If you’re new to Microsoft Office 365, you might be a little bit worried about how to migrate email to Office 365 from another email provider like Gmail or Yahoo! Well, don’t worry at all! In fact, it’s a very simple and quick process. So let’s start!
Migrate to Office 365 in 4 easy steps
- Step 01: Get ready to migrate to Office 365
- Step 02: Setup your Office 365 account to migrate email
- 👉 Office 365 Bussiness Accounts
- 👉 Office 365 Home & Student or free Office 365 Accounts (outlook.com, hotmail.com…)
- Step 03:Start the Office 365 email migration
- Step 04: Done! Don’t forget to do this after the migration 👉
Step 01: Get ready to migrate to Office 365
In order to migrate to Office 365, you need to have the following credentials at hand:- the credentials for your old email account (username, password and name of your mailserver)
- the credentials for your Office 365 account
👉 If you have the credentials for both accounts at hand, continue with step 02. Otherwise, keep on reading 😉
Don’t have your Office 365 credentials?
When you register with a hosting provider, you will usually receive your access data in the form of an email or a data sheet. It’s notoriously easy to lose things like this, so the first piece of advice is to log into your hosting provider’s customer center and look for your credentials there. For large hosting providers, a quick Google search for “your hosting provider credentials” can help you find where to get your email account credentials.
If you still do not find your credentials, please contact your hosting providers support.
Don’t have the credentials for your old account?
Know your Office 365 credentials? Skip to step 02
Usually, your Office 365 credentials are stored in your local computer, so it’s quite likely that you don’t have them at hand when you wish to migrate email to Office 365.
In case you don’t know your username, use the Microsoft Username Recovery tool.
A detailed description on what to do in case you forgot your username can be found here.
Got your username, but forgot your password? Check out this Microsoft help page to find out how to reset a forgotten password.
Step 02: Setup your Office 365 account to migrate email
To migrate emails from or to an Office 365 account, you have to set up your account before starting the migration.
I’m using an
- Office 365 Bussiness Account
- Office 365 Home & Student or free Office 365 Accounts (outlook.com, hotmail.com…)
Info: In some cases, it is possible that you cannot connect with your Office 365 account, even though you followed the steps in this tutorial. This applies to Office 365 accounts for which basic authentication was disabled before January 2023. For these accounts, Microsoft permanently removed basic authentication. This means, that at the moment, there is unfortunately no possibility to connect MailJerry with your account.
But heads up: 90% of all Office 365 accounts work fine and we’re working on a solution for the remaining 10%. Therefore, we recommend to follow this tutorial and see if a connection can be established.
Setup for Office 365 Business Accounts
To set up your Office 365 Business account to migrate to Office 365, you need to perform 3 steps:
- Disable Security Defaults
- Check your Multi-factor authentication settings
- Depending on your settings: Add an app password
1 | Disable Security Defaults
1. Log in to http://admin.microsoft.com.
2. In the left sidebar, click on Show all
3. Click on Azure Active Directory. This link prompts you to the Azure Active Directory admin center.
4. In the admin center, scroll down and click on Properties. In the property settings, scroll to the end of the section and click on Manage security defaults
5. Set the switcher Enable security defaults to No.
As reason, choose the option “My organization is unable to use apps/devices”
Don’t forget to click on Save
2 | Check your Multi-factor authentication settings
1. Log in to admin.microsoft.com.
2. In the sidebar, click on Users > Active users. In the active users list, click on Multi-factor authentication.
3. Check the Multi-factor auth status for the user:
The password you have to use in order to migrate your emails depends on this status. There are three options:
Disabled: In this case, use your regular user password.
Enabled: You can use your regular password or app password.
Enforced: You have to use an app password.
4. Optional – only necessary if you are using an app password!
Click on service settings and make sure that the option Allow users to create app passwords to sign in to non-browser apps is checked.
2 | Add an app password
In case you checked the options “enabled” or “enforced” in the Multi-factor authentication settings, you need to create an app password to migrate to Office 365:
1. Log in to https://login.microsoftonline.com.
2 Click on your initials / your profile picture in the upper right corner and select View account
3. Go to Security info
4. Click on Add sign-in method
5. In the dialog that now opens, select App password when asked which method you would like to add. Click on Add.
There is no option “App password”? This happens for some accounts. In this case, please set the Multi-factor auth setting to disabled and use your regular password instead of an app password to migrate to Office 365. (View instructions)
6. Create a name for the Microsoft 365 app password. You can enter any name that helps you to identify the password, e.g. MailJerry. Proceed by clicking on Next.
7. Copy your app password. Now enter the app password in the MailJerry password field and start your migration. Don’t forget to delete your app password after your migration and all sycns finished.
Troubleshooting for Office 365 Business Accounts
In case you run into problems connecting with your Office 365 Business Account, check if IMAP is enabled:
1. Log in to admin.microsoft.com.
2. In the sidebar, click on Users > Active users
3. Click on the display name of the account you would like to activate IMAP for.
4. In the overlay, click on the tab Mail, and select Manage email apps in the category Email apps.
5. Check the option IMAP and click on Save changes.
None of the solutions work. What can you do?
Some users were not able to follow the steps in this tutorial because basic auth was permanently removed from their accounts. If this is the case, you unfortunately cannot connect your account in order to migrate to Office 365.
Office 365 Home & Student Account and free Office 365 Accounts
If you are using Office 365 Home & Student Edition or a free Office 365 account (e.g. hotmail.com, outlook.com, live.com), you only need to perform these steps:
1. Log in to https://login.live.com/.
2. Click on Security.
3. Now click on Advanced security options.
4. Scroll to the section Additional security.
In case Two-step verification is OFF, please use your regular password in order to connect with your account.
If Two-step verification is ON, click on Create a new app password.
5. Copy the app password you just created and use this password to connect with your account!
Important: The app password is only necessary if Two-step verification is on. Otherwise, simply use your regular password.
Step 03: Start the Office 365 email migration
Now that everything is set up, you need to export your email from your current email service provider in order to migrate to Office 365. With MailJerry, this process is done easily in a few seconds: All you need to do is enter your credentials and MailJerry will take care of the rest.
1. Download and install the MailJerry email migration tool for Windows, Mac OS, iOS or Android or start to migrate email to Office 365 directly in the browser.
2. Go to Migrations and enter the credentials of your old account.
3. Under New Address, enter your Office 365 credentials.
🚨 If your multi-factor authentication is enabled or your Two-step verification is set to ON, enter the app password in the password field instead of your regular password! 🚨
4. Click on Check Settings and wait until MailJerry connected with your old account and Office 365.
If something is not set up correctly, MailJerry will show an error message and explain what you’ll need to do in order to migrate to Office 365.
5. After MailJerry connected with your accounts, you’ll see a summary that shows what the software will do in order to migrate email to Office 365.
The email migration tool will list how many folders and emails were found in your old mailbox, how much data will be migrated to Office 365 and warn you in case of any problems with your Office 365 account.
All you need to do next is click on Start Your Migration.
From now on, the process to migrate to Office 365 will automatically be managed by the software. So lean back and wait until MailJerry finishes to migrate email to Office 365.
Step 04: Don’t forget to do this after the migration 👉
Congratulations, you’ve just finished to migrate to Office 365! So what’s next?
Sync your accounts after the Office 365 email migration
After the migration is finished, your email data will be contained in two accounts: the old one and the new one. Depending on your email configuration, there might still be some emails received in your old account.
Therefore, go to Overview in the MailJerry app, select your migration and activate Automatically synchronize emails. Now all emails received in your old account will automatically be forwarded to your Office 365 account.
Delete your Microsoft 365 app password:
If you generated a Microsoft 365 app password in order to migrate to office 365, do not forget to delete the password after the migration and all syncs finished.
1. Log in to https://login.microsoftonline.com
2. Click on your initials / your profile picture in the upper right corner and select View account
3. Select Security info and look for the App password in the list of sign-in methods. Click on delete.
That’s it! 🎉 You finished your migration, well done! 👍
