Learn How to Import MBOX to Office 365 in Simple Steps

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Are you trying to migrate MBOX folder to Office 365? If yes, then you have landed on the right page to get the solution. However, before that let us understand why users demand for Thunderbird to Office 365 migration.

Office 365 or Exchange Online is a cloud storage service that facilitates user with numerous online applications. Moreover, it provides Microsoft Online Suite. Office 365 stores emails, calendars, contacts, journals, etc. Bsically, it provides the best security and maintains data from any malicious activity. On the other hand, MBOX files are used by various email applications such as Mozilla Thunderbird, Apple Mail, Entourage, Eudora, etc. These email clients stores mailbox items in MBOX file format. However, with the latest release of Exchange Online, the user wants to import MBOX to Office 365. So, there arises a need of the solution that can help them to upload mailbox files to O365. Therefore, in this article, we will discuss all possible solutions to migrate MBOX mailbox to Office 365.

Need to Migrate MBOX Folder to Office 365

There are some limited feature with .mbox file format applications, so users migrate .mbox files to Office 365. Some of the reasons that force users to copy MBOX folder to Office 365 are-

  • Applications that support MBOX file format are desktop based email client. It ultimately restricts accessibility of mailbox items to desktop only. As a result, users find difficulty in accessing emails.
  • With the increasing availability of emails and other items, MBOX files get oversized. Hence, users find difficult to work with such large files.

Manual Approach to Upload MBOX to Office 365

There is no direct and easy manual solution to migrate mailbox files to Exchange Online. You need to follow some steps that are described below-

Step#1 Export MBOX Files to EML File Format

  • Firstly, launch Mozilla Thunderbird
  • Then, navigate to the folder containing emails
  • After this, choose emails that you need to export to EML
  • Then, right click on highlighted emails
  • User has to choose Save As option that saves files in EML
  • Now, emails are in EML format

Step2# Transfer EML Files in Windows Live Mial

  • Firstly, launch Windows Live Mail
  • Then, choose the folder containing EML files and Open it
  • Now, select EML files that you want to convert into PST
  • Then, click Ok

Note: The above method is only valid for Thunderbird email client.

Step#3 Convert PST to Office 365

Users can migrate PST files to Exchange Online by Drive Shipping or through Network Upload. For drive shipping firstly, user have to store PST files into hard drive and then physically ship the drive to Microsoft data center. And for Network upload firstly user have to install Azure AzCopy>> upload the PST to Office 365 >> create the PST importing mapping file >>Now, create a PST import job in Office 365 >>Lastly, Filter the data >>start the PST import.

Drawbacks Of Manual Solution Migrate MBOX Folder to Office 365

There are some drawbacks of the manual solution to move PST to Exchange Online. They are as follows-"

  • Lengthy and time-consuming method.
  • The risk of corruption or losing essential data as drive shipping is not secure.
  • Good technical knowledge is required to save PST files to Exchange Online.

Automated Solution to Upload MBOX to Office 365

Users can easily migrate mailbox folder to Exchange Online by using manual solution. But, it is not easy as it seems to be. Therefore, it is recommended to use third party tool i.e. Thunderbird to Office 365 Migration Tool. It easily converts mailbox files to Exchange Online without any interruption. Moreover, it also repairs corrupted or deleted MBOX files and helps the user to export the Thunderbird emails.

Time to Conclude

As we know, Office 365 stores data in the cloud, that enables the user to access data from anywhere. Therefore, many users wants to migrate or extract MBOX to Office 365. Here, in this article, we have covered various needs to convert Mbox files. Moreover, for the conversion appropriate manual solution is also discussed, but it has various limitations. Therefore, the user should opt for third party tool that guarantees to import data without any loss.