Migrate existing mailboxes

  • Article

Updated: April 21, 2009

Applies To: Windows SBS 2008

To migrate local mailboxes to Microsoft Online Services, you must do the following:

  1. Install the Microsoft Online Services Migration Tools.

  2. Manually create and activate user accounts.

  3. Run the Move Exchange Mailboxes to Microsoft Online Services Wizard.

Install the Microsoft Online Services Migration Tools

Microsoft Online Services provides tools that help you migrate the contents of your local mailboxes to Exchange Online mailboxes.

To install the Microsoft Online Services Migration Tools

  1. Sign in to the Microsoft Online Services Administration Center, click the Migration tab, and then click the E-Mail Migration page.

  2. On the E-Mail Migration page, complete step 1, click the Download button for the type of computer on which you are installing the migration tools, and then follow the instructions to save the installation program to your computer.

  3. Run the installation program.

Manually create and activate user accounts

You must manually create user accounts in Microsoft Online Services before you can migrate the content from your local mailboxes to Exchange Online mailboxes. While your mailboxes coexist, you must ensure that any changes that you make to the local user accounts are also made to the user accounts on Microsoft Online Services.

To manually create user accounts

  1. Sign in to the Microsoft Online Services Administration Center, select the Users tab, and then select the User List page.

  2. In the Actions pane, click Add new user.

  3. Enter the information for the new user account, and then click Next.

  4. Set the permissions for the new user account, and then click Next. You can choose to enable the mailbox when it is created, or you can choose to disable the mailbox when it is created and then activate it later.

  5. Set the size of the mailbox, and then click Create.

You must ensure that all of the user accounts to which you want to migrate e-mail are active before you start the migration process. If you ensured that user accounts were enabled when they were created, you do not need to complete the following procedure.

To activate user accounts

  1. Sign in to the Microsoft Online Services Administration Center, select the Users tab, and then select the User List page.

  2. In the Views pane, click Disabled User Accounts.

  3. In the All Users pane, select one or more user accounts.

  4. In the Actions pane, click Activate user.

  5. On the Assign Services page, select the services to assign to the selected user accounts. You must select at least one service to activate the selected user accounts.

  6. On the Password Options page, you can choose to send a list of the passwords for the newly activated user accounts in an e-mail message to someone. If you decide not to send the passwords in e-mail, you can copy and paste them on the Confirmation page.

  7. After you select the options, click Activate.

Run the Migrate Exchange Mailboxes to Exchange Online Wizard

To help prevent confusion about the available mailboxes, you should run the Migrate Exchange Mailboxes to Exchange Online Wizard as soon as possible after you activate user accounts. The Migrate Exchange Mailboxes to Exchange Online Wizard helps you to migrate the contents of local mailboxes to Exchange Online mailboxes. It also establishes e-mail forwarding of messages to your Exchange Online mailboxes.

To run the Migrate Exchange Mailboxes to Exchange Online Wizard

  1. Click Start, click All Programs, click Microsoft Online Services Migration Tools, and then click Microsoft Online Services Migration Console.

  2. In the navigation pane, in Microsoft Exchange, click Mailboxes ready to migrate. If you do not see the mailboxes that you want to migrate listed in the Mailboxes Ready to Migrate pane, ensure that all of the user accounts have the local Exchange Server e-mail address defined as an alternate address on Exchange Online.

  3. Select the mailboxes that you want to migrate, and then, in the Actions pane, click Migrate mailboxes.

  4. On the Migrate Mailbox Options page, select whether to copy the local mailbox content to Exchange Online. You can choose to copy the contents of the mailbox during migration, or you can choose to migrate the mailbox and allow only new messages to be delivered to the mailbox on Exchange Online.

Note

If you choose to copy the local mailbox content, you can also delete the local mailboxes.

  1. If you choose to copy the local mailbox content, on the Select Mailbox Content page, select the types of mailbox content to copy and the date range of the content to copy.

  2. After reviewing the list of selected mailboxes on the Review Mailboxes page, click Migrate to perform the actions that you selected in steps 4 and 5.

  3. Complete the Migrate Exchange Mailboxes to Exchange Online Wizard.

Note

The Migrate Exchange Mailboxes to Exchange Online Wizard copies the most recent mailbox content to the Exchange Online mailbox. If the size of the local mailbox is larger than the size allowed on Exchange Online, the migration stops when the Exchange Online mailbox is full. The user cannot use the Exchange Online mailbox until enough content is deleted to reduce the mailbox size below the limit of the Exchange Online mailbox.

Important

After you migrate mailboxes, the following conditions are applied to e-mail messages that are sent:

  • Copies of all e-mail messages that are addressed to the local mailboxes are forwarded to the associated Exchange Online mailboxes.

  • E-mail that is sent from Exchange Online mailboxes is delivered to the Exchange Online mailboxes and does not appear in the local mailboxes.