Learn How to Migrate From Lotus Notes to Office 365 – Top 3 Methods Explained

Summary: This technical guide is specially crafted for administrators and organizations who want to migrate from Lotus Notes to Office 365. The post will be modified from time to time with the latest updates. So, keep on checking the website frequently.

Back in 1989, Lotus Development Corporation originally developed Lotus Notes. Presently, it was acquired by HCL in 2019. There was a time when Lotus Notes was a dominating email client used for business communication. It had features that were useful for enterprises to run their business operations smoothly. 

However, technology evolved, and more advanced & user-friendly platforms like Office 365 were introduced. And, adapting to the latest technology with time only brings new opportunities and business benefits to the organization.

This is why, these days, many organizations are planning to leave the outdated email client(Lotus Notes) behind & switch to the cloud platform Office 365. But, why are they considering Office 365? 

Table of Content

• Benefits You Can Get When You Migrate Lotus Notes Mail to Office 365
• Different Ways to Migrate From Lotus Notes To Office 365
• Manual Method-1: Migrate Lotus Notes Mail to Office 365 Using MONTI.exe
• Manual Method-2: Migrate From Lotus Notes to Office 365 Using IMAP Connector
• Method-3: Automatically Migrate Lotus Notes Mail to Office 365
• Conclusion

Benefits You Can Get When You Migrate Lotus Notes Mail to Office 365

First of all, Lotus Notes is a desktop-based application and its accessibility is confined within walls. Whereas Office 365 gives you the flexibility to work from anywhere and on any device of your choice since it’s cloud-based.

Secondly, Lotus Notes was developed for only mailing purposes. However, Office 365 is a complete package that includes Outlook(email client), MS Word, PowerPoint, Excel, Teams, and other advanced applications.

Then again, the Lotus Notes application was designed to meet high-level business needs. On the contrary, Office 365 is such a platform that has something to offer for all kinds of businesses as well as individuals.

Further, cost-wise, Office 365 is more affordable than Lotus Notes and comes with various subscription plans. 

Since Lotus Notes is an old technology, invading privacy is much easier for hackers. So, from a security point of view, Office 365 is more secure than Lotus Notes.

Above all, it’s a very complex task to manage the Lotus Notes platform. And, since the technology is out of date, finding experts who can understand & maintain Lotus Notes is nearly impossible. And, that’s where Office 365 wins over Lotus Notes, cause managing this cloud platform is much easier.

So, above are a handful of reasons why Office 365 is the most preferred platform used by over a billion users worldwide.

But, is it easy to migrate IBM Notes to Office 365?

Moving data between two completely different platforms can be tricky until you don’t know the methods.

Different Ways to Migrate From Lotus Notes To Office 365

There are manual as well as automated methods present to carry out the migration. For manual methods, you may use one of the ways i.e. MONTI application or IMAP connector. And, for the automated method, you may take the help of the most trusted Migrator Wizard Lotes Migration Tool.

Let’s first start the discussion with the manual methods then we will cover the automated method.

Manual Method 1: Migrate Lotus Notes Mail to Office 365 Using MONTI.exe

MONTI or Microsoft Online Notes Inspector will assist you in evaluating the amount of data to be migrated from the Lotus Notes environment to Office365 or Microsoft 365.

It will;

• Process mail files to determine the total database size, and document count i.e. how many calendars, contacts, groups, mail, and tasks are there to migrate, and size by days.
• Post results under the People, Mail-In Databases, and Logs views. You can either create these reports manually or on a scheduled basis as per your requirements.

Now, let’s understand the steps.

1. Download the MONTI.exe file, then click ‘Browse’ to choose a location on your system to save.
2. After that, click on ‘Unzip’. It will extract the MONTI documents to the specified location.
3. Then, go to the folder location, Office 365 Deployment Tools\MONTI\Docs folder.
4. Next, open the MONTI 3.2 Configuration Guide and read it thoroughly to get a complete idea about the Lotus Notes to Office 365 migration process.

Limitations:

It takes a lot of time to understand the documentation and technicalities of the process. Overall, the entire process is overwhelming.

Related: Microsoft Office 365 Migration Checklist – Thorough Guide for Pre & Post O365 Migration

Manual Method 2: Migrate From Lotus Notes to Office 365 Using IMAP Connector

This is another old-school method that you may use to transfer Lotus Notes business data to Office 365. This method goes through various steps. The steps include;

Step 1. Take a backup of Lotus Notes NSF files

The primary step is to create a backup of all existing users’ mailboxes that are stored as NSF files. This step is necessary before migration to avoid data loss, which may occur due to technical glitches during the transfer procedure. So, it’s recommended to create Lotus Notes archives for backup.

Step 2. Create new mailboxes for existing profiles

After creating backup files, the next step is to create new mailboxes for every user with an existing profile in the Lotus Notes desktop email client.

Step 3. Activate IMAP TCP/IP Port for all users

Next, you need to enable IMAP for all users. The steps for activating the IMAP are as follows.

1. Open Domino Administrator in IBM Notes on your PC.
2. Next, go to the Configuration tab.
3. After that, open the Server document for the server that runs the IMAP service.
4. Then, follow the order and click on the tabs  Ports – Internet Ports – Mail tab simultaneously.
5. Now, it’s time to enable the default IMAP TCP/IP Port. For that, you need to alter the ‘TCP/IP port value status’ to ‘Enabled’ in the Mail (IMAP) column. 

Note: By default, the IMAP clients get connected to TCP/IP port number 143 on the Domino server).

1. At last, click on ‘Save’, and exit.

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Step 4. Connect with IMAP Connector

Finally, you can use the IMAP Connector to synchronize emails in Office 365 from the Lotus Notes email client.

After following the above steps, you will be able to manually migrate from Lotus Notes to Office 365. However, this procedure has certain limitations you must know.

Limitations of Manual Method in Migrating IBM Notes to Office 365:

• If the Notes client is behind a firewall and proxy, then it will not connect to the Internet. 
• In case the Lotus Notes email client is disabled, it will not permit an IMAP connection.
• If the IMAP Connector restricts the migration of calendar entries, then you must perform it manually.
• Further, manually creating calendar entries takes more time and slows the transfer process.
• When you use of IMAP protocol for the migration process, it moves only online data to Office 365.
• Also, there’s a limitation on the size i.e. the IMAP Connector can move emails of a maximum of 1 GB size.
• Moreover, the process involves applying various filters that are not cost-effective and the procedure of applying those is complex.

These limitations make the manual methods less reliable as compared to the automated method. Let’s get familiar with the automated method. 

Method 3: Automatically Migrate Lotus Notes Mail to Office 365

As discussed in the earlier section, this method uses professional software for the migration. With the help of the tool, you will be able to switch multiple Lotus Notes accounts in one go. Also, you can apply a date filter to migrate selective emails from source to destination.

There are various other benefits of using the tool, but, the best part is, that using the tool for migration is very simple. Let’s glance through the easy-to-do software steps.

Step 1. Download install and launch the software on your device.

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Step 2. Choose the source as Notes and the destination as Office 365.

Step 3. Select the workloads such as emails, contacts, and calendars to be migrated.

Step 4. Provide necessary details for source and destinations & then validate the permissions.

Step 5. Fetch the users for migration, map them with the destination, and validate the user permissions again.

Step 6. Finally, begin the migration process by clicking on the Start Migration button.

Other Benefits Of Using The Tool

• You can easily migrate single or multiple NSF files to Office 365.
• With this tool, you can migrate Lotus Notes to Office 365 In-place archive mailbox.
• The software maintains the file internet header even after the migration. The integrity of data is retained throughout the migration process.
• You can perform the migration again if any data was missed during the initial run. And, it’s possible through the Re-run migration option.
• Also, with the help of the Delta migration option, you can migrate newly arrived items.

Must Read: Quick Fix for Microsoft Teams Chat Disappeared Issue – Complete Explanation

Conclusion

To migrate from Lotus Notes to Office 365 manually, can be a tedious task. And, it requires technical expertise to carry out a successful migration. That’s why this write-up explained an alternative solution that is rather simple to use. So, you can complete the migration using the tried and tested tool.

FAQs

Q1. How to migrate from Lotus Notes to Office 365 quickly?

The manual method is quite a lengthy process, and it requires a deep technical knowledge and understanding of both platforms. Moreover,  a small mistake can lead to potential data loss scenarios. While dealing with the migration of crucial organizational data, it is recommended to use professional software as discussed above, which can greatly reduce the chances of human error.  Not only this but also you can perform the data transfer in just 5 steps.

• Step 1. Download and launch the software on a PC.
• Step 2. Choose Lotus Notes and Office 365 platforms.
• Step 3. Enable required mailbox items and set filter.
• Step 4. Login with Lotus Notes and Office 365 details.
• Step 5. Select user accounts, validate, and click on start.

Q2. What is a good replacement for Lotus Notes?

Well, it depends upon the individual choice and requirements, however, if you are looking for a complete business productivity suite then you might choose Microsoft 365 aka Office 365, or Google Workspace aka G Suite. Both these platforms offer industry-standard SaaS-based services to fulfill all kinds of business needs.