How can I preserve the DocumentID in a SharePoint 2013 to 2016 upgrade process?

Question

I will be upgrading from SharePoint 2013 on-prem to SharePoint 2016 on-prem.

I would like to know if by default the DocumentIDs will be preserved after upgrade to 2016. If not, how can the IDs be preserved?

Clarification:

I will not be moving documents. I will be upgrading from SharePoint 2013 to 2016 using the detach-attach upgrade process. In other words, a new SharePoint 2016 farm will be created along side the SharePoint 2013 farm, then the SP 2013 Content databases will be detached from the SP 2013 farm and attached to the SP 2016 farm. After this process, will the DocumentIDs be preserved in the SharePoint 2016 farm?

Answer 1

As Short answer : It will be preserved because the documentID stored at content database !!

Details: Based on my knowledge on the Sharepoint migration from 2010 to 2013 , It will be preserved but you may face some issue like the links for each document's ID will still reference the original SharePoint server. so to avoid any issue, you should run the following two timer job manually to avoid any issue:

• Document ID assignment Work item
• Document ID enable / disable Work item.

So regarding , upgrade from 2013 to 2016 , it's the same as the upgrade from 2010 to 2013 because it's also a database-attach upgrade method.

Answer 2

According to your description, my understanding is that you want to preserve the Document ID when moving the documents. Per my knowledge, the document id will be preserved when the document has been moved.

During move operations, SharePoint Server 2010 keeps the document ID. During copy operations SharePoint Server 2010 assigns a new document ID. You can control this by setting a Boolean operator on the PersistID column. According to this article, there is a PreserveID attribute when using the Document ID service: https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee559302(v=office.14).aspx

Also check this article i.e. SharePoint 2013/2010 – Document ID Service Preserving IDs While Moving Documents: https://www.plusconsulting.com/blog/2013/08/sharepoint-2013-2010-document-id-service-preserving-retaining-ids-move-cop-documents/

Site Settings --> Content and Structure --> Select the library in the left pane --> select one or many files and choose Move from the actions menu (or the drop down to move individual documents), check this article to get in more detailed: https://sharepointsolutiontips.blogspot.in/2016/09/how-to-migrate-sharepoint-list-while.html

Hope this helps!