Import from file share - Permissions

The ShareGate migration tool carries your associated permission levels during a migration and will attempt to preserve their integrity from the source to the destination whenever possible.

This article explains what happens to your permissions when doing an Import from file share migration.

Note: When you migrate to a site associated with a Microsoft 365 group, note that the owners of your group are automatically granted site collection admin permissions on that site. This means that they have access to everything in the site, including items with custom permission levels.

Index

• Users and groups association
• Permissions on documents and folders
• How can I preserve my file share permissions?

Users and groups association

Your users and groups are automatically mapped at the destination. This association is done through the SharePoint people picker to preserve your permissions, and Person or Group metadata values. For more information, see Users and groups association (automatic mapping).

Permissions on documents and folders

The ShareGate migration tool will preserve permission levels on files and folders with custom permission levels at the source.

If there are no custom permission levels on your documents and folders, they will inherit the permission levels from the parent in SharePoint.

If the ShareGate migration tool finds custom permission levels on your items at the source, the items will migrate with broken inheritance (custom permission levels) at the destination, and all the permission levels will be preserved.

Mapping permission levels allows you to replace the permission levels used at the source with a different one at the destination. To learn more, see Map permission levels.

How can I preserve my file share permissions?

The steps below will show you how to confirm the permissions in your file share, and set them so they are properly migrated in SharePoint:

1. Locate a file or folder you need to preserve your permissions on.
2. Right click on the item.
3. Select Properties.
4. Select the Security Tab.
5. Click on Advanced.
   
6. You will now be in the Advanced menu.
7. Confirm if all the permissions are inherited from the parent under the Inherited from column.
8. If they are, click on the Disable Inheritance button.
   Note: Alternatively, you can add a custom permission on the item.
   
9. The ShareGate migration tool will now migrate the permissions for that item.

Note: Under the Access column, any permission that does not use a standard permission level will be ignored during the migration.