Office 365 has become a popular choice for organizations looking to streamline their communication and collaboration needs. However, some organizations may find that migrating from Office 365 to Exchange server, such as Exchange 2019, is a better fit for their needs due to certain requirements. In this guide, we'll provide a step-by-step process for migrating from Office 365 to Exchange 2019.
Before you begin the migration process, evaluate your current Office 365 environment, including an inventory of users, email domains, distribution lists, and custom configurations. Identify potential issues such as throttling and ensure you meet the bandwidth and network requirements for the migration.
Prepare your Exchange 2019 environment by setting up the necessary infrastructure such as the Active Directory domain and Exchange Server. Configure custom settings or policies that you had in your Office 365 environment.
Configure Exchange 2019 for hybrid deployment, which allows you to have a seamless migration between your Office 365 environment and your on-premises Exchange server. The hybrid deployment configuration involves setting up the Exchange hybrid agent, configuring the Exchange Online Connector, and setting up your hybrid mail flow.
Plan the migration carefully to avoid any data loss or downtime. Decide the order in which you'll migrate your mailboxes and data, how to migrate them, and how to keep track of the progress.
Before migrating any mailboxes, verify that the Exchange 2019 environment is working correctly. Test the mail flow, mailbox access, URL and custom configurations or policies.
After testing the Exchange 2019 environment, start migrating mailboxes and data from Office 365 to Exchange 2019. You can use EdbMails for transferring the mailboxes.
After you have completed the mailbox migration, verify and test the migration to ensure that everything is working correctly. Test mail flow, mailbox access, and custom configurations or policies. Configure Outlook profile for the users in your organization and ask them to change the password.
After verifying and testing the migration, decommission your Office 365 environment. Remove any Office 365 licenses, delete your Office 365 tenant, and disable any remaining Exchange Online connectors.
Before you begin the migration process, ensure that the source and destination Exchange environments are ready. It's also important to evaluate your current Office 365 environment, which may include taking an inventory of your users, email domains, distribution lists, and any custom configurations. You'll also want to identify any potential issues or roadblocks that could arise during the migration process.
| Current environment and requirement | Migration approach | How does the migration take place? |
| You want to migrate mailboxes from O365 to on-premise Exchange in a single event and in a limited time frame. | Cutover migration | In this approach, you set up your target Exchange server and migrate everything in a single sitting. Suited for large mailbox migration |
| You want to migrate from Office 365 to Exchange in phases | Staged migration | In this approach, you migrate your mailboxes and mail data in stages and transfer the required or the most recent data first followed by the others. |
| You want to migrate your Office 365 cloud data to an on-premises Exchange server that exists in a hybrid environment. | Hybrid migration | In this approach, you migrate back from Office 365 to Exchange on-premises coexisting in a hybrid environment. |
After you've evaluated your current Office 365 environment, it's time to prepare your Exchange 2019 environment. This task includes setting up the necessary infrastructure, such as the Active Directory domain and the Exchange Server itself. You'll also want to configure any custom settings or policies that you had in your Office 365 environment.
The following links will help you set up your target Exchange 2019 environment Learn more about the network, hardware and operating system requirements for installing Exchange 2019 server.
Complete the following prerequisites for Active Directory, Windows Mailbox server, and Windows Edge Transport servers before installing the Exchange server.
Given below is a list of key points for installing and preparing the Exchange server for migration.
Note: If you have already installed and set up Exchange 2019, skip to point 4 in this section.
Before installing the Exchange server, ensure that you meet the server system requirements and prerequisites as outlined previously. Next, follow the link to install Exchange 2016 or install Exchange 2019 from the setup wizard.
Ensure that you create mailboxes on the target Exchange server and assign suitable licenses to them. Similarly, create Public folders if you are planning Public folder migration from Office 365 to Exchange.
Set the following permissions to the admin account on the Exchange server.
Check to see if the admin account that has been assigned management roles has a valid and non-hidden mailbox on the Exchange server.
You can manually change the EWS throttling and message size limits on the Exchange server by following the steps in the link.
You can migrate Office 365 to Exchange 2019 with the following methods
See a detailed list of EdbMails system requirements for Office 365 migration.
Note: If the Standard folders (such as Inbox, Calendar, and Contacts) on the source Office 365 mailboxes are set to a different language, follow the instructions to migrate these folders to the appropriate system folders on the target (destination) server.
For Instance: If your source Inbox folder is named 'Boîte de réception' in French and you migrate it directly to the destination server, it will not be mapped to the target server's 'Inbox' folder by default. To map the folder with the French name to the appropriate folder, change the regional settings on the target server to match the language of your source mailbox folder (in this case, it is French).
Steps to change the language and regional settings in Exchange
In the Connect to Office 365 (Source) window, select the authentication method as Auto or Manual registration for modern authentication and the connection method as Mailboxes, Public folder or Archive Mailbox. Enter your global administrator credentials to authenticate.
Connect to Office 365 server using secure modern authentication
After you authenticate and log in successfully, select one of the methods to load the mailboxes. You can also load and migrate the mailboxes using a CSV file.
Tip: If this is the first time you’re migrating with EdbMails, the migration is a full migration. On subsequent migrations from the same source to the target, the migration is incremental.
In the Connect to Exchange server (Destination) window, select 'Connect using Global Admin User’ if you want to migrate mailboxes on behalf of all users. You can also connect to the mailboxes by loading a CSV file. See the instructions on how to use the different Exchange server connection methods supported by EdbMails.
With EdbMails, you can migrate mailboxes, public folders, and archive mailboxes from Microsoft 365 to Exchange.
Tip: The mapping activity in EdbMails can automatically match and map the mailboxes and folders between the source and the target. This activity saves time when you’re migrating a large number of mailboxes.
Start and monitor the migration operation after you complete the mailbox mapping. Finally, verify the count of migrated emails, folders and mailbox items with the EdbMails text-based log report.
The staged migration with EdbMails involves migrating the most recent emails and mail items to the Exchange server in the first stage and gradually migrating the remaining mailbox data in subsequent stages or over weeks.
Download and install the application and select Office 365 migration. In the connection page, select Auto Registration and connect to the source Office 365.
EdbMails provides the following additional options to help you further customize the staged migration based on the Date and other conditions.
In the Connect to Exchange server (Destination) window, select 'Connect using Global Admin User’. You can also connect to the mailboxes by loading a CSV file. See the instructions on how to use the different Exchange server connection methods supported by EdbMails.
With EdbMails, you can migrate mailboxes, public folders, and archive mailboxes from Microsoft 365 to Exchange.
The mapping activity in EdbMails can automatically match and map the mailboxes and folders between the source and target server. Start and monitor the migration and verify the count of migrated emails, folders and mailbox items with EdbMails text-based log report.
Tip: You can repeat these steps if you want to transfer another batch of mailboxes to the target.
If you plan to migrate mailboxes within an on-premises Exchange and Office 365 environment, then a Hybrid migration is the best solution.
See Office 365 Hybrid migration planning guide with EdbMails for steps to perform Hybrid migration.
If your mailboxes are in a Hybrid environment, you cannot migrate Public folders directly from Office 365 because they cannot simultaneously coexist on the cloud and on-premises. See a workaround solution to migrate Public folders in a hybrid environment.
If you have exported Office 365 mailboxes as PST files, EdbMails can help you to migrate mailboxes from O365 to Exchange 2019 by using the PST files.
The following steps apply only if you no longer wish to use Office 365 and want to switch back to on-premises Exchange permanently.
To receive messages on Exchange, change the DNS records known as MX records to enable email to work with the new server you have migrated to. In addition, configure the Autodiscover record to allow Outlook to connect to the migrated mailboxes.
After the migration is successful and you have verified the data, remove the Office 365 subscription plan from the source and any domains associated if you no longer plan to use it.
See the troubleshooting solutions for Office 365 and Exchange migration. For more information related to EdbMails Office 365 migration, see frequently asked questions.
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