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I am moving mailboxes from HOSTED Exchange 2013 to O365... I don't have direct access to the server to run powershell scripts etc.

I am considering:

  1. Make an "admin" email account and giving it full permissions on every mailbox...
  2. Leave it signed into Outlook 2016 to download an "Offline copy of all emails since forever".
  3. Export each mailbox from this mega-outlook 1-at-a-time.
  4. Bulk-import all PST's to Azure using AZCopy.
  5. Map+Filter all the archives and move them across to the O365 users.

Is there a better way to perform this task when I clearly don't have access to the actual hosted exchange server? I just have a web-admin panel which I can use to modify users and control permissions between them.

I was thinking maybe there is a tool out there which essentially does the above process, but in a more reliable fashion than Outlook (I see a lot of corrupted PST's and incomplete downloads in Outlook). I imagine that there are backup tools out there which do precisely this task of remotely downloading all mailboxes to PST's... or maybe there is another method altogether?

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    Could you not contact your host and see if they offer an Exchange export service that can export your mailboxes to PSTs for you if you send them a suitably large enough hard disk? I've done this before but for company files (not exchange) - just the fact the host provider may offer you a service?
    – Kinnectus
    Jun 22, 2017 at 13:11
  • yes, but last time they offered us that "service" at a price per each-mailbox... Plus it will be harder to co-ordinate timing of cutting-over MX records to O365 right before the snapshot... and users will have a slightly interrupted workflow whilst we wait for the HDD to be couriered back and then the upload... I am considering getting our host to quote on uploading them straight to Azure themselves, then I don't need to jump in until step 5... but again I expect cost to be excessive for such a simple task.
    – Hicsy
    Jun 22, 2017 at 13:46
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    I can recommend a tool that does exactly what you want. You don't even have to add all mailboxes to your Outlook, you just need FullAccess permissions.
    – thims
    Jun 22, 2017 at 15:11
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    Why didn´t you setup an IMAPSync task or use a 3rd party Online Application (e.g. Audriga)?
    – BastianW
    Jun 22, 2017 at 20:48
  • yes, I am happy with 3rd-party tool recommendations. The tags are just to place the question in context - I don't have to be limited to only Microsoft products to perform this migration.
    – Hicsy
    Jun 23, 2017 at 1:34

2 Answers 2

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You can achieve the desired result by using the Export Outlook Items to PST File utility. Professional Edition of the product provides the "Mailbox" command line parameter you can use to export all listed mailboxes (for example, in a plain text file) with no need to attach them to Outlook profile. You just need the FullAccess permissions for all required mailboxes. Please note that I recommend this tool because I'm one of the developers.

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  • Thanks! I had already checked through your page after your first comment, so I was aware you were on the project, and appreciate the clarification to other users who have this question.
    – Hicsy
    Jun 26, 2017 at 23:46
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I may be a bit late on this, but another option is to copy the mail from the source mailboxes directly to the target, skipping the PST file altogether.

For full disclosure i represent the tool i'm suggesting: PowerMapi.

PowerMapi is a module for PowerShell that lets you work with MAPI. It's not a simplistic module meaning that it's not just a 'import-stuff' call, but is not overly complicated either.

For an example, here's what could be done if you have FullAccess permssion to each source mailbox:

import-Module PowerMapiLoader
$srcSess = new-MapiSession SourceProfile
$dstSess = new-MapiSession TargetProfile
$srcStore = open-MapiExchangeMailbox $srcSess -MailboxIdentifier [email protected]
$dstStore = open-MapiExchangeMailbox $dstSess -MailboxIdentifier [email protected]
$srcRoot = get-MapiFolder $srcStore -CommonFolder IPMSubtree
$dstRoot = get-MapiFolder $dstStore -CommonFolder IPMSubtree
Copy-MapiFolder -SourceFolder $srcRoot -DestinationFolder $dstRoot -CopySubfolders

So, in the above, the source and target mailboxes are opened simultaneously and items are copied from source to target.

It's a simplistic example and would need some logging and testing, but hopefully is enough to show what could be done. Furthermore, there are options to jump in front of the message copy routines (copy-MapiItem) in order to filter what is copied or to make modifications to items after copy completes, if necessary.

If you need more info, please look at http://powermapi.com/cmdlets

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