Top 5 Document Management Data Migration Mistakes (and How to Avoid Them)

Migrating to a new Document Management System (DMS) can be a huge win for your organization—better searchability, stronger compliance and security, and streamlined workflows. But if you're not careful, the migration process itself can introduce risks that negate the very improvements you're aiming for.

Here are the top 5 document management data migration mistakes organizations make—and how to avoid them.

1. Migrating Everything Without Reviewing What You Have

Why It's a Problem:

When teams decide to move to a new DMS, there's often pressure to "just move everything" to avoid delays. But bringing over every file, including outdated reports, irrelevant documents, and – and this is a big one — duplicates transfers digital clutter into your new system. That undermines one of the primary goals of migration: to create a more organized and efficient document environment.

This approach can increase migration time, inflate storage costs, and frustrate users who struggle to find relevant content amid the noise, and are left wondering which of the three documents they retrieved with the same title is the right one.

And even worse, it can carry forward previous compliance liabilities, by retaining documents that should have been archived or destroyed.

How to Avoid It:

Treat migration as a clean-up opportunity. Perform a comprehensive audit of your current repository. Apply retention schedules to eliminate ROT (Redundant, Obsolete, Trivial) content. Engage stakeholders to identify critical documents and data.

Only migrate what's needed, and nothing more.

FormKiQ Recommends:

• Look at current usage: Don't forget to leverage existing audit and access reports and usage analytics to pinpoint documents that have not been accessed recently.
• Park and review in S3 or other object storage: If you do have an emergency "lift-and-shift" migration where you don't have time to review the entire document store in time, consider placing documents that still need review into a secure and encrypted lower-cost storage, such as Amazon S3 Infrequent Access; this will work as a temporary solution, (a "park and review"), but should not be considered a permanent place to store data, due to compliance and cost implications. But essentially, it's better to park and review in a secure manner, rather than creating a mess in the new system or maintaining a non-compliant or less-workable legacy system.
• Park and review in the new DMS: You could do something similar by migrating everything into your new system, but leveraging metadata and access control to both mark specific documents as needing review for ROT and to prevent unauthorized access to documents that still need to be reviewed for proper data classification.

2. Overlooking Metadata Structure and Searchability

Why It's a Problem:

Your new DMS may promise powerful search functionality, but fulfilling that promise relies heavily on structured metadata. If you migrate files without planning how those metadata fields map from your legacy system to the new platform, you'll end up with poor search results, and possibly even some documents that are practically invisible to your users.

Disorganized or missing metadata can also break automated workflows and make regulatory audits difficult. It leads to a disjointed user experience and erodes confidence in the system.

How to Avoid It:

Plan your metadata schema before the migration begins. Identify the fields in your current system and map them to the new DMS. Create tagging and document attribute conventions, document types and classifications, and consistent naming standards. Run test searches during the pilot phase to ensure documents are accessible and categorized correctly, preferably on a small but varied subset of your document repository, to adjust your metadata schema before you've completed migration.

FormKiQ Recommends:

• Plan it all out in one place: Create a spreadsheet that lists the types of documents, user roles, and search patterns, i.e., which metadata attributes your users will want to search on; by listing all of this information in one place, you can more easily identify patterns and determine consistent metadata schemas to use.
• Think beyond folders (and file names): Rather than placing documents in specific folders to organize, consider document-level metadata where each document carries its own searchable attributes; folders provide a nice visual representation of your document repository, and may help with role-based access control, but for both searching and least privilege policies, document-level metadata is best. While consistent file names are an asset, it's also best not to rely on the document path (folder and file name) alone.
• Consider automation when applying new metadata: There are many different ways to add metadata to documents, in migration scripts, cloud services, and leveraging LLMs; if you are feeling a need to manually add attributes to documents, that may be a sign you should revisit possible automated solutions, not only to save time and cost but to reduce the possibility of human error.
• Larger datasets need extra planning: When dealing with large numbers of documents, i.e., anything over a million, take extra time to ensure you have determined your metadata schema in advance; when working with large datastores, the cost and time needed to update document metadata can be considerable.
• Use advanced metadata functionality: For some document management systems, such as M-Files and FormKiQ (v1.18+), you can create a data entity type (or metadata item) such as "documentType", and create entities such as "Invoice" or "Birth Certificate"; assigning common and consistent attributes such as a retention policy to those entities enables updating that attribute in one place for all documents associated with that data entity, rather than having to update each document individually.

3. Underestimating Security and Compliance Risks

Why It's a Problem:

Migration is a critical window where sensitive data is in motion—and therefore vulnerable. Without adequate encryption and access controls, documents may be intercepted, corrupted, or accessed by unauthorized personnel.

In highly regulated industries (healthcare, legal, finance), a misstep during migration could result in compliance violations, triggering audits, fines, or lawsuits. Even in less-regulated environments, a breach can erode trust and damage your brand.

How to Avoid It:

Encrypt all data in transit and at rest. Use secure migration tools that provide detailed logging and version control. Implement strict access controls so only authorized personnel can access the data during the process. Post-migration, audit the new system to ensure permissions and compliance configurations are correctly applied.

FormKiQ Recommends:

• Encryption should be the default: There is no compelling reason to not encrypt data, even when working in non-production environments; it's better to assume that leakage of production data can happen than to hope it won't.
• Use sanitized versions of sensitive documents: It's best to create reasonable copies of confidential and secret documents for your initial migration development and testing with any sensitive data removed, to ensure that restricted information is not accidentally leaked while collaborating on the project.
• Use your existing controls as a model: For highly-regulated industries, leverage your existing policies around separation of responsibilities for the migration, i.e., ensure only privileged users can access the restricted original source data throughout the process, including the testing post go-live; engaging these users should be a key component of every step of the migration.

4. Not Testing the Migration Process

Why It's a Problem:

As we mentioned in item #2 (metadata schemas), it's important to test with an initial varied subset of documents. Skipping a test run of your migration is like launching a website without previewing it first. Organizations that go straight to full migration often discover issues too late, such as corrupted files, broken links, missing metadata, or access problems.

At that point, fixing the issues will delay go-live, result in an incomplete solution with a long list of "fast-follow" tweaks, or in the worst cases, result in the entire migration being considered a failure.

If you are unable to switch to the new system with confidence, you may end up with two systems instead of one, as the legacy system simply can't be retired because the new system just isn't doing the whole job.

How to Avoid It:

Always run a pilot migration using a representative subset of documents; in this situation, variety is key. Validate that document counts, folder structures, metadata, and access rights are properly maintained. Involve users in testing to surface real-world usability issues. A thorough dry run ensures a smoother full migration and reduces the risk of post-migration chaos.

FormKiQ Recommends:

• Don't leave out parts of the process: Be sure to test end-to-end and take note of migration times when you are testing your subset of documents; functionality adjacent to the initial migration, such as the final indexing of documents for search, can prevent challenges for migration timeframe or end user impact, so they should not be left out of the initial testing.
• User acceptance testing is a fundamental part of the initial testing: Involving end users is key, even when working with a subset, as changes needed based on user feedback will be significantly more difficult to implement after the full migration has been completed.
• Test with real user scenarios, not just technical validation: Work with end users to determine test workflows that mirror actual business processes, ideally before you are ready to ask those users to test.
• Plan for bandwidth limitations: There will be hard limits in several places in the migration process, whether that's the old system, the new system, or the network between them. By emulating the real end migration as much as possible, you can find and adjust both your process and your system configurations as needed before the final migration.

5. Ignoring User Training and Change Management

Why It's a Problem:

Even if your new DMS is more powerful and efficient, and all of the metadata is organized and properly tested, it won't matter if your users don't adopt it. Resistance to change, lack of training, and poor communication can sabotage the entire migration effort.

Without adequate support, users may continue using old systems or develop workarounds, leading to fragmented processes, duplicated documents, and increased support requirements.

If the new system isn't being used, you will be in worse shape than when you were struggling to get by with the old one.

How to Avoid It:

Start with a communication plan that explains why the change is happening and how it benefits the user. Offer role-specific training and real-time support during and after the transition. Identify power users to champion the new system and help others get on board.

Sometimes, the technical side of a migration is the easy part, and the hard part is meeting the needs of the people.

FormKiQ Recommends:

• Ensure the new system is designed and configured to improve upon the previous one: Looking only at cost and ease-of-migration when choosing a new system may result in users feeling "worse off" when using the new solution.
• Look to your vendor for support: A good solution should include not only an intuitive interface and helpful documentation, but your vendor should also be able to provide items such as tutorials and training; if customized materials will be required, ensure this is part of the initial conversation when engaging vendors, to avoid a last-minute rush to prepare the onboarding materials for your end users.
• Use existing interfaces when possible: If the new system allows it, whether through API-first design or customization, allowing users to work within familiar applications rather than requiring them to learn a new interface can ease adoption.

Final Thoughts

Data migration is more than a technical exercise of moving stuff from the old system to the new; it's a strategic initiative that impacts your entire organization. By avoiding these five common mistakes, you'll set the foundation for a clean, secure, and user-friendly document environment.

Clean data.
Structured metadata.
Secure handling.
Rigorous testing.
Empowered users.

That's the blueprint for migration success.

If you would like to discuss how FormKiQ's document platform and our migration best practices can benefit your organization, please contact us.