How to Migrate Office 365 to Exchange? Easy Steps

Have you ever asked: “How can I move my emails from Office 365 to Exchange Server when my firm shifts from cloud to on-premise email?”

Many people tend to struggle with their company’s requirement of transferring mailboxes from O365 to Exchange on-premise as cloud & on-premise email systems work a lot differently. This happens because of compliance requirements, security needs, or subscription cost reduction purposes.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Understand why many business units migrate Office 365 to Exchange.
• Learn the manual migration steps along with their pros & cons.
• See how a professional tool brings expertise into the process of migration.
• Check answers for common user queries for better understanding.

Outline of the Blog

Many firms & IT users face the need to migrate Office 365 to Exchange while moving from cloud hosting back to their own email server or to a new on-premises email setup. Here, in this blog, we will be explaining why such a process is required, manual measures that have many limitations, and an expert professional tool that makes the task super efficient.

Why Should Anyone Migrate Office 365 to Exchange?

Many times, this question arises, “My organisation will not renew O365 subscription, but I and many team members still need our emails in our own server, so how to move them?” This is when they face the need to migrate Office 365 to Exchange on premise, which happens to be a process that moves all of the email data.

Q: Is it possible to move emails from O365 to on-premise Exchange with no loss?
A: Certainly! You can do this, but this needs careful planning, proper steps, and a professional tool for ensuring no email data is lost during the process.

Q: Which is the best method to move O365 mailbox to Exchange on premise?
A: There exist some manual ways and then there is the tool-based way; an automated tool helps in making this migration process safer with negligible probability of any error.

Understanding the Process

When any business unit makes use of Microsoft’s cloud service O365, all mailboxes live on the Microsoft server. However, many firms afterwards wish to bring their email back to their own server. For instance, they might need to migrate mailbox from Office 365 to Exchange 2016 or they may require to migrate mailbox from Office 365 to Exchange 2019. This could be due to company rules, cost savings, legal causes, or some internal policies.

Such a process isn’t easy as it requires ensuring all emails, calendar data, contact details, and other crucial information moves without any damage.

A Check with Reality

A company used O365 for around five years. Because of new industry security rules, it had to host all email internally. The owners needed to migrate user from Office 365 to Exchange with no loss of any email & attachments. The IT team was required to plan this carefully so as to ensure the mailing system continues to work for all staff members. Employing a structured approach through professional intervention became their strong point, and everything went well.

“Planning ahead of time, and performing the tests on a small number of mailboxes helps to avoid major downtime as well as data loss.” Say many IT Practitioners.

Business Situations to Migrate Office 365 to Exchange

Companies most often need to migrate Office 365 to Exchange in the following scenarios:

• At the time of shutting down O365 subscription.
• As per policy, the company needs locally hosted email.
• For security purposes or compliance demands.
• To upgrade to a new Exchange version.
• To migrate back to Exchange because of cost issues.

Manual Styles to Migrate Office 365 to Exchange

Manual ways tend to allow IT admins to move all the mailboxes with the help of Microsoft’s built-in options. Such methods mostly involve migrating data in batches, syncing, & performing special steps.

Method 1: Import O365 Mailboxes to Exchange using Outlook

This process is a very commonly used manual procedure for small business environments.

Step 1: You Have to Export Data to PST

1. Firstly, configure the Microsoft 365 mailbox in Outlook desktop.
2. Then, go to File > Open & Export > Import/Export.
3. After that, select Export to a file.
4. Now, choose Outlook Data File (.pst).
5. Next, export required folders.
6. Thereafter, save the PST file.

Step 2: You Now Need to Import PST into Exchange On-Premises Edition

1. Now, configure the Exchange on-premises mailbox in Outlook.
2. You can use Import/Export again to import the PST file.
3. Finally, drag & drop data into the Exchange mailbox folders.

Pros:

• It generates more control for experts.

Cons:

• This is a time-taking process.

Method 2. Migrate Exchange Online to On-Premise Using Hybrid Deployment

This process is ideal if your company already has a Hybrid Exchange setup. This methodology connects your O365 & Exchange on-premise using directory sync, and then moves users gradually. This procedure is good for big firms with a large number of mailboxes.

Steps:

1. First, ensure that your Exchange Server is fully patched & supported. You must prepare your Exchange on-premise server & Active Directory.
2. Then, install & configure Azure AD Connect for syncing users.
3. After that, confirm cloud mailboxes have matching on-prem AD objects.
4. Now, download & run the Hybrid Configuration Wizard.
5. Thereafter, enable hybrid mode between O365 & Exchange.
6. Next, select Full Hybrid or Minimal Hybrid.
7. Subsequently, in the Exchange Admin Center, you must create migration batches to move mailboxes.
8. Afterwards, you have to select Move to this forest.
9. Start & monitor migration progress in the Exchange Admin Center from the dashboard.
10. Verify that mailboxes are moved correctly.

You have to update MX & Autodiscover records after completion.

Pros:

• This process is best-suited for big firms with multiple mailboxes.
• This method supports gradual migration.
• This procedure tends to keep user identities synced.

Cons:

• This involves a complex setup.
• Such a way needs experienced admins.

Method 3. Move Office 365 to Exchange Server using PowerShell

This is technically a method that can be used only by experienced administrators, who are quite comfortable with commands:

Steps:

1. First of all, you need to check the Exchange GUID of on-premises & cloud mailboxes.
2. Then, you have to install the Azure AD PowerShell module.
3. After that, you need to connect to M365 using Global Admin credentials.
4. Next, you must match the Exchange GUIDs using PowerShell commands.
5. Now, you should run a full Azure AD Connect synchronization.
6. Thereafter, you have to create & run a migration batch from the Exchange Admin Centre.
7. Afterwards, you can complete mailbox offboarding to on-premises Exchange.

Pros:

• This generates more control for experts.

Cons:

• This process is pretty hard for beginner-level users.
• Non-technical people are likely to make many errors.

Where Do These Manual Ways Fall Short?

Manual methods may seem free but they come with real challenges:

• These are pretty time-taking processes that demand a lot of patience.
• There is always a risk of making human errors.
• Data loss is something that can’t be negated here.
• Such ways usually need expert skills to perform the steps.
• Such ways are not very good for big mailboxes.

Main Software Features

Here are the useful software features:

• Office 365 & Exchange servers fully supported.
• The software downloads all emails with email attachments.
• Folder structure as well as email properties will all be fully preserved.
• Using this tool, you can convert emails to multiple formats.
• The software works without needing any technical knowhow.
• The tool provides filters for selective migration.
• Migration from Office 365 to Exchange 2016 happens with no data loss at all.

How to Migrate Office 365 Mailboxes to Exchange?

You can see the super simple software steps below:

1. Download & Install: Firstly, open this expert tool on your PC.
2. Select Source: Then, select Office 365 as the email source and after that, authenticate by putting Office 365 credentials to login to your O365 account.
3. Folder Analysis: The software analyses your email folders.
4. See and Select: Select specific mailboxes, particular folders, or some items that are to be migrated.
5. Saving Option: Now, you must select Exchange Server as the target, and fill the target on-premises Exchange Server credentials.
6. Filters: You can even set filters if required to narrow data.
7. Migration: Hit the Backup button now to start the migration process.
8. Monitor: Check the progress till it transfers data directly to the Exchange server.

This simple process will save a lot of your time in comparison to manual methods.

Manual Ways Are Way Behind Expert Professional Tool

What to DO & What NOT to DO

Dos

• DO try to plan ahead before finally performing the migration.
• DO pick an expert solution for big mailboxes.

Don’ts

• DON’T depend upon manual methodology for huge email data.
• DON’T skip testing the process of migration first to avoid any hiccups.

Read the Following FAQs

Q: Can I simply export the PST file and import it to Exchange?
A: Yes! You can do that manually, but the process would be very slow and mostly remains incomplete when you move mailbox from Office 365 to on premise Exchange 2019. So, the safest bet is to go for a professional pick!

Q: Is it totally safe to migrate data without a pro tool?
A: It could be risky if you choose a manual way in case of many mailboxes or complex email data. In such cases, a pro tool proves to be totally safe always.

Q: Do I need to have admin skills to do this migration?
A: For doing manual steps, you do need admin expertise; but the professional tool can be used without such deep skills as it is user-friendly and fit for all.

Ending Note

Learning to migrate Office 365 to Exchange with expertise calls for an expert solution, and manual ways are not so promising. They even call for technical knowhow to undertake the steps with precision. On the other hand, the professional tool is that expert solution, which is fit for all; you can use it with any level of technical intelligence.