SharePoint Permissions Cleanup Before Migration

Permission cleanup is one of the highest-value steps in a SharePoint migration. Without it, the target environment can inherit years of oversharing, broken inheritance, orphaned users, and owner confusion.

Export permissions

Collect site owners, members, visitors, SharePoint groups, Microsoft 365 groups, Entra ID groups, guests, sharing links, and broken inheritance points.

Prioritize high-risk areas

Focus first on executive sites, regulated content, external sharing, HR, finance, legal, records, and sites with many unique permissions.

Replace individual grants

Where possible, move from individual permissions to role-based groups with accountable owners.

Validate after migration

Test access for owners, members, visitors, guests, service accounts, and business validators. Do not rely only on migration-tool success counts.

Build a review cadence

Permissions will drift again unless ownership and review processes are part of the post-migration operating model.