A Step-by-Step Guide to Migrating Your Content to Thrive

Admin and Management
  • Updated on May 13, 2025
  • Published on May 13, 2025
  • 4 minute(s) read
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Migrating learning and data from a customer’s existing Learning Management System () to Thrive involves careful planning and execution to ensure full fidelity, visibility, and success tracking. This article provides an overview of how to prepare your content files for migration, the key steps involved in the process, and a summary of content types supported for migration.

Note:

With a Pro+ subscription or a one-time paid service, you can get support to seamlessly transfer content from your legacy LMS to Thrive.

The purpose of this migration process is to preserve the integrity of learning records, content structures, and user histories while ensuring a smooth transition to Thrive.

The migration process is comprehensive and designed to migrate content and data such as:

  • Learning content (for example, courses, videos, articles)

  • Completion records

  • User data

We follow a structured approach to ensure that all migrated content meets your expectations and that success can be tracked at every stage. Here’s an overview of the 8-step migration process:

  • Meet with the customer to understand their current LMS setup, data structure, and key goals.

  • Identify the types of content to be migrated (e.g., videos, courses, events).

  • Export a sample dataset to validate field mapping.

2. Content Audit and Inventory

  • Catalogue the source LMS content by type, volume, and format.

  • Identify and flag deprecated or low-use content for exclusion or archiving.

  • Map legacy LMS fields to Thrive fields using a shared mapping sheet.

  • Identify required transformations (for example, date formatting, user IDs, status values).

  • Translate taxonomy (tags, categories) to Thrive equivalents.

  • Load a test dataset into a sandbox environment in Thrive.

  • Validate field accuracy, playback, visibility, and user completion data.

  • Adjust mappings based on feedback.

  • Use Thrive’s internal tools and APIs to upload content at scale.

  • Stagger migration by content type if needed to reduce disruption.

  • Provide CSVs or dashboards comparing migrated versus original data.

  • QA sample records with the customer for verification.

  • Enable migrated content and track usage in real-time.

  • Offer a final validation workshop with the customer team.

  • Continue tracking data integrity and completion metrics for the first 30 days.

  • Provide post-migration reports as needed.

Preparing Your Content Files

Thrive supports the migration of several content types from your legacy LMS, including:

  • Videos (MP4, MOV, AVI, and other common formats, with subtitles and closed captions)

  • Learning Pathways

  • Articles (HTML, DOCX, Markdown)

  • PDFs and other file-based content (e.g. DOCX, XLSX, PPTX)

  • Events

  • URLs/Links

Each content type may require specific handling, so it's important to prepare the files and metadata accordingly. Below, we explain how to prepare and import some of the most common content types.

Preserve video learning assets and accessibility features, including captions and transcriptions.

  1. Export video files: Retrieve raw video files or cloud links from your legacy LMS.

  2. Check transcription format: Ensure subtitles are available in VTT format.

  3. Upload to Thrive: Use the content uploader or request bulk upload to add videos and attach transcriptions.

  4. Test playback and accessibility: Validate video quality, buffering, and caption visibility.

  5. Tag and categorise: Assign appropriate tags, thumbnails, and visibility settings.

Ensure that users' learning journeys and completion dependencies are preserved when migrating from your legacy LMS.

  1. Extract pathway design: Identify course order, dependencies, and completion criteria from your legacy LMS.

  2. Rebuild in Thrive: Use Thrive’s Learning Pathway feature to recreate these pathways.

  3. Link completion dependencies: Set pre-requisites and branching logic if applicable.

  4. Test user journeys: Run walkthroughs with test accounts to validate the flow and completion rules.

  5. Launch to live users: Publish the pathways with user group targeting, deadlines, and tracking enabled.

Preserve user completion records to ensure users’ learning progress is accurately tracked in Thrive.

  1. Export completion data: Export user ID/email, content titles, completion dates, and status from your legacy LMS.

  2. Map fields: Translate user identifiers to Thrive users and confirm date formatting.

  3. Upload to Thrive: Use Thrive’s backend import tool to load the completion data and link it to migrated content.

  4. Validate accuracy: Run sample checks with your team and compare counts by user, course, and status.

  5. Display in reports: Ensure that historical completions are visible in user transcripts and admin reports.

Migrate written content, such as articles or documents, from your legacy LMS to  Thrive.

  1. Export Articles: Extract articles in formats like HTML, DOCX, or Markdown, including metadata such as titles, authors, and publish dates.

  2. Format for Thrive: Clean and standardise formatting (headings, bold, lists). Review for broken links or outdated references.

  3. Upload to Thrive: Use  Thrive’s article creation tool or request bulk upload.

  4. Tag & categorize: Assign tags for discoverability and group articles by topic or department.

Preserve external learning content such as YouTube videos or SharePoint documents hosted outside your LMS.

  1. Extract URLs: Gather all relevant links along with associated metadata (e.g., title, description, tags).

  2. Structure metadata: Use a spreadsheet to organise URLs, titles, descriptions, and categories.

  3. Upload to Thrive: Use the “Add Link” feature or bulk upload to publish the links.

  4. Validate: Ensure all links work, redirect correctly, and are appropriately categorized.

Ensure the success of the migration and address any issues as they arise.

  1. QA & validation: After migrating the data, we'll perform thorough validation, compare migrated data against the original, and work closely with your team to confirm everything is accurate.

  2. Go Live Support: Once the content is live, we will assist in tracking usage, and ensure that all reporting and analytics are functioning as expected.

  3. Ongoing monitoring: We will continue to monitor the system and provide reports for the first 30 days, ensuring that your migration is stable and issues are addressed quickly.

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