Learn How to Upload OST to Office 365 Easily

ost-to-office365

Do you want to move OST emails to Office 365? If yes, then all your queries will be solved here. But, before that let us know more about Office 365.

Office 365 is also known as Exchange Online, it facilitates user with Microsoft Online Suite. This online suite can be accessed from anywhere at any point of time. On the other hand, Microsoft Outlook is an email client that helps the user to access emails in offline mode. Outlook OST files contain important information of mailbox items. So, sometimes there may be the chance of file corruption so users want to move OST to Office 365. As, data in Microsoft Cloud is safe and secure. Therefore, in this article, we will discuss different methods to import OST to Exchange Online.

Manual Approach to Migrate OST to Office 365

To move OST file to Office 365 there does not exist any direct method. User has to follow two major steps i.e.

  • Convert OST files to PST
  • Move Outlook PST to O365
 

Step#1 Convert OST Files to PST

With the help of export feature provided by Microsoft Outlook, the user can convert OST emails to PST. Nevertheless, user have to follow some useful steps-

a) By using Export Feature of Outlook

  • Firstly, start Microsoft outlook
  • Then, user have to click on File
  • Now, go to Export to a File
  • After this, click on Next
  • Then, user have to select Personal File Folder(.pst)
  • Click on Next
  • Now, user have to select the folder to export
  • Then, check Include Subfolders
  • Select the location to save the exported file
  • Lastly, click on Finish button

Note: To perform the above described free conversion solution, user should be connected to Microsoft Exchange Server.

b) By using Archive feature of Outlook

To convert OST files to PST user have to follow some steps that are described below-

  • Firstly, start MS Outlook
  • Then, go to File
  • Ater this, click on Archive
  • Now, user has to choose the file or folder for archiving
  • Select the destination for the archived PST file
  • Click on OK

Note: Above solution helps the user to move entire OST file data except Outlook contacts.

c) Migrate Outlook mailbox items to new PST

Following steps helps the user to export mailbox data to PST :

  • Firstly, start Microsoft Outlook
  • After this, create new Outlook Data File (.pst) in MS Outlook Profile
  • Then, choose mailbox folders that you want to export in PST file

Note: User has to copy OST file to PST because this method does not allow to drag mailbox items.

Step# 2 Move PST to Office 365

After completing OST to PST conversion, user can export PST to Exchange online by using two methods-

  • Drive Shipping
  • Network Upload

a) Drive Shipping

Firstly, the user has to store PST files on the hard drive then, physically ship the drive to the Microsoft data center. One thing should be remembered that hard drive should be BitLocker encrypted.

b) Network Upload

It involves the transfer of PST files to Office 365. This can be done as follows-

  • Firstly, user has to copy the SAS URL and install Azure AzCopy
  • Then, migrate PST file into Exchange Online mailbox
  • User can view list of PST files saved to Exchange online
  • Now, generate the PST import mapping file
  • Then, create a PST import job in Exchange Online.

Limitations of Manual Approach to Extract OST to Office 365

There are some drawbacks of manual solution to move OST to Exchange Online. They are as follows :  

  • Manual strategies are lengthy and time-consuming.
  • User should have good technical knowledge to save PST files to Exchange Online.
  • If any of the steps during OST to Office 365 migration is skip. Then, there will be file corruption or data loss.
  • Physically shipping the drive is not secure.

Automated Approach to Export OST Emails to Office 365

Users can migrate OST to Exchange Online using manual approach but has some limitations. Therefore, to overcome these issues users can try third party tool i.e. OST to Office 365 Converter. This software easily extracts and move OST Files to Exchange Online without installation of Microsoft outlook. Furthermore, it preserves accuracy and maintains performance.

Conclusion

Now, users can transfer OST files to Exchange Online easily. As we have come up with both manual as well as an automated solution. Nevertheless, the manual solution has some drawbacks. So, it is preferred to opt for second method i.e. OST to Office 365 Converter. This software provides easy as well as a quick way to execute the conversion of data.