Office 365 Public folder to Shared mailbox migration

Migrating Office 365 Public Folders to Shared Mailboxes helps simplify email management and improve accessibility. While Public Folders help organize shared information, they can become difficult to manage as your organization grows. Shared Mailboxes provide a structured way to handle shared emails and resources while potentially reducing costs.

EdbMails Office 365 migration software facilitates this process by supporting the transfer of emails, calendars, and contacts while maintaining folder hierarchy and metadata. It offers incremental migration to prevent duplicate items, automatic mailbox mapping, and throttling management to ensure uninterrupted data transfer. The software is designed to handle large data volumes while preserving data integrity throughout the migration.

Below is a step-by-step guide on using EdbMails for the migration. It begins with planning—assessing requirements and preparing the environment—followed by pre-migration tasks such as configuring permissions and ensuring adequate storage. The migration process itself covers transferring Public Folders to Shared Mailboxes using EdbMails' automation features. Finally, post-migration steps focus on data verification, mailbox optimization, and troubleshooting. By following these steps, you can complete the migration using EdbMails while ensuring data accuracy and operational continuity for your organization.

1. Office 365 Public folder to Shared mailbox : Pre-migration Activities

   1. Ensure that you have a global admin account for the automatic registration method to connect to the source and target Office 365 servers.
   2. Ensure that you meet the network and bandwidth requirements for the migration. See network and migration planning, performance factors and best practices for Office 365 Public migration
   3. Prepare your target Office 365 tenant. See tenant roadmap for Microsoft 365.
   4. Ensure to set admin permissions for source public folders
   5. Create Shared mailboxes on the target Office 365 tenant and set the required permissions
   6. If you have a custom email domain from your hosting provider to which you want to migrate and receive emails, you must add the custom domain and verify it on the target Office 365.
   7. Configure Office 365 to send and receive large messages

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

2. Steps to migrate Office 365 Public folder to Shared mailbox

   Step 1: Download and install EdbMails Office 365 migration software

   • Download EdbMails and install the application on any computer.

       See a detailed list of EdbMails system requirements for Office 365 migration.

   • Launch the application and click ‘Login’ or ‘Start Your Free Trial’

     

   • Select the ‘Office 365 Migration’ operation

     

   • Choose the ‘Office 365 to Office 365 Migration’ option.

     

   • Keep the default job name, or click ‘New Job’ to change.

     

   Step 2: Connect to the source Office 365 server

   • To set up a new connection to the source Office 365, click the ‘Add New Connection’ button. If you prefer using a previously established connection, simply choose it from the list and click ‘Connect to Existing’ to continue.

     

   • Select ‘Connect to Public Folders’ and then click ‘Next’ to continue.

     

   • Select one of the methods for secure OAuth 2.0 authentication and click ‘Login’ to continue.

     

   • Sign in on the Microsoft authentication page using a global admin account

     

   • After successful authentication, choose a method to load the public folders and click ‘Next’ to continue.

     

   Step 3: Select Public folders

   • Select the public folders you wish to migrate and click ‘Next’ to establish the connection with the target server.

     

     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.

   Step 4: Connect to target Office 365 server

   • Click ‘Add New Connection’ to set up a new connection to the target Office 365 account. To use an existing connection, select it from the list and click ‘Connect to Existing’ to continue.

     

   • Select ‘Connect to Primary / Shared Mailboxes’ option.

     

   • Select the authentication method.
   • Click the ‘Login’ button to continue and authenticate with Microsoft sign-in page

     

   • Choose a method to load the shared mailboxes. You can also load the shared mailboxes using CSV file

      See how to load mailbox / shared mailboxes using a CSV file.

     

   Step 5: Map Public folder to Shared mailboxes

   • Before mapping, ensure to create shared mailboxes on your target Office 365 servers and assign the required permissions. Choose the required option to map your public folder to shared mailboxes

     

      Click here to know about user-defined mailboxes / folders mapping

   • Map your source public folder to the required shared mailboxes on the target server.

     

   Step 6: Start Office 365 public folder to Shared mailbox migration

   • After completing the mapping, click the ‘Start Migration’ button to initiate the migration process.

     

   • Once the migration is complete, a message will appear to review the migration status. Click the ‘View Log’ button to check the migration report. Log in to your target server to verify the migrated items.

     

3. Office 365 public folder to Shared mailbox post-migration tasks

   • Step 1: Update the MX records to point to Office 365

     Start by adding your current domain to Office 365. If you haven't updated DNS records before, change the MX records to ensure emails can flow into Office 365 and be received properly. Also, configure the Autodiscover record to enable Outlook to connect easily to the migrated mailboxes.

   • Step 2: Clear the Auto-Complete list in Outlook

      See manage suggested recipients with Auto-Complete

   • Step 3: Create a new Outlook profile after migration
     • Ensure each user has the latest Outlook version installed to avoid compatibility issues.
     • Set up Outlook profiles for each user in your domain if they experience connectivity problems with Office 365 mailboxes.
     • Configure Outlook with the new server settings, including server address, username, and password.
     • Test email functionality to confirm that users can send and receive emails successfully.
   • Step 4: Remove the old Office 365 subscription plan

     Once the migration is complete and you have confirmed the integrity of the migrated mailbox data, proceed to remove the Office 365 subscription plan from the source tenant, along with any associated domains.

4. Office 365 public folder to Shared mailbox migration troubleshooting

    See Office 365 migration troubleshooting guide and Public folder troubleshooting for possible solutions related to migration errors. For more information on EdbMails Office 365  migration, see frequently asked questions (FAQs)

    See solutions if you are not able to migrate Public folders due to insufficient permissions.

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Additional resources:

• Public folder migration between Office 365 tenants
• Office 365 Archive mailbox migration
• Office 365 to Office 365 mailbox migration
• Disable EWS Throttling on Office 365
• Office 365 to Exchange migration
• Office 365 to IMAP migration
• Office 365 to PST Export