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Migrate from Syncplicity to OneDrive

The following steps describe how to safely migrate your data from Syncplicity to OneDrive.

Broadly these have been divided into two sections, preparation and migration.  It is important that you complete the preparation section before proceeding with the migration section.  Not doing this could lead to data loss.

Preparation

Log into OneDrive

First check that you have OneDrive installed and that it is logged in as your university staff account.  The OneDrive client comes with Windows 10 however if you are on a Mac or older Windows Operating System you can download the OneDrive client from here.

PC – To log on left-click on the OneDrive client icon in your system tray (right-hand of the task bar next to the date and time).

Click on ‘Sign in’, enter your university staff email address and click ‘Sign in’.  If prompted choose Work or school.  If you are on a domain joined machine you will be automatically logged in, otherwise you will be redirected to a log in prompt where you will need to authenticate with your university username and password.

The next screen will show the location where your OneDrive will be located.  You can change the location by clicking on the ‘Change location’ or leave it as the default.  Click Next.

Click through all the screens discussing the features of OneDrive.

 

Mac –  To log on click on the OneDrive client icon in the menu bar.

Click on ‘Sign in’, enter your university staff email address and click ‘Sign in’.  If prompted choose Work or school.  You will then be redirected to a log in prompt where you will need to authentication with your university username and password.

The next screen will show the location where your OneDrive will be located.  You can change the location at this point by clicking the Change Location button or leave it as the default.

Click through the screen discussing the features of OneDrive.  You may want to turn on the the Finder intergration and check the box to open and log-in.

Check that your Syncplicity client is synchronised/up to date.

If your Syncplicity client hasn’t been synchronising then the data on your machine may not be the most current.  Note: where you synchronise across multiple devices you will need to ensure all devices are in a healthy synchronised/up to date status before continuing.

PC – On a PC you can check by left-clicking on the Syncplicity client icon in your system tray (right-hand of the task bar next to the date and time).If it says “Up to date” with a green tick then your client is synchronised.

If it has a pause icon || with the words “Sync is paused” then you will need to Resume.  You can do this by right-clicking the Syncplicity client and from the context menu left-click Resume.

If it shows any other state such as “Syncing…” is yellow or there is a red exclamation mark you will need to wait or log a ticket with AskOtago to get the issue resolved.

Mac – From the menu bar on your Mac left-click on the Syncplicity icon.  The top of the drop down menu displays the synchronisation status.

If it says “Fully synced” then the client is synchronised/up to date.

If it has a pause icon || with the words “Paused” then you will need to Resume.  You can do this by left-clicking on the Syncplicity drop down menu and choosing “Resume”.

If it shows any other  state such as “Preparing to sync” or “Updating….” then you will need to wait until this has completed.

If it never completes or shows an exclamation mark then you will need to log a ticket with AskOtago to get the issue resolved.

Check that all folders are synced with your device

You need to check that all your folders are synchronised with your Mac or PC (you don’t need to worry about mobile devices at this stage) in order to successfully migrate that data from Syncplicity to OneDrive.

PC – Left-click on the Syncplicity client  and click Manage.   You only need to synchronise your own folders at this stage.  These are the folders for which you are the owner.  You can click on the headers to sort based on owner to find those that you are the owner of.

The subsequent list shows all folders that you have access to in Syncplicity, who the owner is and what size they are.  Those folders with a green tick against them are synchronised with your device, those without  are not synchronised.

To synchronise a folder first check that the size can be accommodated on your hard drive.  You can do this by opening up windows explorer (windows key + e), select “This PC” and checking the free space available on your device.

Once you have confirmed there is sufficient capacity select the folder from the list and click the button “Add to this device”.

Note: make a note of the path to the folder in the subsequent dialog box, for example “Will be added to c:\users\ligmi03p\Syncplicity\Mac Syncplicity Client” as this is information you require later.

Once you have clicked the button you will need to wait for the new folder to synchronise.

Mac – From the menu bar left-click the the Syncplicity icon, and hover over the  “Folders Owned by Me”.  Those with a tick next to them are synchronised with your device, those without a tick are not.

To synchronise a folder first check that the size can be accommodated on your devices hard drive.  You can do this by clicking on “Browse to My Syncplicity” from the Syncplicity menu for the size of the folder.  Compare this to your Mac’s free capacity by selecting your hard disk and opening info (command + i)

Once you have confirmed there is sufficient capacity from the drop down left-click the folder from the drop down menu.  In the subsequent dialog choose “Add to this device”.

Note: take note of the path to the folder at this point, in the example /Users/michael/Syncplicity Folders, as this is information you require later.

Once you have clicked the button you will need to wait for the new folder to synchronise.

What about Shared Folders?

If you have shared folders with others you should inform the participants of your shared folder(s) that you are migrating to OneDrive.

Whilst it’s possible to share OneDrive folders possibly the easiest way is to do so from within Teams.  Both methods are explained here: Sharing with OneDrive.

Whatever method you choose now is the time to inform the participants of shared folders you own what is going to happen to them.

PC – On a PC a folder that you have shared appears as shaded in with a couple of people icon’s on it.  A shared folder that you are not the owner of is the inverse colours.

Mac – On a Mac they appear under the drop down menu “Folders Owned by Me” under “Shared folders”

 

 

Migration

Once you have completed the preparation steps above and confirmed all your Syncplicity data has been synchronised with your device you can now move onto migrating the data.

Unsynchronise your folders

The first thing to do is to unsynchronise the folders from your device.  This is important as it will prevent Syncplicity synchronising back the moved files and folders as deletions and leaves us with a backup in the cloud.

Note: in the following instructions despite what the label on the button says the folder will not actually be removed from your device, it will still exist on your device but will no longer synchronise changes back to the cloud.

PC – Left-click on the Syncplicity client and click Manage. Again you only need to unsynchronise your own folders at this stage.  These are the folders for which you are the owner.  You can click on the headers to sort based on owner to find those that you are the owner of.

Folders with a green tick against them are synchronised with your device, those without  are not synchronised.  To stop synchronising the folder, select the folder and click “Remove from this device”.  Do this for all folders where the owner is you.

Mac – From the menu bar left-click the the Syncplicity icon, and hover over the  “Folders Owned by Me”.  Those with a tick next to them are synchronised with your device, those without a tick are not.

To stop synchronising the folder, click to select the folder and in the subsequent dialog choose “Remove from this device”

Move folders to OneDrive

At this point you can start moving your folders from the Syncplicity root folder to OneDrive.  This is most easily achieved by dragging and dropping the folders from one location to the other.

PC – Locate the Syncplicity root folder using the information provided above in a new window.  The root folder is the folder that contains the other Syncplicity folders.  It is also possible to have Syncplicity folders that are located outside of the root folder.  If this is the case the easiest way to locate that is to Manage folders from the Syncplicity client and double click on each folder to reveal it’s path.

Locate the OneDrive folder and open in a new window.  Open windows explorer (windows key + e) and locate the “OneDrive – University of Otago” client down the left hand column.

Then it’s just a matter of dragging the folders from one window to the next.  Once complete you can monitor the synchronisation status by clicking in the OneDrive icon in your system tray represented by the blue cloud.Note: if there is an overlay icon such as a tick or the sync icon as is present on the testingsync folder in the above image on a folder you wish to migrate then you need to go back and unsynchronise that folder on your device before proceeding.

Mac – Locate the Syncplicity root folder using the information provided above in a new window.  The root folder is the folder that contains the other Syncplicity folders.  It is possible to have Syncplicity folders that are located outside the root folder.  If this is the case the easiest way to locate that is to select the folder from the Syncplicty client drop down menu.  In the subsequent dialog note the folder location and then click “Keep online only”

Note: if there is an overlay icon such as a tick or the sync icon as is present on the Systems Services folder in the above image on a folder you wish to migrate then you need to go back and unsynchronise that folder on your device before proceeding.

Cleanup and Uninstall Syncplicity

If at the end of migrating your folders to OneDrive you no longer have any Syncplicity folders left that you wish to keep then you should ensure they are not synchronised and then delete them.

If there are no Syncplicity folders that are shared with you or there are none that you wish to access you should consider uninstalling Syncplicity.

Note: you need to have local Administrator access to uninstall Syncplicity.