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Copying or Moving SharePoint lists

Posted by on Aug 14, 2012 in C#, Our 2 Cents, Our Blog, SharePoint 2010 | 0 comments

You might need to move or copy the contents of a SharePoint list from one SharePoint site to another for any number of reasons. For example, you might want to copy a list to another site to use it as the base of a new list on that site, or you might want to move lists that you own from one site to another as you change workgroups. Use the steps described in this article to move or copy a list from your current SharePoint site (the source site) to another SharePoint site (the destination site).

Copying or moving SharePoint lists

This article describes two methods for copying or moving lists:

  • By using list templates    You can save the list as a list template, and then create a copy of the list by using the new list template. Your list and site must meet the following criteria to move a list by using a list template:
    • The list must contain less than 10 megabytes (MB) of list data.
    • You must be a member of a site group with the Manage Lists right on the source site and on the destination site. By default, the Manage Lists right is included in the Web Designer and Administrator site groups.
    • The source site and the destination site must be based on the same site template.

This is the easiest method when copying to another list within the same site collection, because it does not require importing and exporting the list, and it doesn’t require the intermediate step of using a spreadsheet program. (A site collection is a set of Web sites that have the same owner and share administration settings. Each site collection contains a top-level Web site and can contain one or more subsites.)

  • By exporting a list to a spreadsheet    You can export the list to a Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services-compatible spreadsheet program, such as Microsoft Office Excel 2003, and then import the list into the destination site. This method is useful when your list has more than 10 MB of data, when the source and destination sites use different site templates, or when you are not the member of a site group that has the Manage Lists right on the source site. (You must still be a member of a site group with the Manage Lists right on the destination site.) This method works for moving a list between sites in the same site collection or in different site collections. When you use this method, all copied lists will be custom lists in the destination Web site. This affects how the list looks and, to some extent, the way users interact with the list but preserves the data in the list.

 Note   You can not move document libraries using the methods described in this article. Find links to information about moving libraries in the See Also box.

Copy or move a list by using a list template

If the source Web site and the destination Web site are based on the same site template, you can copy or move a list from one site to another using a list template. You can move only lists that are smaller than 10 MB by using this method.

View the size of a list

If you are a site collection administrator, you can view the size of each list in the site collection. Find links to information about site collection administrators and owners in the See Also box.

  1. In the top-level site of the site collection containing the list, click Site Settings.
  2. In the Administration section, click Go to Site Administration.
  3. In the Site Collection Administration section, click View storage space allocation.
  4. In the Show Only box, click Lists, and then click Go.
  5. Use the Name, Path, and other columns to locate the list.

The size of the list, in megabytes, is displayed in the Size column.

If the list size is less than 10 MB, you can use the following steps to copy or move it. If the list size is more than 10 MB, skip the next section and go to “Copy or move a list by using a spreadsheet.”

Copy or move a list

  1. Create a list template based on the list.

How?

1.On the top link bar, click Documents and Lists. 2.On the Documents and Lists page, click the list that you want to copy. 3.On the page that displays the list, click Modify settings and columns. 4.On the Customize List_Name page, under General Settings, click Save list as template. 5.In the File Name box, type the file name to use for the template file. 6.In the Template Title box, type the title that you want to use for the template in the list template gallery. 7.In the Template Description box, type a description for the template. 8.Select the Include content check box. 9.Click OK. 10.On the Operation Completed Successfully page, click OK.
  1. If your sites are not in the same site collection, export the list template from the source site.

How?

1.On the top level site of the site collection containing the list that you want to copy, click Site Settings. 2.In the Administration section, click Go to Site Administration. 3.In the Site Collection Galleries section, click Manage list template gallery. 4.On the List Template Gallery page, click the list template that you want to export. 5.In the File Download dialog box, click Save. 6.In the Save As dialog box, navigate to the network location where you want to save the list template file, and then click Save. 7.In the Download Complete dialog, click Close.

 

  1. If your sites are not in the same site collection, import the list template to the destination site.

How?

1.On the top level site of the site collection that contains the source site, click Site Settings. 2.In the Administration section, click Go to Site Administration. 3.In the Site Collection Galleries section, click Manage list template gallery. 4.Click Upload template. 5.In the Name box, type of the full path to the network location of the list template file, or click Browse, locate the file by using the Choose file dialog box, and then click Open. 6.Click Save and close.
  1. Create the copy of the list.

How?

1.In the destination Web site, in the top link bar, click Create. 2.On the Create page, click the list template that you created to copy the list. 3.On the New List page, in the Name box, specify the copied list’s name and, optionally, in the Description box, type a description of the list. 4.Click Create.
  1. Delete the list template (optional).

How?

After you use the list template that you imported to create a copy of the list, you can delete the list template from the site collection list template gallery. 1.On the top level site of the site collection that contains the source site, click Site Settings. 2.In the Administration section, click Go to Site Administration. 3.In the Site Collection Galleries section, click Manage list template gallery. 4.On the List Template Gallery page, find the list template that you want to delete and click Edit Properties Edit Document Properties. 5.Click Delete, and then click OK when prompted.
  1. To move a list, delete the original list.

How?

If you want to move the list to the destination site, you can delete the list from the source site. 1.On the source site, on the top link bar, click Documents and Lists. 2.Click the name of the list you want to delete. 3.On the page that displays the list or library, click Modify settings and columns. 4.Under General Settings, click Delete this list.

Copy or move a list by using a spreadsheet

You can copy a list from one SharePoint site to another by exporting the list to a Windows SharePoint Services-compatible spreadsheet program such as Microsoft Office Excel 2003, and then importing the spreadsheet data into a the destination site as a list. To copy a list using this method, you must have Microsoft Internet Explorer 5 or later installed.

  1. Export the list to a spreadsheet.

How?

This procedure describes exporting a list to a spreadsheet by using Office Excel 2003. 1.In your SharePoint site, on the top link bar, click Documents and Lists. 2.On the Documents and Lists page, click the list that you want to export. 3.On the page that displays the list, in the Actions list, click Export to spreadsheet. 4.In the File Download dialog box, click Open. 5.In the Opening Query dialog box in Excel, click Open. 6.If no workbook is open, Excel creates a new blank workbook and inserts the list on a new worksheet.

      • If a workbook is open, in the Import Datadialog box, select one of the following options:
      • To insert the list in the active worksheet, click Existing worksheet.

In the worksheet, click the cell where you want to place the upper-left corner of the list, and then click OK.

  • To insert the data in a new worksheet, click New worksheet and click OK.
  • To insert the data in a new workbook, click New workbook and click OK.
  1. On the Data menu, click List, and then click Convert to Range.
  2. Click OK when prompted.
  3. On the File menu, click Save, and then save the file to your computer.
  4. Close the workbook.
  1. Import the list into the destination site.

How?

1.In the top link bar of the destination site, click Create. 2.On the Create Page page, in the Custom Lists section, click Import Spreadsheet. 3.In the Name box, type a name for the list. 4.In the Description box, type text that describes the purpose of the list. This field is optional. 5.In the Import from Spreadsheet section, click Browse to locate the spreadsheet that contains the list you exported from the source Web site. Select the spreadsheet, and then click Open. 6.Click Import. 7.In the Import to Windows SharePoint Services List dialog box, in the Range Type box, select Range of Cells. 8.In the Select Range box, type the range of cells to import. For example, $A$1:$D$4 specifies that the range begins with column A, row 1, and ends with column D, row 4. 9.Click Import.
  1. If you want to move the list, delete the original list from the source site.

How?

1.On the source site, on the top link bar, click Documents and Lists. 2.Click the name of the list you want to delete. 3.On the page that displays the list or library, click Modify settings and columns. 4.Under General Settings, click Delete this list.


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