SharePoint to Drime: Move SMB Document Libraries to an Independent European Host

Migrate SharePoint document libraries to Drime without per-seat licensing. Covers OneDrive Sync, manual download and cloud-to-cloud with CloudsLinker.

Introduction

Small and mid-sized teams often outgrow the administrative overhead that comes with SharePoint — site collections, permissions inheritance, per-seat Microsoft 365 licensing — long before they outgrow the storage itself. Drime offers a flatter folder model, French data residency, and flat storage pricing that does not scale linearly with headcount. This makes it a common landing spot for teams that want to keep their document libraries accessible and encrypted without staying inside the Microsoft ecosystem. Three methods move SharePoint content into Drime: a browser download for small libraries, the OneDrive Sync client as a local bridge, and CloudsLinker for everything else.

Method 1: Browser Download from SharePoint
Method 2: OneDrive Sync Client Bridge
Method 3: Cloud-to-Cloud Transfer with CloudsLinker
SharePoint vs Drime
Method Comparison
Practical Tips
FAQ

About SharePoint

SharePoint Online is Microsoft's team content platform. It organizes files into site collections, each containing one or more document libraries, with permissions inherited from Microsoft 365 groups and Active Directory.

Site collections: each team, project or department gets a dedicated site.
Document libraries: versioned storage with metadata columns.
Permissions: tied to Microsoft 365 groups; inherited or broken per library.
Integration: native with Teams, Outlook and Office apps.
Licensing: per-user Microsoft 365 seats, priced monthly.

About Drime

Drime is a French cloud storage workspace with end-to-end encryption, collaboration features, and flat-rate storage pricing. It runs independently of the Microsoft 365 stack.

Folder-based structure: no site collection concept.
French data residency: GDPR-aligned hosting in France.
End-to-end encryption: on stored files and shared links.
Sharing: password-protected, expiring links with access logs.
Pricing: flat storage tiers, not per-seat licensing.

Comparison: SharePoint vs Drime

SharePoint and Drime solve different problems. SharePoint is a full content management system layered on top of Microsoft 365. Drime is a file storage service with collaboration features layered on top. The trade-off is depth of feature versus simplicity and residency control.

Feature	SharePoint	Drime
Content model	Site collections → document libraries → folders	Folder tree
Permissions	Inherited through Microsoft 365 groups; granular per library	Per-folder sharing with defined access levels
Data residency	Depends on Microsoft 365 tenant region	France
Office integration	Native with Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Teams	File storage, no native Office co-editing
Pricing model	Per-user Microsoft 365 license	Flat storage tier

Preparing to Move SharePoint to Drime

On the SharePoint side

List the document libraries to migrate. Note which sites they live under and whether any still need to stay in SharePoint.
Review permissions: map who has access to each library so you can recreate the right folder shares in Drime.
Check for Office metadata columns: custom columns, content types and versioning do not carry over to Drime. Decide whether you need this history or only the current files.
Resolve checked-out files: files checked out to someone else will not sync or download cleanly.

On the Drime side

Create top-level folders per site or library (for example, /Marketing/, /Finance/) so the structure stays organized.
Verify storage quota against the total SharePoint size — site collection quotas in SharePoint are often larger than what is actually used, so check real usage.
Generate a developer token: Drime → avatar → Settings → Developer → Create Token.

Method 1: Browser Download from SharePoint and Upload to Drime

Step 1: Download from the SharePoint Document Library

Open the SharePoint site in your browser and navigate to the document library. Select files or folders — hold Ctrl/Cmd for multi-select — and click Download in the command bar. SharePoint packages multiple selections into a ZIP file.

For libraries with tens of thousands of files, browser download often hits size or item-count limits. In that case, split the download by subfolder or switch to the Sync or cloud-to-cloud method.

Download files from SharePoint document library

Step 2: Upload to Drime

Extract the ZIP. Open the Drime dashboard and drag the extracted folder into the target directory. Drime preserves the folder structure and encrypts files on arrival.

Method 2: OneDrive Sync Client as a Local Bridge

Useful if you already sync SharePoint libraries locally

The OneDrive Sync client can map SharePoint document libraries into a local folder. That local folder becomes a staging area — you copy files out of it into a neutral folder, then upload to Drime through its web or desktop app.

Step 1: Sync the Document Library

In SharePoint, open the document library you want to migrate and click Sync. OneDrive Sync mounts the library under your user's SharePoint folder in Explorer or Finder (for example, ~/CompanyName/Marketing - Documents).

Wait until sync completes and all files show a green checkmark. Files marked as cloud-only need to be pinned with Always keep on this device so they actually land on disk.

Step 2: Stage Files in a Neutral Local Folder

Copy files from the synced SharePoint folder into a plain folder outside OneDrive, such as ~/Desktop/SharePoint-Migration/. This detaches the files from OneDrive sync so that removing them later will not affect SharePoint.

Step 3: Upload to Drime

Install Drime Desktop or use the web app. Drag the staging folder into your Drime target directory. Verify a sample of files open correctly, then delete the staging folder to reclaim disk space.

Method 3: Cloud-to-Cloud Transfer with CloudsLinker

Move SharePoint Libraries Without Local Staging

CloudsLinker connects SharePoint and Drime directly and runs the transfer server-side. Useful when document libraries run into tens or hundreds of gigabytes, or when you need to migrate multiple sites in sequence.

Step 1: Connect SharePoint

In CloudsLinker, click Add Cloud and select SharePoint. Enter the site path (for example, /sites/marketing or /teams/finance) and approve the Microsoft OAuth sign-in with an account that has access to the target document libraries. After authorization, pick the specific library you want to connect.

Connect SharePoint to CloudsLinker with site path and OAuth

Step 2: Connect Drime

Click Add Cloud and pick Drime. Paste the developer token from Drime → Settings → Developer. Confirm to add Drime as a destination.

Connect Drime to CloudsLinker with developer token

Step 3: Configure the Transfer

In the Transfer section, select the connected SharePoint library as the source and browse to the folders you want to move. Select the Drime target directory on the destination side. Apply file-type or size filters if you want to exclude, for example, .tmp or shortcut files.

Use Copy mode the first time so the SharePoint copy stays intact until you confirm everything landed correctly in Drime.

Configure SharePoint to Drime transfer in CloudsLinker

Step 4: Start and Monitor

Start the transfer. Track progress from the Task List. For multi-library migrations, create separate tasks per document library so you can retry failures at a fine grain. The transfer runs on CloudsLinker servers even if you close the browser.

Method Comparison

Method	Ease of Use	Speed	Best For	Uses Local Bandwidth	Skill Level
Browser Download + Upload	★★★★☆	★★☆☆☆	Small libraries, a few files	Yes	Beginner
OneDrive Sync Bridge	★★★☆☆	★★★☆☆	Teams already using Sync on Windows/Mac	Yes	Intermediate
CloudsLinker	★★★★★	★★★★★	Large or multi-site migrations, hands-off moves	No	Beginner

Practical Tips for SharePoint to Drime

Migrate one library at a time: document libraries often correspond to team responsibilities. Moving them in sequence makes it easier to hand off ownership and fix permissions on the Drime side.
Accept the loss of versioning: Drime does not store SharePoint's version history or custom metadata columns. If you need those for compliance, keep the SharePoint site in read-only mode instead of deleting it.
Handle Office files as static copies: once in Drime, Word and Excel files become regular files. Team co-editing moves to another tool if you relied on Office for the Web.
Recreate external sharing: external share links from SharePoint will not follow the files. Use Drime's password-protected share links to reissue access with expirations where appropriate.
Watch the 400-character path limit: SharePoint allows longer paths than some sync clients handle cleanly. Shorten deep folder names before migration to avoid truncation on Drime.
Do a reconciliation count: after transfer, compare file counts between SharePoint and Drime per folder. Tools like PowerShell (Get-ChildItem -Recurse) on the Sync folder help cross-check.

Frequently Asked Questions

Drime uses a simple folder tree. SharePoint's site collections and document libraries collapse into regular folders. Most teams create a top-level folder per site, with subfolders matching each library.

No. Only the current version of each file is transferred. SharePoint's version history, metadata columns and approval workflows do not have equivalents in Drime. If history is required for compliance, keep the SharePoint site in read-only mode as an archive.

SharePoint supports files up to 250 GB. Drime accepts large files too, and CloudsLinker handles multi-gigabyte files with multipart transfer. Browser download from SharePoint has size limits per batch, so very large files should be pulled via OneDrive Sync or CloudsLinker.

You provide the SharePoint site path and sign in with an account that has access to the target document libraries. CloudsLinker uses Microsoft's OAuth flow and asks you to pick the specific library to expose. Permissions on SharePoint still apply — CloudsLinker can only read what your account can read.

The transfer pauses and remaining files are logged as failed. Upgrade the Drime plan or prune unused files, then restart the task. CloudsLinker skips files already transferred, so you do not repeat completed work.

Yes. CloudsLinker lets you browse into a specific folder path on the SharePoint side and move only that subtree. You can also filter by file type, size and modification date. The browser method requires manual folder selection before downloading.

Yes. Microsoft OAuth governs the SharePoint side; you can revoke access from the Azure admin center or your account's connected apps at any time. Data travels over TLS between Microsoft, CloudsLinker and Drime. Drime encrypts files on arrival. The developer token you issue to CloudsLinker can be rotated after the migration.

Conclusion

If the SharePoint site is small — a handful of document libraries, under a few gigabytes — the browser download is the most direct route. For teams that already have OneDrive Sync mapping SharePoint locally, using the synced folder as a bridge is convenient. When document libraries run into tens of gigabytes or span multiple sites, CloudsLinker avoids downloading the entire library by connecting SharePoint and Drime directly. Verify permissions and sharing expectations on the Drime side before retiring the SharePoint site.

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