I would like to get some different perspectives on this.
We currently use SharePoint 2013. This was installed about 3 years ago by a vendor. I think it may have been their first install because we have seen several things that were not set up correctly. We have had some weird issues, anomalies and things not working correctly  from time to time. So my thought is rather than upgrade to 2016, we stand up a new farm on new servers for 2016. What are the pro’s and con’s?  What does this involve? Are there any third party tools that we could use to transfer content from  SharePoint 2013 to SharePoint 2016?
I have done many migrations and would rather stay away from 3rd party tools unless absolutely required. ShareGate is my only preferred choice (not because I endorse them for anything in return because it is the best cost effective tool in any migration project as such).
You should simply setup a SP 2016 farm and follow the clean up advice from Nick above (Golden advice do not ignore it). Try to migrate everything first via content detach and attach method – if you have less content and can migrate over a weekend. If you need gradual move for certain sites then using a tool might be better – also – in scenarios where you need to restructure content in target.
One more advice – test test and test again. Do not go live with first testing and doing a dry run with business to see if there are any issues at all.
Regards,
Jasjit
It depends on y how big is your data and how complicated is your farm..
I always prefer to go with DB attached/detached method as this brings across all stuff  but with this you also needs to upgrade the solutions to manage to work with new Sharepoint version.
With Migration tools there are downsides eg: it can’t copy workflows,
We are using Sharegate for our clients based on scenarios and it is an amazing tool. it is cost effective and it also gives you Sharepoint reports asides from just migration.
Agreed. The content attach method is pretty easy, though doing things one site, site collection, or web app at a time can be beneficial as you clean up. Tools can help with this. I also lean toward sharegate. If you don’t clean up first, your problems are going to migrate with you.
Hey Ernie, you’re on the right path. You should definitely build the 2016 farm and migrate there. I don’t see any reason not to.
However, you will want to clean up your old content as much as possible before you migrate, and have a solid plan.
I’d recommend doing an audit of content, then getting rid of things you don’t use. Also, review all your custom applications and features, because they may or may not transfer over well. This is especially important if you started off on an older version of SharePoint, and brought missing references issues to your current farm.
Finally, using a third party tool will make things way easier. Check out that comparison Mark posted. All of them have pros and cons, but they all work too.
Hey Ernie – we’ve got a great migration comparison matrix on here that compares the 3rd party migration tools. I think all of the bigger vendors will support migrating from SharePoint 2013 to SharePoint 2016.
With regard to your problems – if they’re pretty bad I would definitely consider a new Farm and then do a content copy across. However, hopefully one of the vendors will see this to give you some much more informed advice.
