TL;DR:
Data migration is not complete when the files land at your destination. Because file count is not the same as migration success. This blog covers what actually needs to be validated after a SharePoint migration and the mistakes that leave problems buried.
Most companies consider a SharePoint migration complete when the content arrives. The file count matches, the storage report looks right, and the project is marked as finished. The real test begins when users start working in the new environment.
That gap between “migration completed” and “migration successful” is where many post-migration issues appear. Users may struggle to find documents, permissions may not reflect your business requirements, and metadata may be incomplete, or links may no longer work. Although the migration report is indicative of success, the user experience tells a different story.
The numbers highlight why post-migration validation is important. According to Gartner, 83% of data migration projects either fail or exceed their budgets and schedules. Meanwhile, Experian’s Data Quality Benchmark Report found that only 36% of migration projects stay within their original budget, while 54% experience project delays. These challenges are more often the result of overlooked validation, incomplete planning, or underestimating the complexity of enterprise content.
In this article, we’ll show you how to verify whether your SharePoint migration was really successful, the key areas every business should validate, and a post-migration validation checklist.
What Does a Successful SharePoint Migration Look Like?
While completing the migration is an important milestone, it’s only part of Before validating anything, it helps to be clear on what success actually means. A SharePoint migration is successful when:
- Users can find and open their content without submitting a support ticket
- Permissions reflect current business requirements — not what they were two years ago
- Metadata is intact, correctly mapped, and searchable
- Links inside documents and navigation menus still resolve correctly
- Content that changed or was created during the migration has been captured by delta runs
Why Isn’t a Completed Migration Always a Successful One?
Most migration tools determine success based on whether content was transferred from the source environment to the destination.
A migration tool moved the bytes. Files show up in the file list. Storage numbers match. The tool reports 100% success. But inside those files, metadata fields are empty, permissions point to groups that no longer exist, and links reference paths that disappeared the moment content moved to a new URL structure.
However, files can arrive while metadata is incomplete, permissions are incorrectly mapped, or links still point to locations that no longer exist. None of these issues prevents a migration from reporting a successful transfer, but they become obvious as soon as users begin working in the new environment.
That’s why post-migration validation is so important. Instead of asking, “Did everything move?”, you should be asking, “Does everything still work as expected?”
A SharePoint migration is only truly successful when content remains accessible, searchable, and secure.
What Should You Validate After a SharePoint Migration?
1. Is Your Content Count Accurate?
Start with the basics. Compare item counts, file sizes, and folder structures between the source environment and the destination. The numbers should match. If they don’t, something didn’t make it.
Look specifically for:
- Files that show as transferred but are zero bytes
- Documents that appear in the list but cannot be opened
- Version histories that are incomplete or missing entirely
- Folders that migrated without the content inside them
This is where you should stop. It’s also where the validation should begin.
2. Did Your Metadata Survive the Move?
Metadata is what makes content useful inside SharePoint. It drives search, powers workflows, and supports governance and compliance. It is also the most quietly damaged element in most migrations.
Common metadata failures after a SharePoint migration include:
- Fields that exist but are empty, like a file that moved, but its property didn’t
- Custom fields from legacy ECM systems that have no SharePoint equivalent and were silently dropped
- Invalid date formats or numeric values stored as text that corrupt column filtering
A column can look populated and still contain incorrect data. The only way to verify it is to test against known values. For example: pick a sample of documents, check their source metadata, and confirm the destination matches.
Tzunami Deployer handles metadata mapping from the source ECM system to SharePoint’s model automatically. It corrects invalid values before deployment rather than surfacing them afterward.
3. Are Permissions Correctly Mapped?
Permission migration is the most error-prone aspect of any SharePoint migration. It is also the most consequential.
Get permissions wrong, and you face two problems at once: users who can’t access content they need, and users who can access content they shouldn’t. The second is the more dangerous one, particularly for organizations operating under GDPR, HIPAA, or other compliance frameworks.
After a SharePoint migration, validate the following:
- Inheritance chains — permissions should follow the expected structure from the site collection down to the document level
- Group mapping — source system groups should be correctly mapped to SharePoint groups or Microsoft 365 groups
- External users — guest access from the old environment should not carry forward unless intentionally preserved
- Former employee accounts — access should have been removed as part of the migration, not silently transferred
Run a permission audit on a representative sample of migrated sites before decommissioning the source system. If something doesn’t look right, it is far easier to fix while the old environment is still accessible.
Pilot migrations consistently reduce project timelines by 25 to 40% precisely because they expose permission mapping issues early, before they scale across the entire environment.
4. Do Your Links Still Work?
SharePoint migration changes URLs. Content that lived at one address in the source system now lives at a different address in SharePoint Online. Every link that pointed to the old address is now broken; it might be inside documents, on pages, in navigation menus, in emails, in external tools.
According to McKinsey, employees already spend nearly % of their workweek searching for information. Broken links after a SharePoint migration push that number higher, without anyone being able to easily identify why productivity has slipped.
Validate links by:
- Testing navigation menus and page links across migrated sites
- Opening a sample of migrated documents and checking embedded links
- Reviewing any SharePoint web parts or quick launch navigation that referenced old URLs
- Checking external tools or business applications that were linked to the old SharePoint environment
Tzunami’s Link Resolver Service addresses broken links at the source. It intercepts requests pointed at old source URLs and redirects them to the correct location in SharePoint, so links that were never updated still resolve correctly, without anyone having to manually rewrite them.
Explore what else Tzunami can do
5. Did Delta Migration Capture Everything?
Companies with TB of data migrations to SharePoint don’t complete them in a single pass. Content is live during migration. New documents get created. Existing ones get modified. If the migration runs while the business keeps working, there is always a gap between what was migrated and what currently exists.
Delta migration closes that gap. It identifies content that changed or was added after the initial migration run and picks it up in subsequent passes, so the final state of the source system is fully reflected in SharePoint before cutover.
If your migration didn’t include delta runs, or if nobody confirmed that delta runs completed before the source was decommissioned, there is almost certainly content missing from the destination. Not lost forever, but gone from the new environment unless a recovery plan was in place.
Before marking any SharePoint migration complete, confirm:
- Delta migration was configured and run at least once after the initial pass
- The delta report shows zero or near-zero items outstanding
- No content was modified in the source system after the final delta run
Post-Migration Validation Checklist
Use this checklist before marking any SharePoint migration complete:
| Validation Area | What to Check |
| Content integrity | Item counts, file sizes, zero-byte files, version history |
| Metadata | Field mapping, taxonomy, custom columns, invalid values |
| Permissions | Inheritance chains, group mapping, external users, and former employees |
| Links | Navigation, embedded document links, external tool references |
| Delta migration | Final delta run complete, outstanding items confirmed at zero |
How Tzunami Helps Validate SharePoint Migrations
A successful SharePoint migration requires confidence that everything works as expected after the migration is complete.
Tzunami helps organizations validate every stage of the migration process, from preserving metadata and permissions to maintaining working links through Link Resolver Service and synchronizing changes with Delta Migration. Reporting, post-migration verification, and helping ensure the new SharePoint environment is complete, accurate, and ready for users.
Conclusion
A successful SharePoint migration is measured by how well users can continue working once the migration is complete.
By validating content, metadata, permissions, links, and post-migration changes before retiring the source environment, businesses can reduce risk, improve user adoption, and avoid costly issues after go-live.
Frequently Asked Questions
1. How do I know if my SharePoint migration was successful?
Verify content, permissions, metadata, links, and user access—not just file counts.
2. Why is metadata validation important?
Metadata supports search, workflows, compliance, and document organization.
3. What is delta migration?
Delta migration transfers files that were added or changed after the initial migration.
4. Why do links break after migration?
URLs often change during migration, leaving old links pointing to outdated locations.
5. Should I validate permissions after migration?
Yes. Incorrect permissions can either block users from accessing content or expose sensitive information.
