Migrating user profiles to OneDrive

[benward1]

I’d like to know about other schools’ experiences migrating from on-premise file storage to OneDrive/SharePoint. 

Did you move to OneDrive user profiles? 

How do your user profiles work? Are they 100% cloud only? Currently we store on a NAS (all the usual file server features) and folder redirection. How do you handle the key Downloads/Pictures/Music? For those with apps like Adobe/Unity, anything to be aware of? 

Currently on AD/domain-joined so not Intune joined just yet. 

I am in the position to trial this with a small set of users, which will also tie in with an Intune migration eventually. Thanks. 

[Netwacky87]

User profiles don't really exist anymore. Onedrive stores all user data and sharepoint/teams stores shared files.

 

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepoint/redirect-known-folders

 

Windows Known Folder move is what you want after you start your journey into Intune and utilising OneDrive. If you're starting to look at OneDrive/Sharepoint, i'd look at going Hybrid AD so you can utilise Intune.

I don't massively care about Downloads or Music but Folder move backs up Documents/Desktop/Pictures. 

 

Its a big move but one you won't regret.

[davie887]

On 09/02/2026 at 20:27, Netwacky87 said:

User profiles don't really exist anymore. Onedrive stores all user data and sharepoint/teams stores shared files.

 

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepoint/redirect-known-folders

 

Windows Known Folder move is what you want after you start your journey into Intune and utilising OneDrive. If you're starting to look at OneDrive/Sharepoint, i'd look at going Hybrid AD so you can utilise Intune.

I don't massively care about Downloads or Music but Folder move backs up Documents/Desktop/Pictures. 

 

Its a big move but one you won't regret.

 

In the same boat really. In your setup, where do you point your download path? We have user home shares which we redirect downloads, documents, pictuers etc. Already done Entra Cloud Sync

 

I would have thought that the benefit of KFM was not having to map drives and folders on login however, most of my users (adults and children!) use their download folder to store everything 😄 

[thimon]

Local profiles, everyone using OneDrive, with Documents, Desktop, Pictures, Videos are redirected to OneDrive via Group Policy. We migrated everyone to OneDrive before Covid, then switched off and deleted our file server shortly afterwards. Downloads still points to the local profile otherwise it will just eat into their storage allocation, staff know that area is not backed up and for temporary use only. 

[Netwacky87]

6 hours ago, thimon said:

Local profiles, everyone using OneDrive, with Documents, Desktop, Pictures, Videos are redirected to OneDrive via Group Policy. We migrated everyone to OneDrive before Covid, then switched off and deleted our file server shortly afterwards. Downloads still points to the local profile otherwise it will just eat into their storage allocation, staff know that area is not backed up and for temporary use only. 

 

This ^

If they're working out of their downloads folder, then its their fault. Simple

[DrCheese]

We redirect downloads to our old file server, but it's capped at just 1gb.

[psydii]

Seating plans help massively. (A school-wide t+l/behaviour management initiative, not an IT lead one, though we had been advocating them as a potential solution to issues for 18 months before they were adopted)

 

For each set of devices,  a user is allocated a specific one. This means that all logons after the first one (to a set) is fast and behaves exactly as most tested by Microsoft and app developers.

 

The beauty is that the class teachers set and control the seating plan, so it’s no extra work for IT.

 

Although, if you use intune, shared device profile might be better in some circumstances, but this does force you away from traditional apps with local storage state and into a web only world. (You can force OneDrive client to operate, but this undoes some of the power and purpose of the shared device profile)

 

we use gpo/local profiles for our desktops and “full-fat” laptops and intune shred device profile

for trolley laptops (where seating plans don’t help)

[browolf]

12 hours ago, DrCheese said:

We redirect downloads to our old file server, but it's capped at just 1gb.

 

I have downloads music and videos redirected to the old pupil server but no storage limit - we're using so little of the san now that it doesn't matter...oh apparently it takes up 42GB - might have a looksee with fileseek 😅

[Davit2005]

34 minutes ago, browolf said:

 

I have downloads music and videos redirected to the old pupil server but no storage limit - we're using so little of the san now that it doesn't matter...oh apparently it takes up 42GB - might have a looksee with fileseek 😅

I would not personally redirect downloads as it will jus be a dumping ground leading to poor user file management structure but also there will be a lot of stuff like images someone has jus downloaded to look at, but I guess that is jus me 🙂

 

And although not having a limit is no problem at the moment due to resources because you are redirecting downloads that could easily change things.

Edited February 13 by Davit2005

[AlphamaleZed]

Today we have just announced we are doing storage spaces, Download delete at 60 days and Recycle bin at 30 days to cut rubbish out.

We are doing onedrive migration soon but we just enabled onedrive to silent sign in and sync works a treat and file stream mode only.

 

https://www.nickydewestelinck.be/2024/06/14/configure-storage-sense-with-microsoft-intune/

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/configuration/storage/storage-sense?tabs=intune

https://www.prajwaldesai.com/configure-storage-sense-using-intune/

[2097]

We More recently did the following

 

Windows 11 local profiles

Cloud drive mapper for drives Folder redirection.

 

All our storage is done on Teams/Onedrive

 

For our media suite , i made an internal drive mapping for kids saving their video work .

 

I had endless problems with Onedrive synctool and kids loosing work . The CDM tool ( which now uses graph ) has been really good at bridging the gap .

 

 

[Mariana]

On 27/02/2026 at 14:12, Felly said:

Take a look at cloud data migration tools like CloudFuze,  Gs Richcopy 360 and AviPoint,  it will help

Can I use one of these tools "CloudFuze,  Gs Richcopy 360 and AviPoint" to migrate from dropbox to sharepoint Online in one way or directly?

[KK20]

we migrated staff and student to onedrive using purely MS tools.  It was a little slow but fairly painless. 

• We started with redirected desktop and documents set via GPO. 
• paths were of the variety  \\fileserver\students\desktops\%username%\   and  \\fileserver\students\documents\%username%\  
• staff were migrated with the OLD "executable" migration tool.  This is no longer relevant.  Students were migrated with the new online migration manager + agents.
• Migration manager in sharepoint admin had two agents installed.  The template CSV was fairly simple but has a few purposeful blank columns, keep these.
• Created a small powershell script to create the CSV with source and destination columns for OUs of my choosing.  I did not migrate everyone at once, by sub year groups approx 50 a time.
• Ended up with a CSV of 6 columns,  ServerShare-> "true local path for each user"  Blank1  Blank2  OnedriveURL-> "https:<tenant>-my.sharepoint.com/personal/user_with_tenant"  ShareType->"Documents" Blank3
• Created a migration job for the CSV and left it running.
• Repeated CSV for the other sub year groups till I had done a full "first" migration.
• Ran a delta update for my sub year groups at the same time (this was much quicker)
• Switched my GPOs to KFM from redirect.  Users were happy

remedial work:

• Enabled a remedial "home drive" to a new network share.  This was for particular students who create very large media presentations and video editing.  The onedrive sync was too onerous.  Done on a case by case basis as not many pupils do the media course
• Onedrive script runs to add a staff group as sitecollectionadmin to student onedrives, this also pre sets up onedrive (if not already used) thus stopping any other issues with new students who have yet to logon and use onedrive.  We had certain staff able to edit pupil documents.  Onedrive needs a different permission to do this.  The same script also uploads a CSV with "https:<tenant>-my.sharepoint.com/personal/user_with_tenant"  to a sharepoint document library folder so that the relevant staff can open the csv and access the pupil onedrive URL easily.  I use azure application with certificate permissions to execute the scripts on a server.

other notes:

• I have exam logons that have redirected desktops.  KFM still works with a redirected desktop if your GPO doesnt select desktop in the KFM.  Sync happens just fine.

The first migration sync took a long time but the deltas were quick.  KFM just worked.  We already had onedrive access working.  Our machines are hybrid joined AD.