Symptoms
When doing a pre-migration check or migrating a site, one of the following error messages is displayed:
- Unable to create site because there's already an existing site at 'http://sharepoint/destination'.
- Unable to create site because there's already an existing list at 'http://sharepoint/destination'.
- Unable to create site because there's already an existing folder at 'http://sharepoint/destination'.
- Unable to create site because there's already an existing file at 'http://sharepoint/destination'.
Error code
- AN-015-072
- IN-386-072
- Any error ending in -072
Details
This error occurs when migrating a source site to a destination site that already uses the source URL address.
Solution
The error can be resolved by using one of the following solutions:
- While copying the site, change the URL address to prevent the collision. This can be done by editing the URL Name in Sharegate. You can read more about this in the article, Copy structure and content - Sites, specifically Copy options in step (13).
- Delete or move the existing object at the destination.
- Empty the destination site recycle bin and the destination site collection recycle bin.