Migrate SharePoint Permissions Easily with Expert Methods

Created on Sept. 12, 2025, 7:10 p.m. - by Shelly, Manor

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For many organizations, SharePoint helps in collaboration and document management. In this program, you store sensitive business files and manage your workflows to make sure your teams stay productive. Along with this, SharePoint also performs permissions management. The permissions help you to choose who can view, edit, or control the content for security and compliance needs.

Many businesses upgrade their older version of SharePoint to SharePoint Online, restructure their sites, or move the data between tenants. But only migrating the content is not required. They also need to migrate their permissions. Because of a lack of permissions in you may lose access to your file. That's why it is also important to move your SharePoint permissions along with the data.

Therefore, in this article, I will share all the information about SharePoint permissions. And the ways to securely migrate them.

Understanding SharePoint Migration

Before migrating your SharePoint permissions, it is important to understand how permissions work in SharePoint. The permission means what actions a person can perform on a site, library, or document. So, SharePoint provides you with different levels of permissions.

• Read: In this, the user is allowed to view the pages and documents only.
• Contribute: This permission allows you to view, add, update, and delete document or list items.
• Edit: To add, edit, and delete lists, libraries, and documents, use this permission.
• Full Control: To give complete control over the site and its settings.

Prerequisites Before Migration

To successfully migrate your SharePoint permissions. You have first to prepare your procedure. This is a very important step that you must follow. Below are the key preparations you must know.

• First, create a complete report of the existing permissions for your SharePoint sites, libraries, and lists.
• Remove any inactive or disabled accounts from the source. It is to ensure all users exist in the target environment.
• Make sure you create a backup of your SharePoint documents with the permissions before the procedure.
• Check that your target SharePoint has valid licenses, also confirm that SharePoint Online and OneDrive services are enabled.

After following the steps, you can now use the methods to migrate your SharePoint permissions without any issues. To transfer the permissions, there are different ways. The first one is the manual method, so follow the steps carefully.

Manually Migrate SharePoint Permissions

In this method, the way you migrate SharePoint data. Move your data the same way, but after the procedure, you manually set up the permissions in your target SharePoint environment. It's practical for small sites. Below are the steps of the procedure.

1. Either manually or using the SharePoint built-in reports, export the list of existing permissions.
2. Recreate SharePoint groups in your target environment
3. Add the users to your corresponding groups.
4. Assign the permissions to sites, libraries, and lists according to the source account.
5. Don't forget to verify the user access by testing it.

This method is simple, and you don't need any additional tools to transfer your permissions. However, it is time-consuming, and there can be errors in assigning the permissions. Also, medium and large-sized companies have difficulty in transferring their permissions. But don't worry, there is another method that you can use.

Transfer SharePoint Permissions using PowerShell

PowerShell scripts also help you to move your permissions automatically. It is a quick job but requires knowledge about PowerShell.

1. First, I am going to export the permissions from the source SharePoint.
2. With the help of PowerShell scripts, create a CSV file containing users, groups, and the permission levels. Get-SPWeb http://sharepointsite | ForEach-Object {
      $_.RoleAssignments | ForEach-Object {
          $user = $_.Member.LoginName
          $role = $_.RoleDefinitionBindings | ForEach-Object { $_.Name }
          "$($_.ParentWeb.Url), $user, $role" | Out-File "permissions.csv" -Append
      }
   }
3. Check your CSV file that you created and clean it up of any invalid or orphaned users.
   Use the PowerShell commands to assign permissions for the CSV file: Import-Csv "permissions.csv" | ForEach-Object {
      $web = Get-SPWeb $_.SiteURL
      $user = $_.User
      $role = $_.Permission
      $roleAssignment = New-Object Microsoft.SharePoint.SPRoleAssignment($user)
      $roleDefinition = $web.RoleDefinitions[$role]
      $roleAssignment.RoleDefinitionBindings.Add($roleDefinition)
      $web.RoleAssignments.Add($roleAssignment)
      $web.Update()
   }
4. After that, check if the migrated permissions are migrated by logging in as a different user.

By properly following the above method, you can quickly migrate your permissions. However, you need skills to write the script. Also, it is best for a mid-sized company. For a large organization, a professional tool is a great way to migrate SharePoint permissions.

Transfer Permissions from One SharePoint to Another with Professional Method

When it comes to migrating your data and permissions, tenant-to-tenant for a large organization. A secure and reliable option is needed. For this reason, the SysTools SharePoint Migration Tool would be the best software to transfer your SharePoint data, as well as the permissions. This software is a great way to move your complete SharePoint Online data, including site content, document libraries, and lists, while preserving the metadata, versions, and user permissions. To know how the software works, follow the steps below.

Steps to Transfer SharePoint Documents with Permissions

1. First of all, download and install the software.
2. Then, click on the Microsoft 365 option from the Source and Destination tabs.
3. From the Workload, choose the Sites option and click on the document library and the Generic list.
4. Provide the Admin Email ID and Application ID of your source SharePoint.
5. Click on the Validate option to enable the permissions.
6. Same with destination, enter SharePoint Admin email and Application ID, and press the Validate option to enable the permissions.
7. To add the users, you can either Fetch users or import the users manually by clicking the download template first.
8. After adding the user, validate them.
9. Then, go to the Sites option to add your SharePoint sites by either fetching from the tool or manually importing them. 
10. Validate your sites and lastly click on Start Migration.

Conclusion

If you are having difficulty migrating your SharePoint permissions. Then, read this article to the end. Here I have shared three different ways to easily move your permissions. But before that, don’t forget to prepare your procedure. After that, follow the methods to make sure you use the correct procedure based on the size of your company.

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