How to Migrate Shared Mailbox to Office 365 – Step By Step Explained

Summary: This article is specially drafted for users who want to migrate shared mailbox to Office 365 without license. Here we’ve explained the detailed procedure of the manual methods and have also discussed an automated solution to make the whole process even simpler.

Microsoft Office 365 is packed with various features and the Shared mailbox is one of them that helps organizations in a manner to collaborate at their workplace. A shared mailbox enables multiple users to access the same mailbox, such as company information and other functions that might be shared by various people.

However, urgent scenarios like company mergers, acquisitions, rebranding, etc demand an IT infrastructure change. In such cases, it becomes essential to carry out an entire mailbox migration with a reliable pre and post Office 365 migration checklist, to transfer Shared mailbox data safely.

But, the question is, how can you migrate Shared mailbox to Office 365? Well, this technical guide is crafted to address the same query.

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Anyway, apart from the above-mentioned scenario, there are other reasons why users want to migrate shared mailbox data. Let’s have a look at the downsides of a shared mailbox.

What Are The Limitations of A Shared Mailbox in Office 365?

There is no doubt that a shared mailbox has its own set of benefits. But, it lacks in some areas. Such as;

• When too many users concurrently access the shared mailbox, there is a chance of intermittently failing to connect to this mailbox or having inconsistencies like messages being duplicated in the outbox.
• Since multiple users access the same mailbox, you can’t prevent a user from deleting emails (whether accidentally or intentionally). As a result, you could lose your important email.
• Also, in a muti-geo environment, you need to assign a license to the shared mailbox the way it is assigned to a user mailbox, and further cross-geo mailbox auditing is not supported.
• Undoubtedly, you get 50GB of shared mailbox storage space without assigning a license. However, once it reaches the limit, you will be able to receive emails for a while but can’t send any new emails. You have to assign a license to store more data which is not very cost-effective.

These are the reasons you need to look out for. Hence, some users prefer to migrate a shared mailbox to Office 365 to avoid such incidents.

However, it’s not as easy a task as it seems to perform the migration. There are some complications involved in Shared mailbox migration.

Learn The Challenges of Shared Mailbox Migration

As you already know you don’t require a license for shared mailboxes unless there is over 50 GB of data. Thus, it becomes rather confusing for organizations, whether to create shared mailboxes after migrating the users or to move the content first.

Here are the other challenges involved in migration.

• The biggest challenge during the migration is managing permissions for shared mailboxes.
• Assigning frequently does not work consistently over organizations, and the correct clients have to be relocated at the same time to guarantee that permissions are retained.
• When admins try migrating shared mailboxes directly, they come across errors involving proxy address attributes and other such issues.
• Due to improper configuration, often regular user mailboxes that were converted to shared mailboxes are reverted to standard user mailboxes.

So, what options do you have for performing a successful Shared Mailbox migration?

Various Methods to Migrate Shared Mailbox to Office 365

There are three ways;

1. Convert and migrate the Shared mailbox
2. Directly migrate Shared mailboxes
3. Migrate Shared mailbox to Office 365 Using PowerShell

The 1st method is a manual one and it’s completed in 2 steps i.e. first convert the shared mailbox to the user mailbox and then perform the migration.

The 2nd method is an automated one that doesn’t involve any conversation and you can directly migrate shared mailbox(s).

Let’s discuss both methods in detail.

Convert & Migrate Shared Mailbox to Office 365 User Mailbox

Microsoft gives the provision to convert a shared mailbox to a user mailbox. For that, you just have to follow the below steps.

• Step 1. Open the Exchange admin center.
• Step 2. After that, select Recipients >> Shared.
• Step 3. Now, select the shared mailbox that you want to convert. Then, under Convert to Regular Mailbox, select Convert.
• Step 4. Return to the admin center. Under Users, choose the user account associated with the old shared mailbox. After that, Assign a license to the account, and then reset the password.

The above method is applicable when you want to convert the shared mailbox to a user mailbox within the same tenant. And, if you want to migrate the shared mailbox to a different Office 365 tenant then this method is not going to help. And, this is one of the major drawbacks. 

Secondly, every time you convert a shared mailbox to a user mailbox, you have to assign a license. And, if the number of shared mailboxes that you want to convert, is in large numbers then it’s not going to be cost-effective at all. 

Besides, it’s not a wise choice to spend a considerable amount just to convert a shared mailbox to a user mailbox. 

So, why waste money and time when you can use the straightforward method and migrate shared mailboxes without converting? Let’s have a look at the same.

Directly Migrate Shared Mailbox to Office 365 Without a License

To achieve a hassle-free migration, you have to choose reliable and secure software such as Migrator Wizard Office 365 Migration Tool. The software enables you to migrate shared mailboxes to Office 365 within a few clicks. It ensures data integrity and hierarchy. The given steps are detailed in nature so that you can do them yourself without any technical difficulties.

Migrate Shared Mailbox to Office 365 Without a License Using Software Solution 

Step 1. Download the migration tool from the above-mentioned link and launch it on your computer.

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Step 2. Navigate to the ‘Setup’ section, and choose ‘Office 365’ as both the source and destination.

Step 3. Then, select the email checkbox along with the contacts, calendars, and documents(optional) checkboxes. 

Note: You can also apply the ‘date filter’ option for transferring only selected files within a particular time range.

Step 4. Enter the Office 365 admin ID and application ID for the source. Then, click on Validate button for verifying source permissions.

Step 5. Next, confirm that all the desired source permissions turn green. Then, click on the ‘Next’ button.

Step 6. Next, navigate to the ‘Destination’ tab, and provide the Office 365 admin ID and application ID. After that, click on the ‘Validate’ button.

Step 7. After successfully verifying, click the Next button to migrate Shared mailbox to Office 365.

Step 8. Next, go to the ‘Users’ tab, and define the users through either ‘Fetch Users’, ‘Import Users’, or ‘Download Template’

Step 9. Then, map the source and destination, and after that, it will reflect on your screen like this.

Step 10. Now, for migrating the shared mailboxes, in the source list, right-click on particular mailboxes, and ignore the Office 365 license validation.

[Note: When migrating shared mailboxes, It is essential to follow the above for successfully migrating your data without getting any technical errors.]

Step 11. Once you follow the above step, you will see a red icon next to the shared mailbox that you intend to migrate. To get a clear picture, refer to the screenshot given below.

Step 12. For one last time verify all the required source and destination permissions by clicking on the ‘Validate’ button.

Step 13. Once you confirm that all the source and destination permissions have turned green, you are all set to migrate your shared mailbox data to Office 365. At last, click on ‘Start Migration to migrate Shared mailbox to Office 365 user mailbox.

Why Opt For The Software For Migrating Office 365 Shared Mailbox Data?

There is more than one reason for choosing the tool. Let’s glance through a few of them.

• Firstly, you can quickly and efficiently carry out the migration without the fear of data loss. 
• The best-in-class security features of the tool allow users to securely move their data. That means your login credentials will not get compromised at any point in time. 
• With the tool, you can migrate all the data in the shared mailbox including emails, contacts, events, etc. to another shared mailbox in Office 365.
• After you log in to the admin account, not just one but you can migrate Office 365 mailboxes in bulk.
• This software lets you re-do the migration process to fetch the skipped items in three different ways. 

1. 1. Retry migration for the failed items.
   2. Re-run the full migration.
   3. Delta migration for newly arrived items.

• Above all, it maintains data integrity throughout the process.

Also Read: How to Transfer Office 365 Mailbox to Another Account? Best Way Explained

PowerShell to Migrate Shared Mailbox to Office 365 Regular Mailboxes

The third method involves using a PowerShell command to smoothly change a shared mailbox into an Office 365 user mailbox. This method works well, but it requires some technical skills and a good understanding of PowerShell and Exchange Online. Before you start, make sure you have the Exchange Online module installed in PowerShell.

Follow the Detailed Steps Below

Step 1. Connect to Exchange Online 

Connect-ExchangeOnline -UserPrincipalName abc@migratorwizard.onmicrosoft.com

Step 2. Convert Shared Mailbox to User Mailbox 

Set-Mailbox -Identity abc@migratorwizard -Type Regular

Step 3. Now you have to Verify the Conversion of Shared Mailbox to User Mailbox

After using the Set-Mailbox command, you won’t get a clear message confirming that it worked. You’ll only know if something went wrong. So, to be sure that the mailbox is now a user mailbox, you have to use another command which is Get-Mailbox.

Step 4. Use the command: 

Get-Mailbox -Identity abc@migratorwizard.onmicrosoft.com | Select Name, RecipientTypeDetails

When you run this command, you’ll see something like:

Name               RecipientTypeDetails

—-               ——————–

abc-test           UserMailbox

By following these above-mentioned steps, you can use PowerShell to convert a shared mailbox into an Office 365 user mailbox.

To Conclude

This technical guide aims to help troubled users who are trying to find a solution for shared box migration. In this write-up, we’ve covered the limitations of a shared box, & the challenges of shared box migration, and also provided a solution to migrate shared mailbox to Office 365 that they can refer to carry out a seamless migration.

FAQs

Q1. How can I convert a shared mailbox to Office 365 quickly?

A. Manually we can not convert shared mailboxes quickly, we will have to perform certain steps that require admin privileges. But using the above software solutions you can easily perform this task.

Follow the below quick steps to perform the same:

• Step 1. Download & Run Software on PC.
• Step 2. Opt Office 365 as Source & Target.
• Step 3. Enable Workload & Apply Date Filter.
• Step 4. Log in with Office 365 Admin Credentials.
• Step 5. Create Mapping, Validate & Click on Start.

Q2. How can I access a shared mailbox in Office 365?

To access the shared mailbox, you must ensure followings. 

• You must have the right privileges like global admin or Office 365 admin account credentials.
• You should be assigned that shared mailbox by the administrator.

If you fulfill the above points you can access the shared mailbox in your primary mailbox or regular Outlook 365 mailbox. 

Step 1. Open Outlook 365 and log in to your primary email accounts. 

Step 2. From the left pane, scroll down and navigate to the shared mailbox that has been assigned to you. 

In this way, you can easily access it. Since the shared mailbox does not have a password to log in, hence you have to access it using your primary mailbox.  

Q3. What are the limitations of shared mailbox in Office 365?

Although shared mailbox offers several benefits to users. Still, there are a few limitations associated with it that you should know. 

Some of them are as follows:

• Privacy issues – While using the shared mailbox, you can not track who has sent an email and who deleted one. It raises a security concern as there is no tracking, all the users who have access to the shared mailbox can easily reply or delete an email.  
• License requirements – For the initial usage shared mailbox is completely free which comes with a storage space of 50 GB. However, when the storage space of 50 GB exceeds, the shared mailbox stops receiving or sending emails, to continue using it you have to upgrade your license plan to an Exchange Online Plan 2 license. Which introduces additional costs to the organization. 
• Not Secure – Email encryption is not available for shared mailboxes as it does not have its security context (username/password). This means you are not allowed to encrypt emails sent from a shared mailbox.