SharePoint Online extremely slow and unreliable file copy/move

Question

SharePoint Online extremely slow and unreliable file copy/move

Denis Hartl 11

Hello all,

Ever since we migrated our file structure to SharePoint Online (we explicitly wanted SharePoint to be able to use Teams on top of it), we have big problems when it comes to copying/moving files around.

First issue: The performance is extremely slow. We started out with the OneDrive Sync Client, but because we had issues with files not syncing correctly or not at all and just general reliability concerns, we switched over to the SharePoint Online web interface. When trying to move folders between SharePoint sites, it takes extremely long. One example would be a folder with about 7GB split across round about 300 files. Moving this folder to another site took somewhere between 3-4 hours (if it even gets moved completely, more on that later).
We already talked to MS support regarding this, end of the story pretty much is, that the issue apparently lies in our local infrastructure and internet connection. Weird, since (from what I understand) the process should happen exclusevly in SharePoint Online, especially when using the web interface. Besides that, there is absolutely no activity happening on our internet connection when doing that copy/move.

Second issue: Copying or moving files in the web interface is pretty unreliable. More than once I tried to move some folder, and weirdly the move completed within a couple of seconds. After checking the newly created folder in the destination, only the folder structure and maybe some files actually ended up there. The rest is still at the source location, leading to inconsistent file structures.

Both issues are something I really don't expect from an enterprise product like SharePoint Online, and I am quite surprised to find only very few informations about this online (compared to how many people actually use the product).

Does anyone have similar issues, or has at least heard of them? Maybe even have a solution?

Only things I found so far are:

Live with it
Use OneDrive Client (which is kind of a no-go for us because of reliability)

I am looking forward to any feedback!

Thanks,
Denis

Rhona Sweeting 6 Reputation points

2020-12-11T12:56:58.403+00:00

I'm also having this issue and it's an absolute nightmare - I would be grateful to hear of any positive experiences.
Hawthorne, Brian (FWE) 6 Reputation points

2022-08-23T19:39:17.873+00:00

We have the same issue. It really makes no sense that moving files from one library to another using the web interface would take more than a second. After all, no data should actually have to be transferred, just a change to the directory structure. The only reason this move would be slow is if they are doing a copy/delete instead of a move. That would also explain the reliability problems. I just spent an hour manually moving 2GB of files that were left behind when I moved a large folder. That cleanup task is made even harder in that SPO doesn't support drag and drop between browser windows, so there is no way to have both the source and destination open and drag the missed file. You have to select each one, choose Move To, and then navigate to the destination. Every. Single. Time.

I have a sneaking suspicion that this problem is based on the underlying architecture of the SPO file store. Windows itself has always been very slow about moving folders even on the same drive.

The Microsoft SharePoint Migration Tool could EASILY be modified to allow inter-library SPO moves, but for some reason it does not allow that. Only migration from on-premises libraries to SPO.

3 answers

Your answer

Rhona Sweeting 6 Reputation points

2020-12-11T12:56:58.403+00:00

I'm also having this issue and it's an absolute nightmare - I would be grateful to hear of any positive experiences.
Hawthorne, Brian (FWE) 6 Reputation points

2022-08-23T19:39:17.873+00:00

We have the same issue. It really makes no sense that moving files from one library to another using the web interface would take more than a second. After all, no data should actually have to be transferred, just a change to the directory structure. The only reason this move would be slow is if they are doing a copy/delete instead of a move. That would also explain the reliability problems. I just spent an hour manually moving 2GB of files that were left behind when I moved a large folder. That cleanup task is made even harder in that SPO doesn't support drag and drop between browser windows, so there is no way to have both the source and destination open and drag the missed file. You have to select each one, choose Move To, and then navigate to the destination. Every. Single. Time.

I have a sneaking suspicion that this problem is based on the underlying architecture of the SPO file store. Windows itself has always been very slow about moving folders even on the same drive.

The Microsoft SharePoint Migration Tool could EASILY be modified to allow inter-library SPO moves, but for some reason it does not allow that. Only migration from on-premises libraries to SPO.

Answer 1

100% agreed. This is my 3th time calling support. Sharepoint is sometimes responsive but generally far too slow to replicate. Migration tool is a complete mess and after hearing 3 times MS Support tell me "hum...let me run a diagnostic on our end" I've pretty much lost confidence and this is just for bare-bone, basic, trivial file management for under 1TB of data.

The frequency of issues on basic file management combined with the obscure/absent error/warning messages it's a huge headache to fix. Coming from a 7,000+ users in a worldwide organization on Google I have to say Sharepoint is the new Lotus Notes. The experience is so bad Sharepoint alone triggered a conversation about converting the organization to Google and we'll likely drop MS in the next 12 months.

Answer 2

trevorseward 11,711

If you're moving a large amount of files/large files within SharePoint Online, that sounds roughly correct in terms of time. SharePoint Online has throttling behavior to prevent any one individual from placing too much pressure on the infrastructure.

No tool will speed this up as the data already exists in SPO (there are tools that use Azure to speed up the transfer from on-prem to SPO). I would still recommend a tool like Sharegate to move a large amount of files or large files between SPO locations as the reliability will be higher.

Hawthorne, Brian (FWE) 6 Reputation points

2022-08-23T19:39:56.673+00:00

Moving files should not place any pressure on the infrastructure, unless it is architected poorly.

Answer 3

Denis Hartl 11

Thanks for your answer!

What exactly do you mean by SPO locations? Are you talking about geo-locations?
Would ShareGate actually make a difference when moving files between two SharePoint sites when both are within the same tenant?

Thanks!

Martin Skaar 1 Reputation point

2022-10-26T12:17:53.683+00:00

Hi,

I know this is a two year old post now, but SPO sites likely means SharePoint Online sites.
I'm just looking at this myself as clients have been trying to do this in their department at my workplace now, and I've been suspecting the same issue even though it's two days since they performed the migration.

Also I'm really surprised this kind of thing is still an issue in the first place, let alone after so long.

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SharePoint Online extremely slow and unreliable file copy/move

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