Public folder migration to Office 365 process

On premises Exchange Server Migration to Office 365 due to numerous benefits that it offers such as security enhancements and not having to worry about the infrastructure maintenance costs is common these days. Organizations who prefer to adopt office 365 will also have to plan well so that complicated processes involved such as migrating public folders to Office 365 will go smoothly.

Scalable, High performance, Unlimited Public folders Migration

Public folder migaration to any destination is with multi threading capability with throttling management can make your migration fast and high performance.

Many organisations who have been using Exchange Server will have Public Folders setup for shared access to information across a team or workgroup. Public folders can often contain email messages, posts, documents etc. Even if there are more than one Public folders, the contents of one public folder will not be replicated in other public folders which means that users can access all the data they require from the same Public folder. Although not recommended due to lack of versioning support, Public folders at times even serve as a platform for Document sharing and collaboration.

It is possible to manage public folders by going to Exchange admin center (EAC), Public folders > Public folder mailboxes. Before talking about Public Folder migration to Office 365, let’s look at some of the advantages that it offers.

Benefits of Public Folders:

1. Granular permissions: A large variety of permission roles are available that allows you to micro-manage and assign permissions according to your liking.
2. Content is organized in deep hierarchy making it easier to browse through.
3. Users with mailbox limits sometimes end up using Public Folders to archive some of their mailbox data

Public Folders to Office 365 and Exchange Online using scripts

Now that it is clear why Public Folders are used often in on-premise Exchange Server deployments, it is time to tackle the problem of migrating Public Folders to Office 365. An option to achieve Public Folder migration to Office 365 would be to use Public Migration Scripts as explained here. However, a cursory look at the steps involved in trying to migrate Public Folders to Office 365 using scripts would indicate that they are both complex and rather time consuming. The scripts also have other limitations such as the fact they won’t work on older Exchange versions like 2003, in which case you will have to first migrate Public folders from Exchange 2003 to 2007 or 2010 before proceeding.

Without proper planning and execution, Public Folder Migration to Office 365 using scripts could prove to be risky. If something goes wrong, there is chance of data loss and downtime. This is the reason why a professional tool like EdbMails is often recommended for Public Folders to Office 365 migration. EdbMails can help achieve public folder migration to Office 365 without needing any scripts or lengthy time consuming steps thereby eliminating the risks of downtime and increased overhead worries. You can even migrate exchange 2013 Public Folders to Office 365 with EdbMails.

Why choose EdbMails Public Folder migration to Office 365 tool?

• Exchange Public Folders to Office 365: Migrate all the Exchange Public Folder data be it emails, calendar, contacts etc to Office 365.
• Map Mailboxes: Easily Map Public folder Mailbox/folders from EDB file to Office 365 Public folder mailbox/user accounts.
• Preview Contents: EdbMails allows you to preview all the Public Folder contents inside its interface in a hierarchical fashion before Public Folder migration to Office 365 operation.
• Granular Migration: With EdbMails you have the freedom to pick and choose individual items of your choice for the migration process.
• No size Limitation: No matter what the size of your Public Folders is, EdbMails can handle it.
• Extensive Filtering options: Apply include/exclude filters based on ‘Before date’, ‘After Date’ and ‘subject’ to mails.
• Easy Office 365 Authentication: Quick and straightforward Office 365 authentication with user id and password.
• No Outlook Dependency: EdbMails doesn’t have any Outlook, Exchange services or Active Directory dependency.

Scalable, High performance, Unlimited Public folders Migration

Public folder migaration to any destination is with multi threading capability with throttling management can make your migration fast and high performance.

Steps to Migrate Public Folders to Office 365 using EdbMails

1. Create the Public Folders in a new organization
   Click here to create public folders in Office 365.
2. Download and install EdbMails and Click the ‘Start Your Free Trial’ button
   
3. On successful login, Select the Export Method as ‘Export Exchange EDB file’
   
4. In the next screen select the Public folder EDB file that you wish to migrate emails from EDB to Office 365 and click Continue.
   
5. In the next screen, right click the Tree view and select the Mailbox / folder that you wish to migrate to Office 365. Choose the ‘Export Selected Mailboxes / Folders to Office 365’ popup menu item to continue with the migrate operation.
   
6. Select the ‘Connect to Export / Backup / Migrate Public Folder’ check box as shown in the below image.

   

7. Execute the PowerShell commands as shown in the below image.
   
8. Enter the Office 365 account credentials and proceed.
   Before connecting to Office 365, set the impersonation rights to a user.
   Click here to know how to set the impersonation rights.
   
9. After the successful login, Map the Public folder to Office 365 Public folder mailboxes and click on ‘Export EDB to Office 365’ to export.
   Note: Please select the user to which you have assigned the Public folder
   
10. During export operation, the progress will be displayed as shown in the below screenshot.
    

Once the Migration operation is completed, the message ‘Migration operation has been completed.’ will be prompted.

Wrapping up

Rather than risk hiccups during migration using complex scripts, it is better to make use of an advanced utility like EdbMails Public Folder Migration to Office 365 tool that can help seamlessly migrate all the data from your Public Folders to Office 365. Create a Public Folder in Office 365, assign a user to it and EdbMails will handle all the rest for you.