This article answers frequently asked questions about Insane mode, data security, and installing the Server Extension.

Insane mode is a setting found in ShareGate Migrate that allows you to migrate or import your content and objects faster.

You can use Insane mode with both on-premises and Microsoft 365 environments.

With Microsoft 365, Insane mode uses Microsoft's Migration API to move larger volumes of data, facilitated by your Microsoft Azure storage account. This process also helps reduce throttling in your Microsoft 365 tenant.

With on-premises, Insane mode uses the Server Extension (version 1.8.3 or greater) on your destination server to improve migration performance and speed.

The data that transitions through ShareGate Migrate is encrypted when you connect to a SharePoint site that uses HTTPS.

When you use Insane mode in a Microsoft 365 environment, Microsoft encrypts your content with AES CBC 256 Standard encryption when it is uploaded to your Azure storage.

For more information, see Encryption and security.

Yes, for on-premises migrations we highly recommend installing the Server Extension on your production server, without exception. Please see our Server Extension checklist article for more information and instructions on installing it on your web front-end servers.

Insane mode generally has less of an impact on your server(s).

For Microsoft 365 (which does not require server extension installation), Insane mode allows ShareGate Migrate to quickly push files to Azure, where the Microsoft Datacenter pushes them back in place properly at your source environment. Everything is hosted in the cloud, so there is minimal impact.

For an on-premises migration, Insane mode allows the data to be obtained at a quicker rate than Normal mode, so though there will be an impact, it will again be minimal as long as you have the Server Extension installed (since this results in fewer calls for each operation).

Always keep your performance options in mind. These are separate from Insane mode or Normal mode (Insane mode and Normal mode are migration settings, whereas performance options pertain to server requests). Play around with the performance options to find the number of simultaneous requests you can comfortably allow to minimize the impact on your server. The setting can also be adjusted during a live migration, so you are in control the whole time.

When you change your migration speed from Normal mode to Insane mode, Insane mode will take effect for all future migrations. If you change your migration speed during a migration, the change will not impact that specific migration.

You do not need to restart ShareGate for a change in migration speed to take effect.

When you cancel an Insane mode migration to a Microsoft 365 destination, your cancellation request may see a delay when Microsoft 365 is importing items from Azure.

In this case, your content is sent to temporary Azure storage with instructions, and Microsoft 365 imports that content to the proper list or library. At this point, the application waits for confirmation that the import process was successful.

If no progress is made for over 24 hours for such a task, there could be an issue with the Azure queue, and you might not be able to remove the task in the app. If that happens, you can safely ignore the running task and re-attempt your operation.

When you retry the operation, we recommend reducing your migration scope and checking your network to ensure ShareGate Migrate can adequately communicate with Microsoft 365.

Here are the most common limitations of Insane mode:

An Insane mode migration to Microsoft 365 is most beneficial for Copy content-only procedures. In a Copy structure and content, site objects (with exceptions) are re-created with the proper settings at the destination. The impact is lowered if most of the content is structural. Having the server extension properly installed always lowers the chance of any potential issues.

You can access a full list of our migration limitations in the Limitations portion of the help center.