SmarterMail to Office 365 migration

SmarterMail is undeniably popular due to its low cost and Exchange-like features. In comparison, Office 365, with its full-fledged productivity suite, is suited and tailor-made for enterprises. It's also worth noting that each service has its own set of advantages and disadvantages. But, in the end, it all comes down to the business requirements and making a decision that meets your needs.

• Office 365 integrates in real time with applications such as SharePoint, Teams, OneDrive, Google Drive, Yammer, and many more.
• Collaborating with teams is made easier with an Office 365 suite that allows for the sharing of documents, files, and so on.
• Office 365 includes the Microsoft brand, which ensures complete server uptime and security.
• Office 365 is a fully packaged cloud solution that requires no in-house installation or server maintenance and upgrades.

Planning is one of the most important steps before you begin the SmarterMail 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 SmarterMail 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.

• 1. Have the users email address, passwords, IMAP hostname and port number.
  2. Find the IMAP server name of your SmarterMail email server. You can find this information from your server’s dashboard settings or by connecting your email system to Outlook.
  3. Before you migrate SmarterMail email to Office 365, ensure that you create mailboxes for your users in your organization and assign suitable licenses to them.

      Add users and assign licenses to Office 365 users

      Assign Microsoft 365 licenses to user accounts

  4. 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.

  5. 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.

• • 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 SmarterMail server

    • If you want to migrate a single user, enter the Host Name , Port Number (993 for SSL), and account credentials to connect to SmarterMail 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

  • Step 3: Select source SmarterMail server mailboxes

    • Choose the mailboxes and folders from the left panel.
    • Click ‘IMAP to Office 365’ to proceed to 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 mailboxes from your SmarterMail server. Additionally, it supports the use of CSV files to efficiently load mailboxes into Office 365.

      

  • Step 5: SmarterMail to Office 365 mailboxes mapping

    • Choose the mapping option that best fits your needs.

      

    • EdbMails provides an automated mailbox creation feature for Office 365, streamlining the setup of target mailboxes and ensuring seamless mailbox and folder mapping from the source IMAP server . This capability is especially beneficial for effectively handling a substantial number of mailboxes during the migration process.

      

    • 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.

      

  • Step 6: Start SmarterMail 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.

      

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

  Update the MX records for your domain to direct email traffic to the target Office 365 server, ensuring that messages are delivered to the correct domain-based mailboxes. Additionally, configure the Autodiscover DNS record to allow Outlook to automatically locate and connect to the migrated mailboxes for uninterrupted email access.

• 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.

 For troubleshooting, visit Knowledge Base.

 For more queries, check Frequently Asked Questions or contact support.