In this article, we will review the migration steps of the Project for the web -> Planner migration scenario.
Please note: All information in the article below also applies to Planner (premium plans) -> MS Planner, Planner (premium plans) -> Planner (basic plans), and Project for the web -> Planner (basic plans) migration scenarios.
To launch the migration from Project for the web to Planner you will need to take several steps:
Step 1: Connect to source and target system
To start the migration process perform the following:
1. Open the Project Migrator home page and select the Project for the web -> MS Planner scenario. Alternatively, click on the Start Migration button.
If you plan to use one of the other supported scenarios, select the corresponding one from the list: Planner (premium plans) -> MS Planner, Planner (premium plans) -> Planner (basic plans), or Project for the web -> Planner (basic plans).
All other steps are the same for these scenarios.
2. If you click the Start New Migration button instead, select the source system by clicking on the Please Select System button and select Project for the web or Planner (premium plans).
3. In the Environment field provide the URL of your Power Platform Environment where Project for the web is deployed. Please refer to the 'How to find the Environment URL for Project for web' article for detailed instructions on how to find the required URL.
4. Click on the 'Connect' button to connect to your Project for the web account.
5. In the opened window log in to Project for the web using an Office 365 account that meets the connection requirements.
If you connect to Project for the web for the first time, Global Administrator consent is required.
Before adding a connection for the first time, Office 365 tenant Global Administrator consent (Admin Consent) is required to grant Project Migrator app permissions to access Office 365. Admin Consent should be granted to Project Migrator only once. When the consent is granted by Global Admin, any other account that meets the requirements can be used to add more connections within the same Office 365 tenant.
If you use an account that does not have Administrator permissions to add Project for the web connection for the first time, the 'Need Admin Approval' window will be opened instead. The 'Need Admin Approval' window may be opened after the login attempt. This window appears in case it is not allowed by your organization for users to add apps to the Office 365 tenant without admin approval.
In this case, contact your Office 365 Global Administrator for granting admin consent.
When the credentials are added once, they are encrypted and stored for your convenience after launching the migration. The next time when you need to launch the migration process you can select from the list of credentials added before.
If you need to change the account you have provided, click on the Change button.
6. On the next step connect the target system. Click on the Please select system button and select Microsoft Planner or Planner (basic plans).
7. Click on the 'Connect' button to connect to your Planner account. Provide the credentials and log in to Planner using your Office 365 account.
When connecting to Microsoft Planner for the first time, Office 365 tenant Global Administrator consent (Admin Consent) is required to grant Project Migrator app permissions to access Office 365.
When the consent is granted by Global Admin, any other Planner Account (that meets the requirements described in the 'Account requirements' article) can be used to add more connections within the same Office 365 tenant.
When the source and target systems are added and connected you can proceed to the next step and select source data for migration.
Step 2: Select Source Data
Project Migrator allows selecting all data for migration or only the required items from the list.
'All' option is selected by default. If you select the 'All' option, all projects from Project for the web where the source connection account is added as a member will be migrated.
'Selected' option allows migrating only the projects which you select from the available project list.
Please note: If the connection account has a System administrator role in Project for the web environment, this account has access to all projects. If you are using an account without this role, then the source connection account should be added as a member to the projects selected for migration.
Click the 'Selected' button.
'Available plans' window will be opened. There are several fields on this page that you can use to filter the information out and make the selection faster.
Select the required projects from the list and click the 'Add Selected' button.
Please note: If you have not purchased any subscription plan yet, a free plan (for 2 projects) will be applied. If you have exceeded the limit of projects that you can select for migration according to your subscription plan (free or paid one), you can upgrade your plan from this page directly by clicking on the 'Upgrade to (number) of projects plan' button.
For more information please refer to the 'Project Migrator Subscriptions' article.
When the items are selected you can proceed to the next step: Step 3: Object Mapping.
Step 3 - Object mapping
1. Migration settings
Microsoft 365 Group Creation Mode: In this section, you can select whether to create separate groups or create all projects in one new or existing group.
'Create groups using Project names': if this option is selected, each project will have a separate Microsoft 365 group created. The groups will be created with the same names as the Projects names in this case.
If a Group with the same name already exists in Planner, a new group will not be created. Project Migrator will find this group by name and will use it for migration (taking into account the setting below 'Create new or merge with existing Plans').
‘Create groups with source group names and settings’: this group creation mode allows migrating source Microsoft 365 groups for the selected Projects to the target tenant. Target groups will be created with the same names and mail nicknames as the source groups, and the source group Privacy and General Settings will be preserved.
If a Group with the same name already exists in Planner, a new group will not be created. Project Migrator will find this group by name and will use it for migration (taking into account the setting below 'Create new or merge with existing Plans').
Please note: If there is an existing group with the same name and mail nickname in the target tenant, but the connection account is not a member or an owner of that group, a new group will be created with a bit different mail nickname.
If the 'Create groups with source names and settings' option is selected, the migration will fail with an error that a new group with the already used mail nickname could not be created. The target migration account should be a member or an owner of that existing group to be able to migrate to it.
‘Migrate all source group members and owners’: this option is available only for the ‘Create groups with source group names and settings’ group creation mode. If it is enabled, all source group owners and members will be added to the target group on the condition the corresponding users exist in the target tenant and are mapped correctly.
In case that option is not checked, only mapped users that are assigned to tasks in the migrated Plan(s) will be added as members to the corresponding Microsoft 365 groups in the target tenant. Other source group owners and members will not be added to the target groups. If new Microsoft 365 groups and Planner Plans are created during the migration, the target Planner migration account will be set as the group and Plan owner and member.
Also, in the 'Non-group Project Migration Mode' select whether to create separate groups using project names or skip projects that are not added to any Microsoft 365 group.
If the 'Create all Projects in one group' option is selected, then all Projects will be added to the same group during migration.
In the Group Name field, you can provide the name of an existing group or a new group name to create a new group during migration.
With this group creation mode, users that are assigned to tasks in all the migrated source Projects will be added as members to one target Microsoft 365 group on condition they are mapped with the corresponding target users.
Other members of the source group(s) and Projects(s) will not be added to the target M365 group. Also, the source group owners will not be added as owners to the target group.
If a Group with the same name already exists in Planner, a new group will not be created. Project Migrator will find this group by name and will use it for migration (taking into account the setting below 'Create new or merge with existing Plans').
Please note: Maximum of 200 Plans can be created in one Microsoft 365 group.
Please note: If you are migrating the Projects to an existing Planner group (or to different groups but there is a group in Planner with the same name as the migrated Plan name) the migration Planner account that you have provided in the Target System section should be a member of this group in Planner.
Plan creation mode: In this section, you can select how plans should be created if there are Plans in Planner with the same names as Projects in the source system.
'Create new or merge with existing ones' option allows creating new Plans or merging the data to the existing Plans with the same names as the source Projects if any.
'Create new and remove existing Plans before creating' option allows creating new Plans from scratch deleting the existing ones with the same names as the source Projects if any. In this case, existing Planner Plans with names that match selected source Project names will be removed together with all their tasks.
2. Mapping
2.1. Project Field Mapping
In this section, you can review and edit the Project field mapping.
2.2. Task Field Mapping
This section is used to map task fields from Project for the web to the target Planner system.
In this section, you can review which fields are migrated from the Project for the web system to the target Planner. They are not editable, and none of the fields can be deleted (excluded from the migration).
2.2. Task Migration Settings
Microsoft Planner allows adding a maximum of 10 attachments per task via API. Using the Task Migration Settings it is possible to choose how the rest of the attachments (if there are more than 10) will be added to Planner.
Migrate excessive attachments to task Notes if this option is selected, all attachments from the source will be added to the Documents -> Task Attachments folder of the Planner SharePoint Site. Ten first attachments will be added to the Planner task. For the rest of the attachments, the links to the files from the Documents folder will be added to the Notes Planner field.
Skip excessive attachments if this option is selected, all attachments from the source will be added to the Documents -> Task Attachments folder of the Planner SharePoint Site. Also, the first ten attachments will be added to the Planner task.
2.4. Users Mapping
This section is used to map the users from Project for the web to the target Planner system.
Please note: The users cannot be migrated from the source Project for the web tenant to the target Planner tenant. User accounts should already exist on the target environment (in the Active directory of your Planner tenant) before the migration starts. In this case Project Migrator will find the required users by their accounts and will map them automatically to migrate the assignments and other resources data to the target Planner environment.
If there is no corresponding account on the target system (Planner), then the line with such a user will be highlighted in red and will have 'Not Mapped' status. Such users will not be taken for migration.
If there is incomplete correspondence for some of the users (for example, the email is the same but different user names), they will have the ‘Partial Match’ status and will be marked with yellow color. Pay attention to such lines and correct the mapping if needed.
If there is complete correspondence found, such users will be marked with green color with the 'Match' status.
You can review the mapping summary at the top of the section.
User Mapping can be exported to an Excel file. You can map the users in the Excel file if needed and upload the mapping from the Excel file to Project Migrator, User Mapping section.
If at least one user is not mapped a corresponding warning will appear.
Step 4 - Launching the migration process
When you complete all steps: set up the connection between source and target, select data for migration, perform mapping you can launch the migration process.
Please note: Planner sends notifications to all group members about comments, assignments, and when users are added to groups. Because of this, users may receive numerous notifications during data migration to MS Planner. Please refer to this article to disable them before the migration starts: How to turn off email notifications sent during migrations to Planner.
To launch the migration process click on the Proceed button under the 'User Mapping' section.
Migration Summary window will be opened. Review the information in the Migration Information section and click the 'Start Migration' button to launch the migration process.
Please note: If you have not purchased any subscription plan yet, a free plan (for 2 projects) will be applied. If you have exceeded the limit of projects that you can select for migration according to your subscription plan (free or paid one) and did not upgrade your plan while selecting the projects, you will see the 'Proceed to Checkout' button instead of the 'Start Migration' one. You can upgrade your plan by clicking on this button and then launch the migration process.
Data Migration Summary window will be opened displaying the Summary Information and the progress for the migrated groups and Projects as well as Migration Settings and Mapping.
The Projects can be opened and reviewed in Planner from the Migration Summary page.
