SharePoint Provisioning

Create destination SharePoint sites, document libraries and folders (plus Teams, channels, Google shared drives and S3 buckets) from inside MigrationFox, so the destination exists before you start a migration. You describe the resource; MigrationFox calls the platform’s own API under the connection you choose.

What triggers provisioning

Provisioning is never implicit. MigrationFox only creates a destination resource when you ask it to, through one of these entry points.

The Provision tab on any project

Inside a project, open the Provision tab and:

1. Pick the connection to create the resource with. The options under What do you want to create? depend on its platform (for SharePoint: Create Site, Create Library, Create Folder).
2. Enter a Display name. For sites, libraries and buckets a URL slug is filled in from the name; edit it if the address should differ (a site becomes /sites/<slug>).
3. Fill in the type-specific options: Site template (Team Site or Communication Site), Also create a Microsoft Teams team (team sites only, off by default), Parent path for libraries and folders, or Parent team for channels.
4. Click the create button (for example Create Site). MigrationFox shows the new resource’s path and URL, with a Use as Destination: Copy Path button, and lists it under Recently provisioned.

This is the standalone path, useful when you are pre-staging destinations before any migration is set up.

Inline from the SharePoint migration wizard

When you pick the destination in the SharePoint & OneDrive migration wizard (web app and MigrationFox Desktop), choose + Create new site to create a team or communication site on the spot. The new site becomes the destination and the wizard continues. Inline creation covers sites only; create libraries and folders from the Provision tab.

Bulk Provisioning (many sites at once)

To create many sites from a CSV or JSON list, use the Create Sites tab of Bulk Provisioning. It runs the same site creation for each row and reports every row as created, skipped or failed.

The Restructuring Wizard

The Restructuring Wizard proposes a split of one large site into several new sites. When you execute the plan, it creates each new site (a Microsoft 365 group site with a Teams team) and its libraries before queuing the content copy.

How sites are created

The site template you pick (see Template selection) decides which Microsoft API is used:

• Team site: MigrationFox creates a Microsoft 365 group through Microsoft Graph, and Microsoft 365 provisions the group’s SharePoint team site at /sites/<slug>. The site comes with its standard Documents library.
• Communication site: MigrationFox calls SharePoint’s own site-creation API with the communication-site template. There is no Microsoft 365 group.
• Additional libraries are created separately with Create Library after the site exists.

Site creation is asynchronous on the Microsoft side. After the create call, MigrationFox checks for the new site every few seconds for up to about 30 seconds and returns its URL once SharePoint reports it. If the site is still being set up after that, wait a minute before uploading to it.

URL slugs and existing sites

Two sites in the same tenant cannot share a URL. If you ask for /sites/marketing and that address is taken (including by a deleted site that SharePoint still keeps in its deleted-sites holding period, 93 days by default), SharePoint either refuses the creation or creates the site at a numbered variant of the address.

• You choose the slug. The URL slug field is editable, so you can pick an alternative (for example marketing-2026) up front instead of accepting whatever SharePoint chooses.
• The real address is shown. If SharePoint appends a number, MigrationFox reports the path SharePoint actually created, not the one you asked for, so you migrate into the right place.
• Bulk runs can skip existing sites. In Bulk Provisioning, Skip sites that already exist (on by default) checks each slug before creating and marks rows whose address already has a site as skipped.

Template selection

Two site templates are available. Each uses a different Microsoft API and a different permissions model.

Classic team sites (no Microsoft 365 group) are not offered.

Prerequisites

Provisioning runs under the connection you pick. On the Microsoft side:

• Sign in with Microsoft connection. The MigrationFox app requests Group.ReadWrite.All (team sites are created as Microsoft 365 groups) and Sites.Manage.All (library creation). Both need admin consent in your tenant. Connections made before these permissions were added need to be disconnected and reconnected to pick them up.
• Group creation allowed. If your tenant restricts Microsoft 365 group creation to a specific security group, the signed-in account must be in it, or team-site creation fails with an access error.
• Communication sites: the signed-in account must be allowed to create sites. A SharePoint Administrator works reliably; if creation is refused, have a SharePoint or Global Administrator sign in for this connection, or grant the app the SharePoint AllSites.FullControl delegated permission.
• Teams and channels (Microsoft Teams connection): the app needs Group.ReadWrite.All to create a team, and Channel.Create or Group.ReadWrite.All to add a channel, both as application permissions with admin consent. Only standard channels are created.

The connection you use for provisioning does not have to be the one you migrate with. A common pattern: provision with an administrator’s connection, then migrate with a connection scoped to the new sites.

Bulk site creation

Bulk Provisioning creates sites one at a time, in the order of your list, up to 200 sites per run. Creating them one after another keeps the run within Microsoft’s throttling limits for site creation and gives each new group time to settle. If a row fails (for example a permission or naming problem), that row is marked as failed with the reason, and the run continues with the next row. You get a per-row result at the end.

Known limits

• Provisioned resources cannot be renamed through MigrationFox. Renaming a site URL or a group display name is a tenant-admin action outside the migration workflow. Plan the slugs up front.
• No nested site collections. Every site collection lives at /sites/.... An apparent hierarchy (Team A → Team A / Sub-team) becomes two sibling sites, not parent and child.
• Themes are not applied at creation. New sites use the tenant default theme. Apply a theme afterwards, for example with the Theme tab in Bulk Provisioning.
• Sensitivity labels are not applied automatically. If your tenant requires labels on all sites, apply them after provisioning and before the first migration upload.
• Subsites are not created by the Provision tab. Create them in SharePoint if you need them.

Troubleshooting

Symptom	Likely cause	Fix
The site was created at a different address than the slug I entered (for example /sites/marketing2)	The address was taken, often by a deleted site that is still in SharePoint’s 93-day holding period, so SharePoint picked a numbered variant.	Check SharePoint admin center → Deleted sites and permanently delete the held site, or pick a different slug.
Site appears to create successfully but uploads fail immediately after	SharePoint had not finished setting up the site. MigrationFox waits up to about 30 seconds for its own creations; a site created elsewhere (PowerShell, admin center) may not be ready yet either.	Wait a minute and retry.
Team-site creation fails with an access error mentioning Group.ReadWrite.All	The connection was made before MigrationFox requested that permission, or your tenant restricts Microsoft 365 group creation.	Disconnect and reconnect the connection with Sign in with Microsoft. If it still fails, check Microsoft Entra ID → Groups → General settings for a group-creation restriction.
Communication-site creation fails with “Unsupported app only token”	The connection uses an app-only (service account) credential. SharePoint’s site-creation API requires a signed-in user.	Reconnect the destination with Sign in with Microsoft.
Permissions on the provisioned team site do not match expectations	Team-site permissions flow from group membership. Adding people to the SharePoint site directly instead of the group gets the two out of sync.	Manage membership through the Microsoft 365 group (Entra admin center or Teams), not through SharePoint site settings.
Creating a team or channel fails with 403	The Microsoft Teams connection’s app is missing an application permission.	Grant Group.ReadWrite.All (team) or Channel.Create (channel) as an application permission in the app registration, click Grant admin consent, then retry.

Related

• Bulk Provisioning: create many sites at once and apply navigation, themes, content types and term sets
• Blocked file types: the tenant policy that can block uploads after a site is provisioned
• SharePoint site pages: the page migration step that runs after site provisioning and content upload
• Skip junk files: scan-time filtering that reduces the data sent to the new sites