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How to Copy SharePoint Documents Between Site Collections Using PowerShell

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This post is going to discuss copying SharePoint list items between site collections using PowerShell. Similar to other "How to with PowerShell" blog posts that I have written, I'm also going to provide you with a downloadable script. The sample script that I provide will effectively copy all documents from a specified source library to another specified destination library. The net result will be that all files from the source location will be copied to the destination location, with metadata preserved and intact. The exceptions in this case for metadata being created by, created date and time, modified by, and modified date and time. Version history is also not preserved. It may be possible to preserve some of this metadata as well, so please feel free to leave your comments and suggestions below or to any of the sample scripts I provide and create your own.

Background

I was working with a customer recently who needed to move a subset of their data from one site collection to another in order to provide representative data to a group of developers. The data provided had to be portable, but also had to be dynamically collected using values provided by certain business units. What we had decided on in the end was a site collection which contained the necessary data. This site collection would be stored in its own content database, and that content database could be packaged with the images used to create developer environments.

Approach

The approach that we had decided on was simple in theory. Determine which items we wished to include in the new site collection, and duplicate the data as needed. If we hadn't had complicated filters, we could use content deployment to get the job done. If we weren't moving the data into a remote site collection, we could use the MoveTo method that each file has, etc. But for our specific requirements, things would have been a lot easier.

Solution

As I mentioned, the first thing we had to do was determine which files we wanted to include in our representative data. This is pretty straightforward. First get the web that contains the list, then get the list, then get the items you want. In this example, we use Get-SPWeb to get the web, then we use the SPWeb.Lists property to return the lists we want, and then we can use the SPList.Items property to retrieve the items we want. Of course, each of these can accept filters via a piped statement, such as:
$MyList = $MyWeb.Lists | ? {$_.title –eq "Shared Documents"}

In this example, I'm pulling all items from a library with only two items

Here is a screenshot of the original list in the browser

Now that I have a collection of files, I need to loop through my files and send them to my desired destination. This process is a little more complicated than I had envisioned it to be originally. I'm going to summarize in this blog post, however you can refer to the comments in my script for more detail as to what steps and decisions are being made along the way.

One of the first things that I do in my loop is pull out the binary stream from the file, using the SPFile.OpenBinary method, and assign that to a variable. I'll be using this later to populate the contents of the destination file. Next I'll be creating a new file by calling the SPFileCollection.Add method in the destination library. After the file is created, I then retrieve a list of all SPListItem.Fields objects that are not read-only and compare those to SPFile.Properties of the source file and the destination file. For each property, if the property does not exist for the destination file, I create the field using SPFile.AddProperty. Finally I set the value of the property using SPFile.Properties on the destination file, passing the same value that exists on the source document.

Again, there are a lot of little things happening here, and instead of posting a screenshot for each step, it's probably easier to refer to the comments in the example script I provide.

The result should be that your destination library will have exactly the same files in exactly the same folder structure as source library, as shown in the following screenshot:

Download The Script

This script can be downloaded from the following location:
Download CopyFilesAndFolders.ps1 (zipped)

Usage

The script requires four parameters to be set. These correspond to the source web, the source library title, the destination web, and the destination library title.   Edit these four parameters to suit your environment and then execute the script.

Feedback

As always, feedback and suggestions are always welcome. If you do have any ideas on how to improve the script, I'd love to hear them.

You can also follow me on Twitter:

 RCormier_MSFT

Comments

  • Anonymous
    March 25, 2013
    I am getitng a whole host of errors trying to run your script.  I know you said that you didnt try this on different environments but I am pretty sure that is not the issue.  Are you sure your downloadable script works?

  • Anonymous
    March 25, 2013
    I've been able to test it in a few different environments and have heard from several other people who have used the script in their environment that it does work successfully.  What kind of errors are you receiving?

  • Anonymous
    April 03, 2013
    Hi What to do if i need read file using powershell (for example txt, csv file) which is in library on shrepoint. Can I read content of tihs file, or first copy to server and then open? Thank you for help Tomasz

  • Anonymous
    September 26, 2013
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    September 26, 2013
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    October 11, 2013
    Hi Tony, I have some scripts for extracting documents out of SharePoint, and for bulk uploading to SharePoint, unfortunately in that case you lose metadata.  The scripts can be found here Bulk Download: blogs.msdn.com/.../how-to-perform-bulk-downloads-of-files-in-sharepoint.aspx Bulk Upload: blogs.msdn.com/.../how-to-perform-bulk-uploads-of-files-in-sharepoint.aspx

  • Anonymous
    October 30, 2013
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    October 31, 2013
    Hi Braden, This script will not work against a WSS 2.0 (or SharePoint 2003) site.  There are third party tools that specialize in this type of migration.  You may also want to check out the SharePoint Migration Framework on codeplex: spmigration.codeplex.com

  • Anonymous
    November 01, 2013
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    November 06, 2013
    hi, i´m gettin this error tryin to run the script PS C:tmp> .CopyFilesAndFolders.ps1 Unexpected token 'CurrentFolder.Folders' in expression or statement. At C:tmpCopyFilesAndFolders.ps1:69 char:33

  •     if(!($$CurrentFolder.Folders <<<<  | ? {$_.name -eq $Folder.Name}))    + CategoryInfo          : ParserError: (CurrentFolder.Folders:String) [],   ParseException    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : UnexpectedToken can you help me please!!! I don´t understand what does this error mean

  • Anonymous
    November 06, 2013
    I found the problem, $$CurrentFolder the mistake was de double $$

  • Anonymous
    November 07, 2013
    Glad you pointed that out.  I updated the script library to replace the $$ with $.  The download only had a single $ - so anybody who downloaded the script should be unaffected.

  • Anonymous
    November 13, 2013
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    November 19, 2013
    Hi, thanks for your help first off. Im getting this error when running your script, looks like its missing something. specs: 2010 SP/VM Win2008R2 - 3 WFE - 3 SQLDB I rename your script as" Thisworks.ps1" Any assistance would be great. I need to move all files from one doc library to another with metadata attached. No folders are in any of my libraries Error: Cannot index into a null array. At C:OperationstestScriptsthisWorks.ps1:37 char:36

  •             if(!($dFile.Properties[ <<<< $Field.title]))    + CategoryInfo          : InvalidOperation: (Jud/Admin:String) [], RuntimeException    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : NullArray You cannot call a method on a null-valued expression. At C:OperationstestScriptsthisWorks.ps1:47 char:18
  •     $dFile.Update <<<< ()    + CategoryInfo          : InvalidOperation: (Update:String) [], RuntimeException    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : InvokeMethodOnNull You cannot call a method on a null-valued expression. At C:OperationstestScriptsthisWorks.ps1:29 char:41
  •     $dFile = $dList.RootFolder.Files.Add <<<< ($RootItem.Name, $sBytes, $true)    + CategoryInfo          : InvalidOperation: (Add:String) [], RuntimeException    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : InvokeMethodOnNull

  • Anonymous
    February 12, 2014
    Hi Alexander, Did you resolve your issue? I'm seeing the same error. Thanks!

  • Anonymous
    May 01, 2014
    Getting an error on SP2013: You cannot call a method on a null-valued expression. At C:Userssps_admin_testDesktopUtilitiesCopyFilesAndFolders.ps1:144 char:13

  •             $sBytes = $TargetItem.File.OpenBinary()
  •             ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~    + CategoryInfo          : InvalidOperation: (:) [], RuntimeException    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : InvokeMethodOnNull Multiple ambiguous overloads found for "Add" and the argument count: "3". At C:Userssps_admin_testDesktopUtilitiesCopyFilesAndFolders.ps1:147 char:13
  •             $dFile = $Newfolder.Folder.Files.Add($TargetItem.Name, $sBytes, $tru ...
  •             ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~    + CategoryInfo          : NotSpecified: (:) [], MethodException    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : MethodCountCouldNotFindBest any ideas????

  • Anonymous
    September 16, 2014
    I have the same problem as the rest of you guys "You cannot call a method on a null-valued expression)

  • Anonymous
    December 30, 2014
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    April 06, 2015
    i am using this script i got one issue in that i can copy the files but the foders not moved can you any one hep me on this i got following error Exception calling "SystemUpdate" with "1" argument(s): "The file or folder name contains characters that are not permitted.  Please use a different name." Desktoppowershell12DocumentMove.ps1:61 char:32

  •         $NewFolder.SystemUpdate <<<< ($false)    + CategoryInfo          : NotSpecified: (:) [], MethodInvocationException    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : DotNetMethodException You cannot call a method on a null-valued expression. Desktoppowershell12DocumentMove.ps1:77 char:50
  •             $sBytes = $TargetItem.File.OpenBinary <<<< ()    + CategoryInfo          : InvalidOperation: (OpenBinary:String) [], RuntimeException    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : InvokeMethodOnNull You cannot call a method on a null-valued expression. Desktoppowershell12DocumentMove.ps1:78 char:49
  •             $dFile = $Newfolder.Folder.Files.Add <<<< ($TargetItem.Name, $sBytes, $true)    + CategoryInfo          : InvalidOperation: (Add:String) [], RuntimeException    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : InvokeMethodOnNull Cannot index into a null array. Desktoppowershell12DocumentMove.ps1:83 char:43
  •                 if($TargetItem.Properties[ <<<< $Field.Title])    + CategoryInfo          : InvalidOperation: (:) [], RuntimeException    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : NullArray Method invocation failed because [Microsoft.SharePoint.SPFile] doesn't contain a method named 'SystemUpdate'. Desktoppowershell12DocumentMove.ps1:95 char:32
  •             $dFile.SystemUpdate <<<< ($false)    + CategoryInfo          : InvalidOperation: (SystemUpdate:String) [], RuntimeException    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : MethodNotFound

  • Anonymous
    April 20, 2015
    How about permission? created by and modified by?

  • Anonymous
    April 20, 2015
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    April 20, 2015
    The script does not currently preserve permissions.  After moving the files, they would all be inheriting permissions from the parent.

  • Anonymous
    June 08, 2015
    Hi I tried this script, but only the root files copied, I have a lot of folders that they didn't move. Can yo help me?

  • Anonymous
    November 06, 2015
    Hi Alexander, Did you resolve your issue? I'm seeing the same error. Thanks!

  • Anonymous
    November 17, 2015
    Hi, I hate to just drop a comment asking somebody to do this for me but I'm not very familiar with powershell. How would I copy files based on date created?

  • Anonymous
    November 26, 2015
    Very informative, I would like to share an automated solution i.e. LepideMigrator for Documents ( www.lepide.com/.../sharepoint-to-sharepoint-migration.html ) which allows you to migrate content between SharePoint site collections without losing the meta-data.

  • Anonymous
    January 28, 2016
    Excellent script - works wonders Do you know of a way that it can also create custom columns that exist in the original document library Although it is not a hassle to create them just have to reenter the data in case we wanted an exact copy of the document library Thanks,

  • Anonymous
    March 02, 2016
    The comment has been removed