How do you move files from another drive into InstantDrive?

Last updated: 5 November 2026

What migration routes exist?

Three routes exist. Pick by volume and by how much help you want.

There is no Google Drive, OneDrive or SharePoint importer and no desktop sync client. Files must be downloaded from the old system and then moved in by one of the routes above.

How do you prepare the files first?

Step 1: Export or download the folders you want from the old drive. Keep a copy of the originals until the checks at the end are done.

Step 2: Remove what should not move, such as duplicates, drafts, temporary files and personal items. Anything above 100 MB is refused, so split or compress it now. Remove passwords from PDFs, because a protected PDF is stored without any fields read.

Step 3: Convert phone photos in HEIC or AVIF to JPEG or PDF. Those two formats are stored unconverted and may not be read.

Step 4: Do not spend long renaming files. InstantDrive renames each file from what it reads, so the old name is replaced.

What folder plan should you use?

InstantDrive creates four top-level folders: Employees, Vendors, Company_Expenses and Admin_Vault. Sort the files into these four groups before moving them. Staff files and identity documents go to Employees, supplier invoices and contracts to Vendors, receipts and claims to Company_Expenses, and licences, tenancy contracts, bank and tax papers to Admin_Vault.

A fictional example: Gulf Pearl Trading LLC has a shared drive with 40 folders named by year and by person. It exports them, sorts the files into the four groups on a PC, and keeps one sub-folder per supplier or employee inside each group.

How do you move files by upload?

Step 1: Open InstantDrive Vault Matrix and choose Ingest New Record.

Step 2: Drag a batch of files into the drop area, or choose browse computer and select them.

Step 3: Wait for the ingestion queue to finish. Each line shows the category, entity and identifier that were read, or the error if a file failed.

Step 4: Upload in batches by group. Smaller batches make it easier to find and fix failures.

A file that is already in the vault, as judged by its content, is not stored twice. It shows as verified in the vault.

How do you copy files over WebDAV?

WebDAV mounts InstantDrive as a drive on Windows, macOS or Linux. Files copied into it go through the same compress and naming pipeline as a web upload.

Step 1: In the app, choose Drive (I:\) in the top bar and open 1-Click Mount Setup. The panel shows the address and a ready command for your account.

Step 2: Mount the drive. On Windows this is a net use command, on macOS a Connect to Server address in Finder, and on Linux a davfs2 mount. Sign in with your account email and password.

Step 3: Copy files into the Employees, Vendors, Company_Expenses or Admin_Vault folders on the mounted drive. A top-level folder with any other name is filed under Admin_Vault.

Step 4: Expect names to change after copying. Windows and Mac junk files such as Thumbs.db, desktop.ini and .DS_Store are skipped.

WebDAV downloads stream through the InstantDrive server, unlike web downloads. WebDAV does not check for duplicate content, so copy each file once.

What naming plan should you follow?

InstantDrive renames each file from what it reads, in the pattern Prefix_Entity_Identifier_Exp followed by the expiry date. You cannot rely on old names surviving, so keep the old name only as a record in your own migration list.

Agree one spelling for each supplier and employee before moving, because the entity name in the new file name comes from the document text. Put the expiry date in your list for any document that has one, so you can compare it after the move.

How do you ask for free migration?

Write to [email protected] or call or message +971 55 884 5370, which also accepts WhatsApp. Say where your files live now, roughly how many there are and how they are organised. Do not send passwords by email.

What should you check after moving?

Step 1: Compare counts. The number of files in each group in InstantDrive should match what you moved, allowing for duplicates that were skipped.

Step 2: Open ten documents at random in each group, open Edit Metadata and compare the category, identifier and expiry date with the paper or PDF.

Step 3: Search for three known identifiers, such as a TRN, a licence number and a supplier name.

Step 4: Open Expiry Radar and confirm that licences, Emirates IDs and tenancy contracts appear with the right dates.

Step 5: Keep the old drive read-only for at least a month, then retire it.

What does InstantDrive not do in a migration?

It does not connect to Google Drive, OneDrive or SharePoint, does not keep your old folder names or permissions, and has no desktop sync client. Deleted documents cannot be restored from inside the app, so do not delete the old copies until you have checked the new ones.