EDB Archive Mailbox to Office 365 Migration Guide

Migrating archived emails from older Exchange servers to Microsoft 365 is an essential step in keeping your IT infrastructure up to date. In many organizations, these archived messages are stored in archive mailboxes (formerly known as In-Place Archives) designed to manage mailbox size by moving older emails to a separate, searchable location governed by retention policies.

EdbMails EDB to Office 365 migrator provides a straightforward and reliable solution to migrate these In-Place Archive mailboxes directly from EDB files to Office 365. Whether you're upgrading to a newer platform, consolidating tenants, or decommissioning legacy servers, EdbMails ensures data integrity, preserves folder structures, and simplifies the entire process, even when the source Exchange server is no longer accessible.

To help you get started with ease, this guide walks you through each step of the migration process using EdbMails. From selecting your source offline EDB file to configuring the target Office 365 account, you'll learn how to securely move archive data without downtime or data loss.

1. Prerequisites to migrate EDB Archive Mailbox to Office 365

   Before migrating your In-Place Archive from EDB to Office 365, it’s essential to properly prepare the target Office 365 environment as described in the following section.

   1. Make sure you meet the necessary network and bandwidth requirements for the migration. Refer to the network and migration planning, performance factors, and best practices for Office 365 migration.
   2. Set up your target Office 365 tenant. See tenant roadmap for Microsoft 365.
   3. Choose an Office 365 licensing plan that best suits your needs. Alternatively, you can start with a 30-day free trial and select the most appropriate plan after evaluating your requirements.

      Compare Office 365 business plans and Compare Office 365 enterprise plans

   4. Create user mailboxes for your organization and assign the appropriate licenses to each.
      1.  Add users and assign licenses to Office 365 users
      2.  Add several users at the same time to Office 365
      3.  Assign Microsoft 365 licenses to user accounts
   5. To migrate In-Place Archive mailboxes to Office 365 archive mailboxes, make sure the archive mailbox is enabled on the target server.

       See steps to enable online archive in Office 365.

   6. Ensure that you have a global admin account with a mailbox for Auto Registration of EdbMails application on your Entra ID (Azure Active Directory). However, you can use either a global admin account or any user account with full access rights in the Manual Registration method.
   7. Configure Office 365 to send and receive large messages

       Follow the steps to increase the message size on Office 365 to 150MB.

   8. If you plan to continue receiving emails at a custom email domain after migration, you must add and verify the domain in Office 365.

       See steps to add a custom domain to Office 365 and steps to add DNS records to connect your domain.

2. Steps to migrate from EDB Archive Mailbox to Office 365 using EdbMails

   • Step 1: Download and Install the EdbMails application
     • Download and install the EdbMails application on your computer running on Windows OS.

       

     • Open the EdbMails application.
     • Log in using your registered email address and password, then click ‘Login’. If you’re new to EdbMails, simply choose ‘Start Your Free Trial’ to access the trial version.

        Note: The Free Trial allows mailbox migrate with a limit of 30 items per folder. To unlock full access, you’ll need a valid license.

         Click here to purchase the license from the EdbMails website.

       After completing the order, restart the software and log in with the same email ID, your license will activate automatically.

       

   • Step 2: Select EDB Recovery (Offline) and Migration
     • Select the ‘EDB Recovery (Offline) and Migration’ option

       

     • Select ‘EDB to Office 365’ option

       

     • You can either keep the default job name or choose ‘New Job’ to rename it as needed.
     • Once selected, simply click ‘Next’ to proceed.

       

   • Step 3: Browse EDB files
     • Click the ‘Browse for EDB file’ button

       

     • Select the offline EDB file from your local drive and click ‘Next’ to proceed.

       

     • Click ‘Next’ to continue

       

     • EdbMails performs a deep scan of offline EDB files to recover mailbox data even when the file is damaged or partially corrupted. It reads the internal database structure to accurately restore emails, contacts, calendars, and other items. The scanning duration may vary based on the file size and level of corruption, but allowing it to complete ensures a thorough and reliable recovery.

       

     • After the recovery is complete, EdbMails displays the EDB file data with its full folder and subfolder hierarchy intact. You can simply expand any folder to view the contents and get a clear preview of emails, contacts, notes, tasks, or calendar items in the right-side panel. Even if the Exchange Server is offline or unavailable, EdbMails EDB Recovery and Migration tool allows you to preview and explore recovered EDB mailbox data directly within the interface.
     • Choose the required EDB archive mailboxes and click the 'Next' button to proceed.

       

   • Step 4: Connect to target Office 365 tenant
     • Click ‘Add New Connection’ to set up a fresh connection to the target Office 365 server. If you already have a connection configured, simply select it from the list and choose ‘Connect to Existing’ to proceed without repeating the setup.

       

     • Choose the preferred connection options and click the ‘Next’ button to continue.

       

     • Select one of the authentication methods and click 'Login' to continue.

       

     • Authenticate on Microsoft sign-in page.

       

     • Select a method to load the mailboxes and click on ‘Next’.

       

   • Step 5: Map source and target archive mailboxes
     • EdbMails automatically matches the archive mailboxes between the source and target servers. Alternatively, you also have the option to manually map source archive mailboxes to their corresponding targets.

       

   • Step 6: Start EDB Archive Mailbox to Office 365 migration
     • Click the ‘Start Migration’ button to begin the migration process.

       

     • That's it! During the migration, you can track the progress, with options to pause and resume the operation. A confirmation message will appear once the migration is complete.

       

     • Click the ‘View Logs’ button to verify the migrated archive mailboxes and items with EdbMails text-based migration log report.