Structure only
Schema with no content
Builds the shape of a site without any of the data. Lists and libraries, their columns, content types, views and folder structure are created on the destination and left empty. Use it to stage a tenant before a bulk content load, or to give a new project the same structure as an existing one.
What it does
- Which lists and libraries the destination would end up with, before any content is committed to it.
- Site columns and content types are created first, then the lists that reference them, then the field links are backfilled, so nothing depends on something that does not exist yet.
- Views come across, including the default view and its columns.
- Anything the destination refused, and why.
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. One site each.
- Pick what to build. The whole site, or the lists you tick.
- It runs. Columns and content types first, then lists, then the backfill pass, across every web in scope.
How it works
Structure only runs the structure stage of a full clone and then stops. No item, file or version is copied, so the work grows with the number of lists rather than the number of items. Because no content stage follows, navigation is written during the structure stage itself rather than at the end, and each list's folder tree is created, empty.
When permissions are part of the copy, list and library permissions are applied here too: a list that has its own permissions on the source gets them on the destination, so a restricted list does not arrive open to everyone who can see the site. On a copy of picked lists, only lists this run created are changed. A source user or group with no match on the destination is given nothing; it is never swapped for someone else.
In a whole-site copy, a list already on the destination at the same URL is adopted rather than created again, and its settings and columns are brought into line with the source; a list of a different kind at that URL (a list where the source has a library) is never adopted. By default anything extra the destination list already has is left alone. An opt-in setting removes columns and content types the source does not have; SharePoint cannot send a column to the recycle bin, so that removal is permanent, and every removal is reported.
What you need
- Site collection administrator on both ends.
What it will not do
- No items, no files, no version history. The lists arrive empty on purpose.
- It is quick compared with a content clone, because the work is proportional to the number of lists rather than the number of items.
- Run Content only afterwards to fill it, or Structure and content instead if you wanted both in one pass.