next button.

Step 6: Authorize Microsoft 365 and Grant Permissions

Click on the “Accept” button to complete the Authorization process. Please note that CloudFuze requires this access to map and migrate data from Dropbox to OneDrive. The authentication happens via OAuth protocol and the entire migration is carried out via API calls.

Step 7: Check the Added Clouds

Head to the “Manage Clouds” section and see if you can find both Dropbox and OneDrive for Business accounts added. If yes, the next step is to move files from Dropbox to OneDrive.

If you find a cloud missing, it means the cloud authorization process failed. You need to re-do the cloud addition process until it appears under the Manage Clouds tab.

Step 8: Click on the Team Migration

Click on the “Team Migration” icon on the left. This will initiate the process to transfer Dropbox to OneDrive. Please keep in mind that you need to configure a few options to start the actual Dropbox to OneDrive file transfer.

Step 9: Select Source and Destination Cloud Accounts

To transfer files from Dropbox to OneDrive, you need to select Dropbox as the source cloud account and OneDrive for Business as the destination cloud account.

Step 10: Map Users for Migration

One of the critical aspects of the process to move Dropbox to OneDrive is to map the user accounts accurately.

Click on the “Auto-map” button to map users in the Dropbox and OneDrive accounts based on their usernames.

Step 11: Select Dropbox Users to Migrate

CloudFuze offers two ways of pairing Dropbox and OneDrive users to help you move Dropbox data to OneDrive seamlessly. One is Auto-map, and the other is CSV mapping. Auto-map, as the name suggests, automatically pairs users in source and destination accounts based on their username/email alias.

This feature saves a lot of time for IT admins as it can sync thousands of users in a matter of a few seconds.

On the downside, usernames must match exactly. Besides, it does not allow customized user data migrations.

Step 12: Migrate Dropbox to OneDrive with CSV mapping

CSV method allows IT admins to copy files from Dropbox to OneDrive between users of their preference. IT admins can migrate the content of ‘user A’ to ‘user B’ or any other such combinations based on their business needs.

The CSV method offers the flexibility that Auto-map lacks.

Step 13: Select Users and Proceed With Migration

We have selected a single user account as part demonstrating the steps on how to move files from Dropbox to OneDrive.

Step 14: Configure a Final Few Migration Options

CloudFuze offers a bunch of options that IT admins can choose such as migration job name, migration job type, additional notifications, etc.

Configure the final options and then click on the “Next” button.

Step 15: Start the Dropbox to OneDrive Migration

Preview the migration and click on the “Start Migration” button if everything looks good.

The system will then move files from Dropbox to OneDrive.

Step 16: Files Are Being Copied

CloudFuze dashboard displays the status of the migration as “In Progress” while Dropbox files are being migrated over to OneDrive.

Step 17: Dropbox to OneDrive File Transfer Is Completed

Once all the files in the Dropbox account are migrated to OneDrive, CloudFuze displays the status as “Completed.”

You now can log into your OneDrive for Business account and audit the content for migration accuracy. Besides, CloudFuze generates a migration report with details of each file or folder that is migrated.

9. Dropbox to OneDrive Migration Frequently Asked Questions

1. How much data can CloudFuze transfer?

CloudFuze can transfer an unlimited size of data and an unlimited number of users from Dropbox to OneDrive. We helped several enterprises and universities with thousands of users and petabytes of data.

2. Is it possible to add changes after initiating the process to migrate Dropbox to OneDrive?

Making changes or adding new requirements after the initiation of the migration can be complex in many cases. This is because making changes during the live data transfer process can raise the risk of migration disruption.

It’s best to plan beforehand. But depending on the type of requirement, CloudFuze may manage provisions to make sure the entire migration is performed as needed.

3. What is the speed of migration?

The throughput of migration depends upon several factors such as the size of data, no. of files, the average size of files. Roughly, CloudFuze transfers a few TBs per week. Please contact our migration team for a more accurate migration timeline.

4. How to transfer files from Dropbox to OneDrive without API throttling?

CloudFuze has a built-in feature that detects whenever the source/destination cloud API usage is reaching the point of throttling. The feature then automatically slows down the migration to lower the throttling risk.

5. How much does it cost to use the CloudFuze tool?

The price is based on the number of users and the size of the data. Reach out to our migration team for a price quote.

6. Is CloudFuze Secure?

CloudFuze is highly secure. CloudFuze is one of the world’s leading enterprise-focused platforms. Read more about CloudFuze’s security.

7. How to migrate Dropbox Paper to OneDrive?

CloudFuze migrates Dropbox Paper in Microsoft Word document format. Since Dropbox Paper is a feature exclusive to Dropbox, it cannot be migrated to the destination cloud in the exact format.

8. Will Google Docs, Slides, and Sheets created in Dropbox be migrated to OneDrive?

All Google files, including Google Docs, Google Slides, and Google Sheets created in Dropbox will be migrated as respective Microsoft files, including Microsoft Word, Microsoft PowerPoint, and Microsoft Excel.

9. How to reflect incremental changes on OneDrive?

To transfer incremental changes made on Dropbox files to OneDrive, CloudFuze’s delta migration will work. CloudFuze can make multiple delta migrations available at customers’ requests.

10. How to migrate from Dropbox to OneDrive without any prior experience?

Planning a proper strategy is key to ensure a successful migration. Check out these important factors to consider for businesses.

11. How to copy files from Dropbox to OneDrive with permissions intact? 

Businesses and their IT teams can streamline the process of copying files and folders from Dropbox to OneDrive while keeping permissions intact with CloudFuze. CloudFuze X-Change retains root as well as inner file and folder permissions while ensuring accurate conversion of user roles.  

12. How to transfer Dropbox to OneDrive in ways that are non-intrusive to employees? 

The primary approach is to ensure that the migration process does not move but copy user accounts and data. CloudFuze performs the migration in the background to avoid causing any disruption to the end-users which, otherwise, can impact everyday business operations.