How to preserve created/modified/createdby/modifiedby information while copying a subsite / list / library under another site collection?

Question

It seems that with oob tools or using explorer view the modified/created/modifiedby/createdby information gets lost or changed to the time of copying the listitems/documents to another site collection.

Is it possible (oob or with tools) to copy a subsite or selected libraries (or even folders) from one subsite to another site collection (sp2007 and/or sp2010)?

Answer 1

The content migration framework should be able to migrate document library while keeping the created/modified info. Since you are looking for a tool, have you already tried to use the Content Deployment Wizard by Chris O'Brien? It should work without particolar problem for simple migration, but be aware that the migration framework has some limitations (for example, feature files won't be migrated) so you may need to tweak it a little if any special requirement arise.

Answer 2

stsadm -o export -includeusersecurity seems to work actually.

Export site:

stsadm -o export -url http://sp2010/sites/sc/subsite/ -filename subsite.cmp -includeusersecurity

Export list:

stsadm -o export -url http://sp2010/sites/sc/subsite/Lists/mylist/AllItems.aspx -filename mylist.cmp -includeusersecurity

Answer 3

As far as I experienced, not full. My most successful way: Using oob feature "open in explorer". That creates a network drive. Then I moved items, copying failed.

What happened: All fields created by/ modified by etc where overwritten with my account. But: I succeeded to keep last versions and document stayed checked-in. That means: the really last version became fully new written with my comments and stuff. But the comments and authors from previous versions were kept.

It is only 90% of what you want to do, but more than all lost.

Answer 4

I can recommend Gary Lapointe's custom STSADM commands (for 2007) or the powershell cmdlets (for 2010).

I've used the gl-exportlist to export a huge SP 2007 list with a lot of people field information and it worked great. It looks like this is also a wrapper around the content deployment API.

http://blog.falchionconsulting.com/index.php/stsadmpowershell-commands/

Answer 5

For SharePoint 2010 you can take advantage of the Import-Export PowerShell cmdlets to export/import a list and keep the version history etc...

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee906550.aspx