Microsoft Office 365 is a prominent cloud-based platform providing various advanced features to users. Still, organizations want to migrate Office 365 mailboxes into Exchange Server accounts. The primary reason users look to move back their Office 365 mailboxes to the Exchange Server is to keep their organizations’ data in a local server for security reasons. That means organizations can take full control over their data by storing it in their local drive or server.
Moving to an Exchange Server from Microsoft 365 sounds challenging, but it can become quite easy with a perfect strategy. So, if you want to proceed with this migration task effectively, this blog will provide a detailed step-by-step guide.
Solutions to move mailboxes back to Exchange Server from Office 365
Users can move through the migration process using manual and professional methods. Here, we will understand both ways and share their stepwise procedure and prerequisites for the migration process.
A traditional method to migrate Office 365 to Exchange Server
Before understanding the stepwise procedure for the migration, you need to make sure that you have fulfilled the following requirements:
- First, properly install and configure the Exchange Server on your device.
- Ensure that the admin has access to both Office 365 and Exchange Server.
- To avoid data loss due to unexpected issues, backup your data before initiating the migration task.
Steps to migrate Office 365 mailboxes into Exchange Server
Users need to follow the below steps to transfer their Office 365 mailboxes using the manual solution.
Step 1: First, prepare your Exchange Server and ensure the mailboxes are ready to receive data.
Step 2: You need to create a CSV file for the mailboxes you are willing to move. For this, you must make columns for the email address, username, and password for each mailbox you want to migrate.
Step 3: Connect to the Exchange Server and Office 365 using the PowerShell command.
To connect with the Office 365:
$UserCredential = Get-Credential
Connect-MsolService -Credential $UserCredential
To connect with the Exchange Server:
$ExchangeSession = New-PSSession -ConfigurationName Microsoft.Exchange -ConnectionUri http://<YourExchangeServer>/PowerShell/ -Authentication Kerberos
Import-PSSession $ExchangeSession
Step 4: Create a migration batch to move further with the migration process. You can use the below PowerShell command to create a migration batch.
New-MigrationBatch -Name “Office365ToExchange” -SourceEndpoint “Office365” -TargetDatabase “YourExchangeDatabase” -CSVData (Get-Content C:\path\to\your\csvfile.csv)
Step 5: Once you created the migration batch, run the command to start the migration batch.
Start-MigrationBatch -Identity “Office365ToExchange”
Step 6: To check the migration progress, you can follow the below command.
Get-MigrationBatch -Identity “Office365ToExchange”
Step 7: After that, you need to finalize the process once the migration process is completed.
Complete-MigrationBatch -Identity “Office365ToExchange”
Finally, check that all the data has been successfully moved to the Exchange Server. Then, update the DNS records and ensure that everything is running smoothly.
This method involves various PowerShell commands, which might make the process challenging for the users. Moreover, there is a high chance of human error when users migrate Office 365 mailboxes into Exchange Server using the manual solution. So, what can users do to avoid challenges and smoothly manage migration? We urge users to use a professional solution, like the Weeom Exchange Server Suite, to simplify this task.
What is the easiest way to migrate Office 365 to Exchange?
To proceed with the Office 365 to Exchange migration task, users must use the Weeom Exchange Server Suite. Moreover, this software comes with numerous user-centric features to simplify the process. Users can move multiple mailboxes from their Office 365 account to Exchange Server in a single go. This software doesn’t alter the data’s folder hierarchy and meta properties during migration. Let’s look at the steps to migrate Office 365 mailboxes into Exchange Server using this professional tool.
- Install and open the Weeom Exchange Server Suite in your system.
- After that, click the Add Source button and tap the Office 365 mailboxes option.
- Enter the Office 365 user name, password, and other details to add the Office 365 mailboxes. Then, tap the Next button. (You can also export the CSV file to add multiple Office 365 mailboxes in one go.)
- After that, choose the Live Exchange option from the ribbon bar.
- Then, check or uncheck the subfolders from the list you want to include and tap the Next button.
- Now, on the next page, select the option to fetch all mailboxes from your Outlook profile or from Active Directory (AD). After choosing an option, provide the required details and hit the Next button.
- After that, map the source, validate the target, and move further with the Next.
- Include or exclude the items using the message date and class filter.
- Tap the Advance option if you want to make changes in the item thread count or for the folder mapping and email translation. Then, click the OK button and Next button.
- Here, the migration process will begin. Click the Finish button after completing the process and save the report if needed.
These simple steps users can use to migrate Office 365 mailboxes into Exchange Server accounts. Its easy-to-use interface makes it smooth for all users to manage this migration task, even if they are from a non-technical background.
Finalizing
The traditional method is a bit challenging and can consume too much time. Therefore, users should use the Weeom Exchange Server Suite to effectively migrate Office 365 mailboxes to Exchange Server. Moreover, users can also use its free demo version in their system, which allows freely migrating the first 50 items per folder. Users can take a tour of its advanced features and check its efficiency by running its free demo version in their system.
