How to Move Emails from One Account to Another in Office 365?

This article will shed light on one of the most complex operations in Office 365. In this article, you will get all the essential checklist and migration plans to transfer Office 365 emails to another account without losing a bit of data.

The process of transferring Office 365 emails to another account is not a cakewalk. Organizations must be aware of the complexities involved and how to deal with them beforehand. There may also be some problems faced by the business and the employees might feel frustrated because of the communication issues and the change in working.

Thus, it is recommended for all users to communicate with their employees about the migration of office 365 emails to another account. At the same time, there should be a proper plan laid out to understand how to move forward with the transfer process, the risks involved, the pre-requisite that need to be followed.

In this article, we will discuss both the manual and automated methods with which a user can complete this process of transferring office 365 emails to another account.

Let’s analyze them one by one.

Also, you would love to know: Office 365 Tenant to Tenant Migration Issues

1. Manual Way To Transfer Office 365 Emails To Another Account

The Manual procedure is divided into two stages, one at the source tenant end and one at the target tenant end. Before beginning the procedure, the MX record on the source tenancy must be changed to an unreachable domain. During the migration process, it will issue a Non-Delivery Report to the senders.

Source Tenant End 

1. Remove the principal domain from all source-end systems.
2. Remove the Lync Sip address from the source tenant domain.
3. Change the default email address for all Office 365 Mailboxes, Distribution Lists, Resources, and Rooms to the initial source tenant domain.
4. Remove any secondary domain emails with the @sourcetenant.com prefix.
5. In the source tenancy, configure a routing domain to forward emails to a separate email address.

Target Tenant End

• On the target tenant Exchange panel, confirm the source domain. It might take some time.
• Optionally configure the auto-discover CNAME.
• If required, configure the AD FS with a new domain configuration in the target tenancy.
• Each new user account in the target tenancy should be given an O365 license.
• To have the source domain as the primary address, utilize Windows PowerShell or select and modify unauthorized new users.
• Set the password for the target tenant’s mailboxes.
• Configure the old domain’s MX record to point to the new one to redirect emails from the old mailbox to the new one.
• Check the mail flow in the target tenancy.
• Finally, begin the process of migration.

Pre-Requisites that you need to follow to transfer Office 365 Emails To Another Account

There are a few prerequisites that a user must take care of before moving emails from one Office 365 account to another.

1. Preparation of the Domain

Domain Preparation is a term used to describe the process of preparing a domain

Domain preparation entails the following steps:

1. Ascertain that you have sufficient Microsoft 365 licenses.
2. Form two admin accounts in both the source and target systems to have a simple and transfer process.
3. In the target, create user mailboxes, room/resource mailboxes, and distribution groups.
4. Use AD DS tools to perform AD DS consolidation and, if necessary, manually or automatically sync the source and target domains.
5. After the migration, teach your end-users how to use Microsoft 365.

2. Domain Validation Before Moving Office 365 Mailbox To Another User Account

1. Begin by verifying the target tenant domain in Microsoft 365.
2. Set up DNS TXT records and connect a source domain to the target Microsoft 365 admin center.
3. Ascertain that the domain is only utilized by one tenant. If this requirement is not satisfied, the verification will not pass.

Following the completion of these processes, it will take approximately 72 hours for the change to become visible.

3. Migration Planning

• Create a list of the user mailboxes that need to be relocated and a CSV file for mapping.
• Take note of the minimum TTL value in the MX record (of the primary email domain).
• Disable directory sync for the source tenant to prevent changes to the source tenant’s AD DS account from being linked to the Microsoft 365 platform (through the Microsoft 365 admin center). It is possible that the deactivation procedure will take up to 24 hours to finish.

4. Migration Stage

• Put an end to the influx of emails.

Alter the primary MS record to an unattainable value or use a third-party solution to block inbound mail flow to the source tenant. Because you entered the minimum number of TTL on the MX record (of the principal email domain) during the preparation phase, you can simply schedule the time for this step.

Tenant Preparation Source to Transfer Office 365 Mailbox to Office 365 to Another User Account

Before moving the Office 365 mailbox to another tenant, the principal mail domain should be removed from all objects in the original tenancy.

• Change your primary email address to the one connected with your Microsoft 365 account.
• Using the Lync Admin Portal, remove all Lync licenses from the source tenant.
• Delete all Lync licenses from the source tenant using the Lync Admin Portal.
• Rebuild the previous domain’s primary email address for mailing lists, rooms, and resources.
• All tenant objects’ secondary email addresses should be removed.
• Enter Get-MsolUser -DomainName xyz.com in Windows PowerShell to discover any items that are still utilizing the main email address or are refusing deletion.
• Preparing the target domain
• It includes verifying the source tenant’s presence in the destination domain (do one hour after the previous step).

• Set the auto-discover CNAME.
• When utilizing AD FS, you must create a new domain in the target tenancy.
• Activate and assign licenses to new user accounts in the target domain.
• Make the principal email address of the originating domain the primary email address for new users (done using Windows PowerShell). Make a decision on how to communicate passwords to end-users as well.
• Modify the mail routing and direct the MX record to the new Office 365 email address once the user mailboxes are live.
• Analyze the mail flow into and out of the target tenant.

2. Alternate Method to Move Office 365 Mailbox To Another User Account.

If you are looking for an easy way to transfer Office 365 emails to another account then Office 365 Mailbox Migration Tool is the perfect option for you. This software can help to move full Office 365 tenant user mailboxes to another account effortlessly.

Software Steps to Move Emails from One Account to Another in Office 365 :

Step 1. To start, download and start the tool on your machine. Choose Office 365 as the source and destination from the window.

Step 2. Select the items from the workload section you wish to transfer (email, contacts, calendars, documents).

And click on The Next button.

Step 3. Input the source Office 365 admin ID and application ID into the box provided to confirm authorization. Then select the Validate option.

Step 4. After you’ve validated your rights, click the Next button.

Step 5. Click the Validate button after inputting the target Office 365 admin ID and Application ID.

Step 6. Once you’ve validated the credentials, click the Next button.

Step 7. Design a map that connects the users at the source and destination. The software provides three alternatives for completing this process: recover users, import users, and download the template.

Step 8. The mapping between the source and destination users is finished.

Step 9. Select the validate button to validate authorization.

Step 10. After validating the permissions, click the Start Migration button.

Also Read: Exchange to Office 365 Migration Guide – Helping End-Users

Last Words

 Transferring Office 365 emails from one account to another might be time-consuming. To set your mind at ease, the prerequisites you must follow, as well as the ways by which you may do so, are discussed in this article.

A user can migrate Office 365 emails from one account to another in two ways. The first is a native method, and the second is an automated approach. The expert solution is advised since the customer will not have to deal with many problems.