Fastmail to Office 365 migration
Fastmail, an Australian email hosting provider, is known for its privacy-centric approach, focusing on data protection over advertising and tracking. It offers custom domain email addresses and up to 600 aliases through three plans such as Basic, Standard, and Professional. While it shares similarities with Office 365, especially regarding privacy, licensing, and email archiving, Fastmail lacks many of Office 365’s advanced features. For example, its Basic plan offers just 2 GB of storage per user, which is inadequate for businesses with substantial data needs. Additionally, Fastmail primarily offers email, calendars, and contacts, but lacks integrated productivity tools like cloud storage or applications that businesses rely on. In contrast, Office 365 is an all-in-one productivity suite, providing not only email but also tools like Teams, OneDrive, and the Office suite. It excels in security with features such as Exchange online protection, advanced threat protection, and Defender for business—capabilities Fastmail doesn’t offer. Office 365’s superior app integration and collaboration tools make it a more comprehensive solution for modern business needs.
Migrating from Fastmail to Office 365 can be challenging due to differences in storage, features, and integrations. Fastmail’s limited storage and lack of apps like OneDrive or Teams require careful planning during migration. Businesses also face issues like data mapping inconsistencies and downtime, which must be addressed for a smooth transition to Office 365.
EdbMails IMAP migration software offers a solution to these challenges by providing a seamless, efficient migration process from Fastmail to Office 365. With features such as advanced filtering options, EdbMails ensures that only the necessary data is migrated, eliminating any clutter and simplifying the process. The tool also utilizes AES 256-bit military-grade encryption , ensuring that data remains secure throughout the migration. Automated mailbox mapping minimizes the need for manual intervention, reducing the risk of human error, while EdbMails’ 24/7 free tech support ensures that businesses can receive timely assistance if any issues arise.
User Query
“We currently use Fastmail's standard email plan and would like to switch to Microsoft's Office 365. We would like to continue receiving emails on our previous domain after the migration without disrupting the current setup. Could someone please point us in the right direction? Thank you very much.”
Fastmail email to Office 365 migration plan
Planning is one of the most important steps before you begin the Fastmail email to Office 365 migration. Here is a checklist of points to consider before you migrate.
- Determine the size of the data and the number of mailboxes you want to migrate.
- Make a list of all the data and permissions from Fastmail email that you want to transfer.
- Create appropriate user mailboxes on Office 365 and assign licenses to them.
- Ensure you have enough network capacity and bandwidth to migrate.
- Communicate the migration plan and flow to your end users.
Fastmail email to Microsoft 365: Pre-migration activities
- Have the users email address, passwords, IMAP hostname and port number.
- Find the IMAP server name of your Fastmail email server. You can find this information from your server’s dashboard settings or by connecting your email system to Outlook.
- Before you migrate Fastmail email to Office 365, ensure that you create mailboxes for your users in your organization and assign suitable licenses to them.
- If you have a custom email domain from your hosting provider to which you want to migrate and receive emails, you must add and verify the domain on Office 365.
Steps to add a custom domain to Office 365 and Steps to add DNS records to connect your domain.
- Configure Office 365 to send and receive large messages.
Follow the steps to increase the message size on Office 365 to 150MB and see tips to optimize IMAP migration to Exchange online.
Steps to migrate from Fastmail to Office 365 using EdbMails
Step 1: Download and Install EdbMails software
- Download and install the EdbMails application on your computer running on Windows OS.
- Launch the application and click ‘Login’ or ‘Start Your Free Trial’ Login to the application
Know more details on EdbMails system requirements for IMAP migration
- Select the migration method as ‘IMAP migration’ in the main window
Step 2: Connect to source Fastmail server
- If you want to migrate a single user, enter the Host Name , Port Number (993 for SSL), and account credentials to connect to Fastmail as shown.
- If you want to migrate multiple mailboxes, select ‘Multiple (bulk) Users/Accounts Migration’. Download the sample CSV file and add in the required details such as mailbox name, password, host name and port. Load the CSV file into EdbMails and verify the list mailboxes to continue.
Steps to connect to single and multiple users in EdbMails IMAP migration
- If you want to migrate a single user, enter the Host Name , Port Number (993 for SSL), and account credentials to connect to Fastmail as shown.
Step 3: Select source Fastmail server mailboxes
- Select the mailboxes and folders to migrate.
- Click ‘IMAP to Office 365’ to set up the connection with the target server.
See tips to optimize IMAP migration to Exchange online
Step 4: Connect to target Office 365 server
- Select the preferred method for secure OAuth-based modern authentication. The default option, ‘Auto Registration’, requires Global Admin permissions for configuration, ensuring a streamlined setup process. Alternatively, the ‘Manual Registration’ option provides greater flexibility, as it can be completed using either a Global Admin account or any user account with the necessary full access privileges.
- Next, select the most suitable migration option and proceed by logging into the Microsoft sign-in page to authenticate your account.
- EdbMails automatically loads the mailboxes from your Fastmail server. Also you can use a CSV file to load Office 365 mailboxes.
- Select the preferred method for secure OAuth-based modern authentication. The default option, ‘Auto Registration’, requires Global Admin permissions for configuration, ensuring a streamlined setup process. Alternatively, the ‘Manual Registration’ option provides greater flexibility, as it can be completed using either a Global Admin account or any user account with the necessary full access privileges.
Step 5: Fastmail to Office 365 mailboxes mapping
- Select the mailbox mapping option that best aligns with your requirements.
- EdbMails simplifies the migration process with automated mailbox creation for Office 365, ensuring precise mapping of mailboxes and folders from the source IMAP server automatically. This feature is crucial for large-scale migrations, optimizing the workflow and ensuring a seamless transfer to Office 365 without manual intervention.
- Click the ‘Folder and Item Filter’ button to set a filter for your migration. For instance, you can choose to migrate data only within a specific date range by applying a date filter. Additionally, you can exclude both standard and custom folders from the migration.
- Select the mailbox mapping option that best aligns with your requirements.
Step 6: Start Fastmail to Office 365 migration
- Once the mailboxes are mapped, assign a job name and begin the migration process. To review the migration report, click the ‘View Log’ button, which provides a comprehensive report detailing the number of emails, folders, and mailbox items successfully migrated.
- Once the mailboxes are mapped, assign a job name and begin the migration process. To review the migration report, click the ‘View Log’ button, which provides a comprehensive report detailing the number of emails, folders, and mailbox items successfully migrated.
Fastmail to Office 365 post-migration tasks
- Step 1: Update the MX records to point to Office 365
Update MX records to enable email and receive messages on the target Office 365 server. In addition, configure the Autodiscover record to allow Outlook to connect to the migrated mailboxes.
- Step 2: Create a new Outlook profile for users in the new domain
Configure and recreate the Outlook profile for each user in your domain if Outlook has problems connecting to Office 365 mailboxes.
- Step 1: Update the MX records to point to Office 365
Fastmail to Office 365 migration troubleshooting
For troubleshooting, visit Knowledge Base.
For more queries, check Frequently Asked Questions or contact support.
Benefits of EdbMails to migrate from Fastmail to Office 365
- Selective email migration with date filters
EdbMails offers a highly flexible migration solution that enables users to selectively migrate emails within a specific date range. This approach ensures that only relevant emails are transferred, optimizing the process while maintaining data integrity and avoiding the migration of unnecessary data.
- Bulk migration with data integrity
EdbMails streamlines the migration from Fastmail to Office 365, supporting bulk migration of mailboxes with concurrent migration capabilities. This feature allows multiple mailboxes to be migrated simultaneously, speeding up the process. The tool ensures that all your data remains intact throughout the entire migration, eliminating the risks of data corruption or loss, even when migrating large volumes of information.
- Mailbox preview and folder selection
The software provides a detailed preview of your Fastmail mailboxes, folders and subfolders, giving you full visibility before initiating Fastmail to Office 365 migration. You can also selectively choose specific folders for migration, ensuring that only the required data is transferred to Office 365, improving the efficiency of the process.
- Compatibility with all Windows OS versions
EdbMails operates seamlessly across all Windows operating systems, offering broad compatibility and flexibility. Whether you are using Windows 10, 8, or older versions, the tool delivers consistent and reliable performance, making it an ideal choice for businesses of all sizes.
- Delta (incremental) migration
EdbMails' delta migration feature ensures that any new or modified items, which were not migrated in the previous operation, are transferred to Office 365. This incremental process minimizes time and bandwidth usage by efficiently syncing only the new emails or changes, ensuring a seamless migration with no disruption.
