Should you use Metadata Vs Folders in Modern SharePoint?

That dreaded question for all the SharePoint experts out there. Should you use metadata or folders?
Metadata and folders are both methods for organizing and managing content in SharePoint. While they can both be useful, they have some important differences that you should be aware of when deciding which approach to use.
Folders are a traditional way of organizing content in SharePoint. They provide a hierarchical structure for organizing documents and other content, similar to how you might organize files in a file system on your computer. You can create folders within folders, and move documents around as needed. However, using folders can lead to some challenges.
Come check out some of the benefits and disadvantages of using either metadata or folders!
My Name is Andrew Hess.
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[@cvkealey]

I've been on the metadata bandwagon for a LONG time and it really irked me when Teams came out and I saw MS using folders for each channel. Since SO many people are using Teams, they're stuck using folders. However, I don't love combining folders and metadata in the same libraries, so I usually recommend creating separate libraries for those who see the light and adopt using metadata. For many teams, that doesn't fit with the content they manage, but in some cases, it works well, once the folks IN the team know where things are and how to access them.

[@andrewhess123]

Hey Chad, totally agree that Teams kinda ruined the metadata strategy. I think separate libraries whenever possible is a great idea. Thanks for watching!!

[@Wahinies]

Awesome video, I have just taken on a role responsible for structuring a mid size organizations data after migration from on prem and this makes the most sense in a concise package. Interesting you mention the Power platform, the outgoing admin that is showing me the ropes did an incredible flow where on file modification in a path, it would copy to a communication site and convert to a PDF. He had to use two variables with substrings that were not in any guide anywhere. You can combine your SP knowledge with Power like this and together there are some insane possibilities.

[@andrewhess123]

Very true Wahinies, the power platform can really solve many of the old school on prem ways. Thanks for watching! Hope you enjoy your new role.

[@geralddahl9159]

No Dataverse license,so using SharePoint more and benefiting so much from the insights you are sharing. Two things: (1) I’ve seen SharePoint create links in a document library and when you click the link it opens a ‘folder’ I thought I had structured (except that the folder doesn’t have a folder icon) - weird, don’t know how that happened 😮, and (2) I just plain and simple have a hard time searching for docs or list items I’ve created in SharePoint, especially when I’ve forgotten which site or doc library/list the item is in. Further, if I want to search for a match where all results contain a ‘ff’ for instance as part of the in the middle of the search (returns ‘waffle’, ‘baffle’ etc). Likewise if I have a date column 1/5/2023 through 6/30/2023 I need to scroll through the list pulling down 100 items at a time until I get to the range where 5/4/2023 is hiding - you can see I’m frustrated - so, if you can point me towards any good resources to improve my abilities (or if you are inclined to invest your own time towards a video of your own on this topic) I would be helped again. Thank you for helping us all improve, much appreciated!

[@andrewhess123]

Will get back to you, currently out traveling, taking screenshot to remember

[@scottgray9674]

Excellent video

[@andrewhess123]

Thanks scott!

[@londonengland2309]

Hi Andrew, many thanks for the excellent work. I have followed your advice and now using Document Set. Is a flat library approach better than the doc set?

[@andrewhess123]

Hi London, document sets are great! Some functionally (if I'm correct) is not fully in modern yet. It is a little more complicated but if you understand it and can easily explain to your users, i think they're great and have many benefits. Like the metadata that is inherited across the document sets.

[@andrewhess123]

I don't think you have to follow the flat document library exactly. You gotta find that sweet spot for your users. Depending how technical they are.

[@jaggyjut]

great video. What if we want to store all tenant documents like rent, ids, income details, work order etc. Should the library have a main folder per tenant ie tenant name and then within it all the documents with metadata or the library will have property address as the main folder, the tenant name as the second folder and within it all the documents with metadata. Also what to do if the folder crosses the recommended record limit of 5000 records per library or folder?

[@andrewhess123]

Hi jaggy, I would research document set's also. See what you like best? Document sets may be too complex as in it's too much work to update them? Or maybe you love them, everyone is different. I think your strategy of main folder per property is better but this is opinion, that way you have a property and as they change you can see all the tenants that used to belong to that property or multiple tenants. Make sure to keep search in mind. Can a user search what they need and find it easily? If you plan to go over 5000 records per library, don't use functionality like group bys also remove sorting, focus on search.. Also add indexes manually.

[@skrivyd]

For users that "need" to use OneDrive and Explorer can metadata be leveraged to assist with navigating this minimal sub-folder model?

[@andrewhess123]

Hi skyrivyd, not that I know of, mainly if they use onedrive or explorer it will be the file/folder structure.

[@spitsparrow]

I honestly dont understand how a company with thousands and thousands of documents is going to go through each one and create metadata for them. They can just drag and drop into a folder as pre-organised. The only good advice I guess is to set up more Libraries so you aren't going to deep 'folder in folder'

[@andrewhess123]

I would not say do this for every library, but it's going to be even more important with Copilot.

[@andrewhess123]

Also each SharePoint site has an owner or multiple owners. The decision for metadata should not rest one on persons overall vision. The SharePoint site owner can decide whether to include metadata or not. But a large folder structure going 5-6 deep is a mess, and I have seen that also. There is some middle ground there ... somewhere 😀

[@spitsparrow]

@@andrewhess123 yeh my current job requires me organising an older folder system into a new modern Sharepoint. The trouble is I want to incorporate meta data for a folder structure. But the folder literally contains 8000 documents over 10 plus years. They are all the same document types. Scans of an A4 page recording work for the day as scanned by the worker. I only need to add . worker name. crew name. date - easy metadata... but do I need to go into every single document and enter that data for each? how is this possible?

[@andrewhess123]

Hi Craig, Yeah that sounds rough, but.. if there is some sort of pattern, you could use Power Automate to do this. If there is some programmatic way that in the title of the document you can assign metadata, or some other way, you can have Power Automate loop through tag metadata throughout the documents.@@spitsparrow

[@MrJayfox75]

I’m sorry, but until metadata is available in windows file explorer, I still don’t see it as being a viable option. A lot of my colleagues sync sharepoint to file explorer which makes that metadata useless.

[@andrewhess123]

Wouldn't work for the larger companies I have worked at. Sure syncing a library to your explorer works for personal documents.. but when you have hundreds of thousands of documents, you can't search folder structures. You have to learn the folder structures where SharePoint search provides that ability. Yeah tagging everything takes time, but in many ways it can be helpful too, and sometimes not necessary. But doing everything through file explorer is not my first go-to option.