Migrate Teams Attachments Between Accounts

Where Do Your Teams Files Actually Go?

Teams are like a front door; files are actually not stored inside Teams. It stores files in two different places in the background. Where files are stored depends on how share.

• Shared file in Channel: Share file in channel, shared storage space is saved in SharePoint. In there, every channel is a separate folder. Its work same as the Files tab in Teams.
• Shared file in 1:1 or Group chat: Share file in 1:1 or group chats are saved in the Microsoft Teams Chat Files folder in OneDrive. Every members are open the file in the chat, so create the link. But make a separate copy for everyone.

This split is the reason why the migration of Microsoft Teams attachments seems complicated. Teams chat attachments and channel files are stored in different places, which means that migrating “everything from Teams” manually will most likely involve two distinct processes.

What to Check Before You Move Anything

Better a few steps of preparation now saves a lot of confusion later. Before you begin:

• Make sure new accounts are properly set up and have the required access/permission are available.
• Check that no files and mailboxes are locked under legal or compliance hold.
• Prepare a single list to match the old account to the corresponding new account.
• Make a rough estimate of how many files, channels, and messages.

Simple Ways to Migrate Teams Files Between Accounts

• Download and re-upload: For a few files, you can transfer Teams attachments by going to the Files tab in Teams, downloading your files, and re-uploading them to your new account. It’s a slow process, and the chat history won’t transfer with you, but it works well enough for a couple of files.
• Microsoft-built-in options: Microsoft’s built-in migration tools to migrate files and folders from/to OneDrive and SharePoint. This moves data without manual download and upload. An administrator must initiate this process, but it only migrates the files themselves, not the surrounding Teams conversation or channel setup.
• A dedicated Teams migration tool: A tool designed to migrate Teams Attachments along with channels, conversations, files, and other associated data can help when simpler solutions fall short.

What the Basic Methods Don’t Cover

Before using the built-in Microsoft methods. Make sure the What is limitation:

• Only migrates the latest version, not older versions.
• These moves are more of a one-pass type. When something is added later after the moves, it requires running again.
• Downloading & re-uploading or moving the files using nothing other than OneDrive and SharePoint would not bring the channel, messages, tabs, or Planner tasks along.
• Old sharing link are stop working in the new account. Then access the setup again.

This doesn’t mean that the migration failed, just that the initial tools were only built to handle files. A real move to Teams must be built to be designed for Teams.

An Easier Way: DRS Softech Tenant to Tenant Migration Tool

If you’d rather not combine several tools, the DRS Softech Tenant to Tenant Migration Tool provides a separate Copy Teams module that is specifically designed to migrate an entire Team, not only the documents within the team, between accounts.

Here is what it really means:

• Teams, channels, files, messages, tabs, Planner, and members are migrated at one time.
• Transfer only the latest file version and preserve the original folder structure.
• You will select whether to create a new Team with the chosen Team or to merge channels into that team in the destination.
• Users are mapped one-to-one between the old and new accounts to ensure the correct ownership/membership.
• Also, there is a “skip already-moved” feature to re-run the migration in the future without copying already transferred data again
• We display a live progress screen with items being transferred; retrying; failure, so nothing will simply fall through, unseen.

Sign-in is either via a standard Microsoft login (with two-factor approval if your account has that enabled) or an admin connection set up once and reused by your IT team. The free demo version also allows you to see how it will handle a small team, with a 50-message limit per migration and a 20 MB file size limit.

Quick Comparision

Conclusion

Moving files out of Teams used to involve two systems: OneDrive for chats and SharePoint behind the scenes on channels, but your conversations stayed with Teams. When you realize that, planning becomes a lot easier. It does not matter if you do that with Microsoft built-in tools or a dedicated option such as DRS Softech Tenant to Tenant Migration Tool. Whenever you migrate Teams attachments between accounts, there are three things we want: Making sure we know what will move automatically, matching our users up correctly, and making a pre-migration decision on the necessity of bringing over messages along.

Frequently Asked Questions