Migrate Exchange 2013 public folders to Office 365

Migrating Exchange 2013 public folders to Office 365 is essential for organizations seeking to enhance collaboration in a cloud environment. Public folders play a vital role in sharing information, documents, and calendars among teams. However, the migration process can be complex, requiring secure data transfer, maintenance of folder hierarchies, and preservation of user permissions. Careful planning is crucial to overcome these challenges and ensure uninterrupted access to critical resources during the migration.

EdbMails Exchange migration software provides an effective solution for migrating public folder data from Exchange 2013 to Office 365. This user-friendly software simplifies the migration process while minimizing the risk of data loss and downtime. EdbMails delivers high performance, enabling rapid migrations even with large volumes of data. It facilitates smooth Office 365 migrations by automatically managing throttling errors, ensuring consistent data transfer even during peak server hours, and achieving zero downtime. EdbMails effectively addresses throttling errors such as ‘The server cannot service this request right now’ and ‘Active Directory is unavailable’, along with other related issues. The software employs automatic retry mechanisms to manage temporary throttling or connection problems, allowing migrations to resume seamlessly without requiring manual intervention. Furthermore, EdbMails supports concurrent mailbox migrations, optimizing performance while adhering to throttling limits.

EdbMails features incremental migration, migrating only the new or modified items during subsequent migration operations, minimizing bandwidth usage and reducing the time required for migration.The automatic mapping of public folders streamlines the migration setup by automatically aligning source and destination public folders, saving significant manual effort, especially when dealing with a large number of public folders. Advanced filtering options further enhance the migration experience by allowing users to selectively migrate specific items based on different criteria such as emails sent / received date, sender addresses, recipient addresses, subject, attachment name, read and unread status of the messages etc . With robust performance and 24/7 support, EdbMails empowers users and organizations to migrate their public folders to Office 365 confidently, maintaining productivity throughout the process.

1. Exchange 2013 public folder migration to Office 365 planning

   Before you migrate Exchange 2013 public folders to Office 365, it's essential to assess the migration requirements and prerequisites. Below is a checklist to help you identify and prepare your environments effectively.

   1. Assess if your current migration environment is Hybrid or non-Hybrid.
   2. Evaluate the total size and number of Public folders you plan to migrate.
   3. Create Public folders in Office 365 and ensure they are configured for mail.
   4. Determine whether you want to execute the migration in one go or in multiple phases.
   5. Review your internet connection speed and network setup.
   6. Decide if you will transfer Public folders to other Public folders, Primary mailboxes, or Shared mailboxes on the destination server.

     Check out the essential requirements for migrating public folders to Office 365.

2. Exchange 2013 public folder to Office 365 : pre-migration activities

   • Step 1: Assign admin permissions to all source Public folders

      Steps to assign admin permissions to Exchange public folders

   • Step 2: Create public folders on the target Office 365 server

     Ensure to create Public folders on your target Office 365 server and assign the admin permissions to all the public folders

      Create Office 365 Public folder and assign admin permissions

     If your mailboxes are in a Hybrid environment, it is not possible to migrate the Public folders directly to Office 365. Refer to this workaround solution to migrate Public folders in a hybrid environment.

   • Step 3: Add a custom domain to Office 365 (Optional)

     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 custom domain to Office 365

   • Step 4: Install cumulative updates (CU) on Exchange server 2013

     For migrating Exchange server 2013 to Office 365, it is required that you have latest cumulative updates (CU15 or later) installed on the source server (2013)

3. Steps to migrate Exchange 2013 public folders to Office 365

   • Step 1: Download and install EdbMails software setup

     • Download EdbMails and install the software on any computer with Windows OS connected to your source Exchange 2013 server.

        System requirements for Exchange 2013 to Office 365 public folder migration

     • Once installed, launch the application and 'Login' with the required details or 'Start Your Free Trial.'

       

     • Choose the migration option ‘Live Exchange Migration’ from the dropdown list

       

   • Step 2: Connect to source Exchange 2013 server

     • In the ‘Connect to Exchange Server (Source)’ window, choose the required connection option and select ‘Connect to Public Folder’

        Different connection options for Exchange server

       

     • Enter the Exchange 2013 server details and click the ‘Login’ button

       

   • Step 3: Select the Exchange 2013 Public folders

     • Select Exchange 2013 public folders you intend to migrate to Office 365.
     • Click 'Migrate to Office 365'

       

     • If this is an initial migration using EdbMails, it will be a full migration. Any subsequent migrations from the same source to the target will be incremental migration. That is, it migrates only the data which were not considered in the previous migration, thus reducing bandwidth utilization.
   • Step 4: Connect to target Office 365 server
     • Select the preferred method for secure OAuth-based modern authentication. The default ‘Auto Registration’ method requires Global Admin privileges. Alternatively, the ‘Manual Registration’ method allows you to use either a Global Admin account or any user account with full access permissions.

       

     • Choose ‘Connect to Public Folder’ as your connection method, then click the ‘Continue’ and login on Microsoft Sign in page.

       

   • Step 5: Exchange 2013 to Office 365 public folders mapping

     • EdbMails automatically maps the public folders between Exchange 2013 server and Office 365 , simplifying the process and eliminating the manual effort.

       

     • EdbMails allows you to apply filters to migrate only the data based on items received / sent within the date range, sender email address, recipient address, email subject, sender address, recipient address, read and unread status of the message etc.

       

   • Step 6: Start Exchange 2013 public folder migration to Office 365

     Once you've finished mapping the mailboxes, enter the job name and start the migration process. Click the ‘View Log’ button to view the migration report, which provides details on the number of migrated items, mailboxes, folders, mapping details.

     

4. Exchange 2013 public folder migration to Office 365 troubleshooting

   Refer to the Exchange migration troubleshooting guide and the Public folder troubleshooting resources for potential solutions to migration errors. For further information regarding EdbMails Exchange migration, refer to the frequently asked questions.

    Solution for public folders migration failure due to insufficient permissions

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Additional resources:

• EdbMails Exchange migration software
• Exchange to Exchange migration
• Exchange to Office 365 migration
• Exchange public folder migration to Office 365
• Exchange 2016 public folder to Office 365 migration
• Exchange 2010 to 2016 public folder migration

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