Content only
Into lists that already exist
For when the destination is already built. It copies items, files, folders and optionally permissions into lists that already exist with matching columns, and changes nothing about the destination's structure. Use it to top up a site you cloned last month, or to load content into lists somebody else provisioned.
What it does
- Items and files land in the matching destination list, matched by title.
- Version history, Created By and Modified By come across as they do in a full clone.
- Permissions are optional here, because on an existing site they are frequently already set the way you want them.
- Anything that could not be matched to a destination list is reported rather than dropped.
How it runs
- Sign in to both ends. Source and destination sign in independently, because they are frequently different tenants with different accounts. Both are asked for up front, not halfway through the run.
- Pick the source and the destination. The destination lists must already exist, with columns that match.
- Pick the lists to copy. Only the ones you tick.
- It runs. Per-list progress with a live item list. Cancel offers Finish the current item, Stop now, or Keep running. Nothing is left half-written: an item is either done or not started.
How it works
Content only runs no structure stage at all. For each list or library you picked, it looks on the destination site for a list with the same title (or uses the specific list you chose as the target), records that pairing, and copies into it. A picked list with no match fails on its own row and the other lists still copy. It never creates a list, column, content type or view, and it writes navigation, site settings or the theme only when you tick them on a Differential or Incremental re-run.
The content itself goes through the same pipeline as a full clone: Migration API batches, the same check of the destination after each batch, the same relaxing and restoring of the destination list's versioning, approval and check-out settings, and the same item count comparison at the end. Because the destination lists already existed, you are asked at the start what to do about content already there: copy everything without comparing (the fastest), skip anything already there, replace what has changed on the source since it was last copied, or replace everything that exists. Files and folders are matched by their path; a folder that already exists is not sent again, and only the files inside it are judged.
When the run compares a list that was already on the destination and already holds items, plain list items (as opposed to files and folders) are not added to it: a source item's number cannot identify a row in a list someone else built, so matching on it would both duplicate rows and skip rows. The run says so for each such list. A pre-existing list that is empty is filled normally. Nothing on the destination is deleted; a replaced file is imported over the existing one, which on a versioned library adds a version.
What you need
- Site collection administrator on both ends.
- Destination lists that already exist with matching columns. A column present on the source and absent on the destination cannot be written, and the run says so.
What it will not do
- It will not create a list. If the destination list is missing, that list is skipped and reported. Structure and content is the mode that creates.
- Matching is by list title. A list renamed on one side will not match, which reads as a skip rather than an error.
- Items already on the destination are handled the way you chose up front, not guessed at.