Migrate between Outlook default folders from different languages

Problem:

You are migrating folders between the source and the target server with different display languages. (For instance, the source server is set to English, and the target is in German). After the migration, you may find that the source mailbox folder (Inbox) has not migrated to the target mailbox folder (Posteingang) and a new folder named 'Inbox' has been created in the target mailbox.

Solution:

Inbox, Sent Items, Drafts, Calendar, Contacts, are the default folders in Exchange and Outlook mailboxes. Due to the 'WellKnownFolderName' attribute, you can recognize these folders regardless of the display language options configured in Exchange and Office 365.

Certain situations could cause the default folders to lose the 'WellKnownFolderName' attribute. Following their migration to the destination server, these folders will be recreated as normal folders without the unique attributes of the default folders. The name they have on the source server likewise remains the same even after the migration.

Remember that the WellKnownFolderName field is absent from every custom folder that you manually create in your mailbox.

To successfully migrate the default folders to the correct target folder, you need to restore the folders together with their WellKnownFolderName value for each mailbox.

To restore the folders to the correct location, you have the following options:

1. Restore the missing default folders in Outlook
2. Restore the default folder names using PowerShell
3. Change the language and regional settings on OWA

Restore the missing default folders in Outlook

1. Configure the mailbox that is having the missing default folder on Outlook desktop.
2. Exit Outlook
3. Press 'Windows + R' on your computer
4. Type Outlook.exe /resetfolders
5. Click 'OK' to reset the default folders of the mailbox.

   

Perform the migration using EdbMails and you should be able to migrate the default source folders to the correct target folder.

Restore the default folder names using PowerShell (For Exchange 2010 and later versions, Exchange Online)

1. Execute the below commands to connect to your source server using the Exchange Management Shell or PowerShell.

   $UserCredential = Get-Credential

   Set-ExecutionPolicy RemoteSigned

   $Session = New-PSSession -ConfigurationName Microsoft.Exchange -ConnectionUri https://outlook.office365.com/powershell-liveid/ -Credential $LiveCred -Authentication Basic -AllowRedirection

   Import-PSSession $Session

2. Run the following cmdlet

   Set-MailboxRegionalConfiguration -Identity "<mailbox ID>" -LocalizeDefaultFolderName:$true -Language <language code> -DateFormat <valid date format>

   Where,
   <mailbox ID> – is the user name of the mailbox or alias or email address.
   <language code> – Refer this Microsoft article for the list of supported language codes.
   <valid date format> – is the standard date format for the specified language. The default date format for English (United States) is M/d/yyyy.

Note: If you don’t know the date format, you can set any value or ignore it. The error text will include all acceptable date formats if the cmdlet returns an error.

Perform the migration using EdbMails and you should be able to migrate the default source folders to the correct target folder.

Change the language and regional settings on OWA

Change the target mailbox language to match the source from the Outlook Web Application (OWA), and then migrate the folders using EdbMails.

Change the target mailbox language to match the source from the Outlook Web Application (OWA), and then migrate the folders using EdbMails.

Click here to know the steps to change the language and regional settings on Exchange server

Click here to know the steps to change the language & regional settings on Office 365 Server