Besides software, Microsoft is known for its reliable, scalable and affordable email solutions. Products like Office 365, Hotmail, Outlook and Office 365 Business are popular around the world. Every day, thousands of users decide to register with Microsoft.
But with every new email address that is created comes the with wish to migrate existing email data to Office 365. What might seem like a complex task is, in fact, a very simple and straightforward process. This tutorial will show you how to can migrate to Office 365 in only 5 easy to follow steps!
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 Old Account
For your migration to Office 365, you need to connect both of your email accounts with each other by using an email migration tool. To do so, simply follow these steps:
1. Download & install MailJerry or start to migrate to Office 365 by opening the WebApp.
2. Register with your email address and click on “New Migration”.
3. In the section “Existing Address”, select the account type of your current email address.
ℹ️ Stick with IMAP in case you are unsure!
4. Enter your email address or username in the field “Username” and your password in the password field.
Step 03:
Connect with Office 365
Now it’s time to connect with your Microsoft / Office 365 account. To be able to migrate email to Office 365, you need to connect with the Microsoft mail servers through a secure connection. This secure connection is established by signing in with your account using oAuth2. Here’s what to do:
5.In the section “New Address”, open the drop down “Account Type” and select Microsoft / Office 365.
6. Enter your email address in the field “Username”.
7. Next, click on the button “Connect with Microsoft Account”.
8. A popup window will open. Within this window, enter the password of your Office 365 account.
9. Click on “Sign in”.
10. After you where authenticated, the popup window closes. In the section New Address, the app will now show that you are signed in with your account.
11. To verify your settings and get ready for the migration, click on “Check Settings”.
Step 04:
Migrate to Office 365
After the settings for both email accounts were successfully checked, there are only a few steps left until you can start to migrate to Office 365!
On the summary page (step 02), you’ll see an overview of the planned migration. You’ll see how many emails and folders were found in your old email account. Furthermore, you will receive feedback from the software in case something is wrong with your new email address (for example, if not enough disk space is available).
12. When all is setup correctly, simply click on the button “Start Your Migration”.
➡️ Your email migration is now running and your data will be migrated to your Office 365 mailbox. Simply wait until the migration is done!
Step 05:
What to do after the Migration
As soon as MailJerry shows that 100% of your data was migrated to Office 365, you will find all emails, folders, sent objects drafts… in your new Office 365 mailbox.
But what happens if you still receive emails in your old account?
To migrate these emails as well to Office 365, we recommend to enable the mailbox syncronization for your migration:
1. Click on “Overview” (at the bottom of the window) and click on your migration.
2. You now see the details page, which shows you how many emails were migrated, how many folders were created etc.
3. To activate the mailbox sync, set the option “Automatically synchronize Emails” to ON.
🎉 Congratulations! You successfully completed all necessary steps to migrate to Office 365 and ensure that emails received in the future will automatically be moved to your Office account as well.
FAQ
Common Questions
In case there are any questions left regarding your email migration to Office 365, have a look at the following common questions:
Does this tutorial apply to all Microsoft Accounts?
Yes. This tutorials works for all Microsoft / Office 365 accounts, including Office 365 Business accounts, Office 365 Home & Student accounts and even free Office 365 accounts like outlook.com, hotmail.com etc.
Do I need access to / change settings in the Azure Active Directory admin center?
No. Simply connect with your Office 365 account via oAuth2 as described in this tutorial. There are no additional settings in the Azure Active Directory or any Microsoft admin panel necessary.
Does the migration require an app password / security defaults?
No. In the past, it was necessary to connect with your Office 365 account by disabling security defaults and setting up an app password. Thanks to MailJerry’s modern way of authenticating with Microsoft, there is no need for anything else than your email address and your password.
Is it necessary to enable IMAP for my Microsoft account?
No. Microsoft automatically enables IMAP for all Microsoft / Office 365 email accounts that connect to the Microsoft mail servers using oAuth2.
Can I use an app password instead?
No. Establishing a connection to your Microsoft / Office 365 account via oAuth2 is considered best practice and the recommended way to manage connections to Microsoft mail servers. Therefore, using an app password is not supported anymore.
How long does the migration to Office 365 take?
The time required to migrate all your data to Office 365 depends on the size of your old email account and the speed of both mail servers. For large mailboxes, the process might take several hours, even a few days for some really huge mailboxes (larger than 100GB) are not uncommon.
Of course, you can close the MailJerry app in the meantime and even shut down your computer. Thanks to cloud email migration, your email data is directly moved between both servers. Therefore, there is no need to keep the software up and running while your migration is in progress.
Help, I have further questions!
If you have any further questions, have a look at the following ressources:
