migrationoffice-suiteschange-management

Step-by-step: Migrating off Microsoft 365 to LibreOffice and alternate collaboration stacks

ssharepoint

2026-01-27

10 min read

A practical migration playbook for organizations exiting Microsoft 365—covers document compatibility, collaboration replacements, governance and cutover.

Facing a Microsoft 365 exit? A practical, risk-focused playbook to migrate to LibreOffice and alternate collaboration stacks

Hook: If you’re an IT leader or SharePoint admin tasked with removing Microsoft 365 for cost, policy, or data-sovereignty reasons, this guide is for you. I’ll walk you through an operational playbook — inventory, compatibility checks, data export, collaboration replacements, governance, cutover and training — with executable commands and tools you can run today.

The problem now (2026 context)

Through late 2025 and into 2026, two trends accelerated migrations away from large public cloud productivity suites: rising licensing costs and heightened regulatory scrutiny over AI-enabled services and data residency. Governments and privacy-conscious organizations increasingly demand vendor transparency and local control. That has pushed many teams to choose open-source stacks — LibreOffice as the desktop suite, and combinations like Nextcloud + Collabora/OnlyOffice or federated chat/video stacks — as the backbone for their new productivity environments. For teams evaluating where to run compute and analytics for replacements of Power Platform and embedded AI, see work on Designing Data Centers for AI and edge-first model serving & local retraining approaches.

High-level migration strategy (inverted pyramid)

Plan: Governance, scope, compliance mapping, risk and rollback criteria.
Inventory & analyze: Who uses what (files, mailboxes, Teams, SharePoint sites, Power Platform artifacts).
Export & preserve: Use Graph, PnP, rclone and eDiscovery to export content in bulk.
Convert & validate: Batch convert formats to ODF or canonical archival formats with LibreOffice headless and conversion tools.
Replace collaboration: Choose and implement storage, real-time editing, chat and meetings alternatives.
Cutover: Pilot waves, data sync, final delta sync, DNS and client cutover, decommissioning.
Post-migration: Training, support, audits, and long-term governance.

Step 1 — Plan: scope, regulatory mapping, and acceptance criteria

Before any export, create a one-page plan that lists:

Business drivers (cost reduction, sovereignty, policy).
Scope: users, mailboxes, OneDrive, SharePoint sites, Teams channels, Planner/Power Platform artifacts, OneNote notebooks.
Compliance footprint: retention policies, eDiscovery, legal holds, data residency requirements.
Acceptance criteria: file fidelity thresholds, macro/functionality exceptions, allowed downtime per user group.
Rollback conditions and retention timeline for exported archives.

Key governance tasks

Map M365 retention policies to your new stack’s retention/immutable storage (S3 Object Lock, Nextcloud retention app, or WORM-enabled object storage).
Decide who owns the conversion backlog (e.g., power users with critical legacy macros).
Define audit logging and SIEM integration requirements for the successor stack.

Step 2 — Inventory & analysis (technical discovery)

Run a discovery pass to quantify scope and complexity.

Files: number of documents, total bytes, newest/oldest, file types (DOCX/XLSX/PPTX, DOC/MDB/XLA, OLE objects).
Workloads: Active Teams/Channels, SharePoint modern vs classic pages, Power Platform apps & flows, Power BI reports.
Mailboxes: size distribution, delegation, litigation holds, shared mailboxes.

Tools & commands for discovery

Examples that are essential in 2026:

Microsoft Graph / Security & Compliance Center to enumerate mailboxes and eDiscovery holds. Consider automation patterns inspired by inbox automation playbooks when designing mailbox exports and repeatable exports.
PnP.PowerShell to enumerate SharePoint sites and files:

<?php?><!-- Example PnP.PowerShell commands -->
Connect-PnPOnline -Url https://contoso.sharepoint.com
Get-PnPTenantSite | Select Url, StorageUsageCurrent
Get-PnPList -Identity "Shared Documents" | Get-PnPListItem -PageSize 1000

Note: For extremely large tenants, favor Microsoft Graph API calls with pagination and export results to CSV for analysis. If you’re planning federated search or heavy ingestion, review guidance on edge CDN and ingestion playbooks to size indexing pipelines and asset distribution.

Step 3 — Export & preserve (bulk data extraction)

Export is two-fold: preserve immutable backups for legal/archival needs, and stage copies for the new collaboration platform.

Mailboxes and compliance exports

Use Security & Compliance Center Content Search + Export (eDiscovery export) or Graph API-based export to pull PSTs for mailboxes on hold.
Store PSTs in immutable object storage (S3 with Object Lock) and keep a manifest with checksums.

OneDrive and SharePoint — recommended approach: rclone

rclone remains the fastest, most flexible CLI tool in 2026 to migrate site libraries and OneDrive content into object storage or Nextcloud via WebDAV. rclone supports OneDrive/SharePoint via the Microsoft Graph connector.

rclone copy "onedrive:sites/contoso/Shared Documents" /mnt/migration/contoso-shared --transfers=16 --checkers=16 --drive-chunk-size=64M --log-file=rclone-sharepoint.log

Benefits: resumable transfers, checksums, and integrations to S3-compatible targets (Backblaze, Wasabi, AWS S3) for archival. For larger analytic workloads consider whether to land extracts in a canonical analytics store or an archival store; recent comparisons of cloud data warehouses can help you weigh price, performance, and lock-in when you decide where to stage exports.

Large-scale scripted export using PnP / Graph

For structured exports (metadata + content), pull file metadata via Graph and then download by fileId. Store metadata as NDJSON. When you need to bridge data between tenants or to third-party services, follow patterns from the responsible web data bridges playbook to keep provenance and consent intact.

Step 4 — Document compatibility: convert, triage, and canonicalize

This is the heart of the project. Decide your canonical storage format and an exceptions management process.

Canonical formats

Editable canonical: ODF (ODT/ODS/ODP) for long-term, editable storage with LibreOffice.
Archival canonical: PDF/A for final, non-editable archival copies.

Conversion tooling

Use LibreOffice in headless mode for bulk conversion. For fidelity-critical documents, preserve the original MS format in an archive directory and run a conversion+QA pipeline.

soffice --headless --convert-to odt --outdir /mnt/converted /mnt/migration/*.docx
soffice --headless --convert-to ods --outdir /mnt/converted /mnt/migration/*.xlsx

Notes on fidelity:

Text documents (DOCX): Most text and layout convert well to ODT, but complex tracked changes, custom SmartArt and some advanced Word fields (cross-references, some label fields) require QA.
Spreadsheets (XLSX): Formulas are generally preserved but beware of Power Query, Data Model (Power Pivot), macros (VBA), and external data connections. PivotTables may need reconfiguration; if your teams rely on spreadsheet-first edge sync patterns, review the spreadsheet-first edge datastores field report for hybrid approaches to keeping spreadsheets usable across disconnected environments.
Presentations (PPTX): Static slides convert well; complex animations and embedded media should be verified.
Macros: VBA is not natively compatible with LibreOffice Basic. Decide to either port critical macros (manual effort) or host an isolated Windows runtime for legacy macro execution.

Automated QA — sampling and automated checks

Random sampling by file type + size bands; run compare checksums, page counts, and plain-text diffs (for text docs).
Automate a subset conversion with unoconv + LibreOfficeKit and run smoke tests for a group of power users.

Step 5 — Build the collaboration stack (reference architectures)

Below are two practical stacks — choose based on in-house skills, compliance needs, and total cost of ownership.

Stack A — Open-source self-hosted (maximum control)

Storage & sync: Nextcloud (file shares, versioning, retention apps)
Real-time editing: Collabora Online (LibreOffice-based) or ONLYOFFICE
Chat: Matrix/Element or Mattermost
Meetings/video: Jitsi (self-host or Jitsi Meet)
Email: Postfix + Dovecot or hosted Proton Mail for business
SSO & provisioning: Decentralized Identity is becoming an alternative to traditional SSO; many teams still choose Keycloak with SCIM integration for predictable provisioning.
Search & eDiscovery: OpenSearch / Elastic ingestion with audit trails

Stack B — Hybrid hosted & privacy-first (faster time-to-value)

Managed Nextcloud provider (hosted in-region)
Collabora/ONLYOFFICE as managed service
Encrypted hosted email (ProtonMail Business or Tutanota)
Chat: Mattermost Cloud or Element Matrix hosted

Tip: Collabora Online provides better fidelity with LibreOffice rendering; ONLYOFFICE sometimes offers better MS-compatible rendering for XLSX/PPTX. Run a pilot test to decide which editing engine to standardize on. If you expect to distribute client updates or assets widely, consult guidance on portfolio ops & edge distribution for operational patterns.

Step 6 — Migration waves and pilot: risk-managed rollouts

Execute in waves: pilot (10–50 users), early adopters, department waves, then full cutover. Each wave follows:

Pre-migration training and documentation to the wave.
Export user-owned OneDrive data and shared sites snapshot.
Convert known-critical docs and restore into Nextcloud (or target).
Provision accounts in target (via SCIM/Keycloak or manual sync).
Final delta sync: copy files changed since initial export.
User cutover: share new URL, demonstrate editing, and decommission mapped OneDrive folder.

Delta sync strategy

Use rclone with --max-age or incremental sync and test timestamps. For very active users, reduce the window by performing nightly deltas during the final week and a final sync during a low-usage weekend. If you’re orchestrating many moving parts during cutover, align your release strategy with zero-downtime release pipelines principles to reduce user-visible disruption.

Step 7 — Cutover checklist (weekend plan)

Announce final cutover window and expected downtime.
Disable new file creation in M365 tenant (read-only mode) to avoid last-minute edits.
Run final rclone delta sync for OneDrive/SharePoint.
Export last-minute mailbox items if required (incremental eDiscovery export).
Update DNS/SSO endpoints to point to new authentication provider.
Support: standby migration team, helpdesk scripts, quick-reference cheat sheets for users.

Step 8 — Post-migration governance, backups, and legal holds

Key controls to implement immediately:

Immutable backups: Export snapshots to object storage with retention and Object Lock.
Audit logging: Centralize logs (Nextcloud audit, Collabora activity, Keycloak auth logs) into SIEM. For long-term retention and search performance, consider trade-offs described in cloud data warehouses reviews when designing your analytics and eDiscovery landing zone.
Retention policies: Recreate M365 retention/hold rules in Nextcloud or object storage rules.
Encryption & KMS: Configure server-side encryption and integrate with a KMS to meet compliance.

Training, change management and support

Adoption breaks without training. Attack the problem with three parallel tracks:

Power users: Intensive workshops on converting macros and re-creating key workflows.
Everyday users: Short, focused how-to videos (3–5 minutes) for file sync, sharing, and live editing.
Helpdesk: Playbooks for common issues, escalation paths and an FAQ for known limitations. Look at community and forum approaches to maintain ongoing peer support (for example, modern neighborhood forums and knowledge hubs) so users have a place to ask questions post-cutover.

Common user objections and rebuttals

"I need real-time co-authoring like Docs/Word Online." — Demo Collabora/ONLYOFFICE co-authoring and share latency expectations.
"My macros won't work." — Identify top N macros by impact and either port them, re-implement in Python/JavaScript, or run them in a managed Windows app server.
"Search isn't as powerful." — Deploy OpenSearch and integrate file metadata for fast search; provide training on tags and metadata to compensate.

Rollback & disaster recovery

Keep a clear, short rollback plan for the first 90 days: do not decommission the M365 tenant until legal and operational stakeholders sign off. Keep exports and a staging M365 read-only copy for 90–180 days depending on your compliance obligations. Operational playbooks for distribution and rollback are covered in several field reviews, including portfolio ops & edge distribution.

Advanced technical notes and scripts

Sample rclone one-liner for incremental copy from OneDrive to Nextcloud WebDAV:

rclone sync onedrive:sites/contoso/Shared "nextcloud:/Remote/contoso-shared" --transfers=12 --checkers=8 --checksum --tpslimit 10 --log-file=onedrive-sync.log

Batch convert DOCX to ODT and generate a CSV manifest:

find /mnt/migration -name "*.docx" -print0 | xargs -0 -n1 -P8 sh -c 'soffice --headless --convert-to odt "\$0" --outdir /mnt/converted && echo "\$0,OK" >> /mnt/converted/manifest.csv' sh

What to expect after 30–180 days (post-2026 trends)

Expect a two-phase stability timeline: early usability issues for power users (macros, pivot tables, PowerQuery) in the first 30 days; deeper governance and workflow re-design in the first 3–6 months. By 2026, the open-source editing engines and real-time stacks have matured substantially, reducing friction — but complex Power Platform replacements still require re-architecting into microservices or Python ETL jobs. For teams designing those replacements, the intersection of edge compute, data gravity, and hybrid workflows is explored in the hybrid edge workflows field guide.

"Treat the Microsoft 365 exit as an application migration — not just a file copy. Workflows, macros, and integrations carry most of the risk."

Checklist: Must-have deliverables before you flip the switch

Signed stakeholder acceptance criteria and SLA for the new stack.
Complete inventory CSV with file counts & identified high-risk documents.
Backups of all content stored in immutable object storage with manifests and checksums.
Conversion run for critical documents and a triage backlog for exceptions.
Provisioned authentication and SCIM provisioning tested end-to-end.
Training material and helpdesk playbooks published.
Rollback plan and timeline for tenant decommissioning (90–180 days typical).

Final recommendations — minimize risk, preserve options

Keep originals: always archive originals in a secure immutable store before any conversion.
Run a pilot that mirrors real world complexity (finance, legal documents, macros).
Automate everything you can: discovery, export, conversion, and QA to reduce manual mistakes; automation patterns can borrow from operational playbooks such as portfolio ops & edge distribution.
Budget for rework: spreadsheet workflows and Power Platform replacements are the highest cost items.
Preserve legal/forensic access to the old tenant until legal confirms retention policies are satisfied.

Actionable takeaways (quick-start)

Start with a scoped pilot (10–50 users) and a 90‑day legal hold on M365 exports.
Use rclone for high-throughput OneDrive/SharePoint exports and soffice headless for conversions.
Choose Collabora or ONLYOFFICE based on pilot fidelity tests; standardize on one editor for consistency.
Implement immutable archival storage and integrate audit logs into your SIEM before cutover.

Call to action

If your organization is evaluating a Microsoft 365 exit in 2026, start with the checklist above. Download our ready-to-run migration scripts and the two-week pilot playbook (includes rclone configs, PnP/Graph discovery queries and LibreOffice conversion jobs) from sharepoint.news — or contact our migration team to run a no‑surprise pilot for your top 100 users.

sharepoint

Contributor

Senior editor and content strategist. Writing about technology, design, and the future of digital media. Follow along for deep dives into the industry's moving parts.