Citrix ShareFile to SharePoint Online Migration: How to Plan It

ShareFile was a Citrix product until Progress Software completed its acquisition of the ShareFile business from Cloud Software Group on October 31, 2024; it is sold as Progress ShareFile today. The folder model and API did not change with the name.

Microsoft's Migration Manager, the free tool in the SharePoint admin center, reads file shares, Google Drive, Box, Dropbox and Egnyte. As of November 2026 it has no ShareFile connector, which leaves two routes. The usual one is a cloud-to-cloud tool with a ShareFile API connector (CloudFuze, Movebot or DryvIQ) that copies folders, files, timestamps, version history and folder permissions into SharePoint and OneDrive with delta passes. The alternative, for small estates where versions are not wanted, is a staged export to a file share that Migration Manager then reads; it loses versions and most metadata, so decide the route first. The method overlaps with our file server and Dropbox or Box guides; ShareFile differs in its share links and client users.

With an API-connector tool, five things move: the folder tree and its files; created and modified timestamps; version history where the tool supports it and the ShareFile folder had versioning on; folder permissions, translated into SharePoint groups; and each employee's My Files & Folders, which lands in that person's OneDrive.

Everything else is rebuilt or exported, never migrated:

• Share links. Every ShareFile link is a ShareFile URL and stops working when the account closes. Live links are re-issued from SharePoint or OneDrive and the recipients are told.
• Request links are replaced by Request files in OneDrive and SharePoint.
• Client users. ShareFile keeps external people in its own directory. They become Microsoft Entra B2B guests or recipients of sharing links, depending on how long they need access.
• Workflows, e-signature envelopes and their audit trails. Export the signed PDFs and logs before closing the account.
• The client portal, FTP and SFTP endpoints, the Outlook plug-in, integrations and activity reports. Export the reports; they are often the only record of who downloaded what.

Export the folder tree with sizes and item counts and the permission report per root-level Shared Folder, then group the root-level folders by who has access to them rather than by name. One permission boundary becomes one SharePoint site, or at least one document library.

Departmental Shared Folders map to a team site per department, connected to Microsoft Teams where wanted. Client-facing folders, the accounting and legal firm pattern of one folder per client, map to a dedicated client-files site with a library per client group, so external sharing is enabled on one site rather than all of them. Each employee's personal folder maps to that person's OneDrive, except team content sitting in one person's folder, which belongs in a site, and folders of people who have left, which go to an archive library.

Flatten nesting where a folder existed only to hold a permission; deep trees cause the path-length failures below. The output is a mapping workbook, one row per root-level folder and per employee, signed before anything is copied. If the tenant has no site taxonomy yet, a SharePoint governance and information architecture review produces one.

ShareFile grants five rights per folder (view, download, upload, delete and admin) to individual employees, client users or distribution groups, at any depth, with inheritance that can be broken anywhere. SharePoint works the other way: site-level groups (Owners, Members, Visitors) carrying Edit or Read roles that inherit down. Breaking inheritance per folder is possible, but each break is a maintenance item and a library caps at 50,000 items with their own permissions.

The translation: view and download become Read; upload and delete become Edit, or Contribute where deletion should be withheld; admin becomes site owner, never library owner. Individual grants become membership in a Microsoft 365 group or a Microsoft Entra security group, and nobody is granted directly. If a folder's permissions differ from its parent, ask whether it should be its own library or site. Several hundred ShareFile grants typically collapse into 20 to 40 groups. ShareFile's view-without-download right is reproduced with a sensitivity label that blocks download.

ShareFile estates use external access in three ways, each with a different SharePoint answer. Long-lived client folders become Microsoft Entra B2B guests invited to a library on the client-files site, with that site's sharing level set to new and existing guests. One-off send links become Specific people links with an expiration date, or Anyone links where the tenant setting forces expiration. Request links become Request files on a folder.

Set the tenant-level sharing setting to the tightest option that works and open it site by site. Guests do not consume a Microsoft 365 license for SharePoint and OneDrive access; the guest and external user licensing article covers the exceptions. Export the active share links from the admin console first: most are dead, the live ones are rebuilt, and the recipients are told. ShareFile's download limits and expiry rules become link expiration, sensitivity labels and Microsoft Purview data loss prevention.

The order that works: inventory and route decision; mapping workbook and permission map signed; target build; a pilot of one Shared Folder and two personal folders, verified for counts, permissions and versions; the bulk pass, run off-hours while ShareFile stays fully in use; permissions applied and confirmed external links re-issued; a delta pass; ShareFile set read-only; users switched; and a verification report reconciling source and target counts and sizes.

Coexistence means ShareFile read-only, not ShareFile live; two writable systems with a sync between them produce conflicts. Keep the read-only account open until a calendar date fixed at kickoff, for example the last day of the month after cutover, so e-signature records and reports can still be exported. Remove the ShareFile client and Outlook plug-in with Intune and deploy OneDrive with Known Folder Move. ShareFile is sold on annual terms, so land the cutover before the renewal date.

• Path length. SharePoint allows 400 characters for the full decoded path including the file name, and site and library names consume part of it. ShareFile allowed deeper trees. Fix it at mapping time by flattening and shortening library names.
• Illegal characters and names. Quotation marks, asterisks, colons, angle brackets, question marks, slashes, backslashes and pipes are not allowed; names cannot begin with a tilde or a dollar sign; .lock, CON, PRN, AUX, NUL, COM0 to COM9, LPT0 to LPT9, _vti_ and desktop.ini are reserved, and forms cannot be a folder at a library root. Tools rename or skip these: pre-scan, agree the rename rule, and keep the rename log.
• Files over 250 GB. The OneDrive and SharePoint limit is 250 GB per file. Anything larger cannot land anywhere in the tenant; find it in the inventory and park it in Azure Blob Storage or split it.
• Throttling. Microsoft throttles bulk traffic per tenant with HTTP 429 responses; tools back off and retry, which stretches the schedule rather than breaking it.

Every person who will own a OneDrive or open a library needs a Microsoft 365 license that includes SharePoint Online and OneDrive: Microsoft 365 Business Basic, Business Standard or Business Premium (up to 300 users), Microsoft 365 E3 or E5, or standalone SharePoint (Plan 1) and OneDrive for business (Plan 1) for people who need only the storage. Guests need no license; current prices are on the plan pages.

Tenant storage is pooled at 1 TB plus 10 GB per licensed user, and version history counts toward it. If the ShareFile inventory exceeds the pool, Office 365 Extra File Storage is a Microsoft charge on your bill, not part of any migration fee; the SharePoint storage limits article explains the arithmetic. The migration tool license is separate from Microsoft and passed through at cost. Set Microsoft Purview retention policies on the target sites before the copy so migrated files fall under them from the first day.

Can Microsoft's Migration Manager migrate ShareFile?

No. As of November 2026 it reads file shares, Google Drive, Box, Dropbox and Egnyte. ShareFile needs a third-party tool with a ShareFile API connector, or a staged export that drops version history.

Do ShareFile share links keep working after the migration?

No. Every ShareFile link points at ShareFile and dies with the account. Export the active link list, re-issue the live ones from SharePoint or OneDrive and tell the recipients.

What happens to ShareFile client users?

They are not migrated as accounts. Long-term clients become Microsoft Entra B2B guests on a client-files site; occasional recipients get Specific people links with an expiration date. Neither needs a Microsoft 365 license.

Do I need a SharePoint license for every former ShareFile user?

Every employee who owns a OneDrive or opens a library needs a plan that includes SharePoint Online and OneDrive. External guests do not.

• Microsoft Support, "Restrictions and limitations in OneDrive and SharePoint": invalid characters, reserved names, the 400-character path and 250 GB file limits; consulted November 2026.
• Microsoft Learn, "SharePoint limits" (SharePoint Online service description): pooled storage of 1 TB plus 10 GB per license, 50,000 items with their own permissions per library; consulted November 2026.
• Microsoft Learn, Migration Manager overview (supported sources: file shares, Google Workspace, Box, Dropbox, Egnyte), "Avoid getting throttled or blocked in SharePoint Online" and "Manage sharing settings for SharePoint and OneDrive in Microsoft 365"; consulted November 2026.
• Progress Software press release of October 31, 2024 on the completed ShareFile acquisition, and Progress ShareFile documentation on folder permissions, share links and request links (docs.sharefile.com); consulted November 2026.