SharePoint Migration Tool not keeping On-Prem File Server Permissions in SharePoint Online

Question

Hey,
I have been running some tests with the SharePoint Migration Tool SPMT and I am not seeing the permissions from my On-Prem file server come across to SharePoint Online...

The set-up is:
On-Prem File server -> SharePoint online
Migrate File version History - ON
Preserve File Share Permissions - ON
Automatic user mapping - OFF

My devices, groups and users are Hybrid AAD joined/synced, which is what I thought was needed to migrate with permissions.

What I want to achieve is:
Existing User/group permissions for Files/folders pulled across into SharePoint Online automatically
Users with permissions added as Site members.

Do I need to user map?
Do I need to manually add the users as site members?

Would anyone be able to help? :)

Answer 1

Hi @Harry Carter
The location of your on-premises data, and whether you have synchronized your Active Directory accounts to Azure Active Directory (Azure AD), can affect the permission settings on your files after they have been migrated to SharePoint in Microsoft 365.

To migrate the user permission automatically, you could set Preserve File Share Permissions - ON, for more details you could refer to:
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepointmigration/understanding-permissions-when-migrating

As to "Users with permissions added as Site members.", per my research, you need to make it manually.

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