Moving emails from Office 365 (Outlook online) to Gmail

[TwistedHelixis]

I have just got our LA to switch the schools MX records from Outlook (online) to the schools new Gmail system.

 

This is a very small primary school with about 10 main users that will need their old emails moving over.

 

What is the easiest way of moving the old emails from Outlook to Gmail. I don't mind doing this manually for each member of staff, I was even thinking of going in to each account and downloading the emails as a .pst file but I cant seem to find anywhere to backup the users emails while in their Outlook accounts.

 

Cheers

[rogerdnixon]

The simplest way is to use the migration tool in the G Suite Admin Console. You will need an admin account on the Microsoft side with sufficient privalages to move the mail - good guide here. Then you just follow the onscreen instructions. You can do Mail/Contacts and Calendar. Takes a little while to run - especially for big mailboxes - but just leave it to do its stuff once it starts.

[TwistedHelixis]

Just realised that if I install Outlook desktop app I can export the emails, so will try that method.

 

Another method I found was using Gmail to import from Outlook but when I just tried that it complained about the pop address being wrong. Any idea how I find out the pop address for Outlook?

 

- - - Updated - - -

 

The simplest way is to use the migration tool in the G Suite Admin Console. You will need an admin account on the Microsoft side with sufficient privalages to move the mail - good guide here. Then you just follow the onscreen instructions. You can do Mail/Contacts and Calendar. Takes a little while to run - especially for big mailboxes - but just leave it to do its stuff once it starts.

 

Thanks I will also try that

[mavhc]

2 automatic options are: be an admin on your exchange server (ie have admin rights on office365), or make a csv file with email addresses and passwords.

[TwistedHelixis]

@rogerdnixon

 

It has this info on that page

 

Application Impersonation is available on Microsoft Office 365 plan E3

 

We do not have E3 :0(

[TwistedHelixis]

I have just found a bunch of handy tools by Google for doing this. One is GSMMO which is for domains with less than 20 users. It basically gets each user to migrate themselves across, which sounds great.

 

https://support.google.com/a/answer/180898?hl=en (expand option 3)

 

https://support.google.com/a/answer/176213

 

https://tools.google.com/dlpage/outlookmigration

[TwistedHelixis]

OK so I have decided to try and migrate everyone and do it for them using Google Data Migration Service. It seems silly not to use the tools built in to G Suite.

 

I went in to exchange and created the new role 'Application Impersonation' following the link in post No.2 above but when I run the Google Data Migration Service for my test user I get this error.

Failed

Exchange Impersonation error. Unable to open user mailbox due to impersonation error. Please make sure impersonation is set properly. (11021)

 

Does that mean we need to have an E3 plan for Office 365. If so are there any workarounds?

[TwistedHelixis]

Perhaps I just need to leave things to update for a while and try again

[mavhc]

If you don't have the right Office 365 subscription then use the IMAP CSV version, just need to know/reset everyone's password

 

https://support.google.com/a/answer/2790320

[TwistedHelixis]

If you don't have the right Office 365 subscription then use the IMAP CSV version, just need to know/reset everyone's password

 

Thanks. The CSV bit is fine but on the right of the screen it lists 'Authorize GSMME for your account' & 'Create a service account'. When I dig into those it wants me to use Google Cloud platform to create a project and attach APIs etc

 

I have not actually done any of this but surly it cant be this complicated? Is this the correct way of doing this?

[TwistedHelixis]

Just managed to get the main Google Data Migration Service working without any impersonation errors.

 

My fix was to create a new admin user. not sure why that would make any difference but it has and its working, at least on my test account that I have just migrated.

[TwistedHelixis]

Just found out that our LA have not switched the MX records yet due to a mix up there end. I think this might be a blessing as it gives me a bit more time.

 

One question that I probably should have thought first. If I switch the MX records from Office 365 to G Suite, can I still use the G Suite Migration service to migrate old emails from Office 365 if the routing has been removed, does the Migration service need the MX address to move the emails?

 

So with this option (1)

Switch MX records - all email now going to G Suite

Use G Suite Migration Service to migrate old emails

 

I could always do this the other way round. We currently have a second domain attached to our G Suite(it was initially setup by a governor and was a org.uk domain). Recently I added the schools sch.uk domain as a primary and made the org.uk domain a second domain. The org.uk domain can still receive emails so could I attach the second domain to all my users in the primary domain?

 

So with this option (2)

All users currently setup under primary domain also get setup under second domain (so they can receive emails)

Migrate old emails to G suite

Setup forwarding in Office 365 so any new emails get forwarded to G suite but using the second domain as that has a valid MX record.

Switch the MX records from Office 365 to G suite

 

What do you all think?

[mavhc]

Just found out that our LA have not switched the MX records yet due to a mix up there end. I think this might be a blessing as it gives me a bit more time.

 

One question that I probably should have thought first. If I switch the MX records from Office 365 to G Suite, can I still use the G Suite Migration service to migrate old emails from Office 365 if the routing has been removed, does the Migration service need the MX address to move the emails?

 

 

That's fine, because you're specifying the server the old emails are on yourself, not relying on MX record as external people are

 

 

So with this option (1)

Switch MX records - all email now going to G Suite

Use G Suite Migration Service to migrate old emails

 

I could always do this the other way round. We currently have a second domain attached to our G Suite(it was initially setup by a governor and was a org.uk domain). Recently I added the schools sch.uk domain as a primary and made the org.uk domain a second domain. The org.uk domain can still receive emails so could I attach the second domain to all my users in the primary domain?

 

Of course they did, sigh. Thanks people who half know what they're doing.

 

At least you can set the primary domain now, couldn't do that for a decade. Is it an alias or a second domain on GSuite?

 

So with this option (2)

All users currently setup under primary domain also get setup under second domain (so they can receive emails)

Migrate old emails to G suite

Setup forwarding in Office 365 so any new emails get forwarded to G suite but using the second domain as that has a valid MX record.

Switch the MX records from Office 365 to G suite

 

What do you all think?

 

Just do option 1, it's fine.

[TwistedHelixis]

Is it an alias or a second domain on GSuite?

second domain

[TwistedHelixis]

Think I will just do option 1, it seems simpler

[TwistedHelixis]

Just found out some very handy info. Not only could I re run the migration multiple times but after the migration has completed, provided I do not click 'Stop Migration' it will still migrate any new emails that arrive in the old account.

 

Just about to test this and see if it does continue to migrate emails

 

UPDATE - Perhaps I needed to leave it longer but nothing auto migrated. I then noticed you can select an account and you get a play button display, which kicks of the migration again, but even doing this did not migrate the new emails. Finally I removed the user accounts and added them back, clicked on migrate and the newest emails did migrate.

 

This does make very thing much simpler, especially as I do not control when the MX records can get switched, I will be at the mercy of our local authority.

 

So these are my steps in case anyone is in the same boat.

 

Create users in G Suite

Migrate emails from Office 365 to G Suite

Ask LA to switch MX records

Re run the migration service to pick up any new emails that might have arrived while I was waiting for the LA to switch the MX records.

 

I am not going to do any of this until our next half term (end of May)

Edited April 27, 2019 by TwistedHelixis

[mavhc]

By create users in GSuite I hope you meant sync users from AD to GSuite and install GSuite Password Sync