How to Migrate G Suite to Exchange Online Mailbox Manually – Complete Guide

There can be various situations where users of G Suite require planning to migrate G Suite to Exchange Online. However, since the process involves two cloud platforms, users often face technical issues and complexity during its implementation.

However, before moving to the data transfer, it’s suggested to go through the pre & post Office 365 migration checklist.

Consequently, to ease the entire mail transition here is a step-by-step guide mentioning G Suite to Exchange Online migration.

Steps to Move G Suite to Exchange Online Mailbox

Users can use the manual way to execute this task. However, the manual procedure requires technical know-how and it can be time-consuming at the same.  In the coming section, we are going to discuss the manual method in detail with step-by-step, to make it executable for everyone.

Manual Technique to Migrate G Suite to Exchange Online Mailbox

We are going to use the IMAP technique to transfer messages from G Suite into the Exchange Online platform. To use this approach, you first have to follow the below-discussed prerequisites.

Prerequisites

• To execute the IMAP migration, the user must be a global administrator in Microsoft O365.
• Before creating a connection between G Suite and Office 365, it is required to generate passwords by account owners for accessing the account.
• A two-step verification feature must be enabled for all G Suite users.

The entire procedure is categorized into six stages. You have to complete all these stages successfully. So, let’s get started!

Stage 1. Verify the Domain

As a first step to migrating G Suite to Exchange Online, you need to validate to O365 that you are the owner of the domain that is used in  G Suite. Under the Domain Verification process, you have to set up O365. Afterward, a TXT record is given to you by the O365 wizard while setting up Office 365. Further, this record should need to be added to the domain host provider.

Stage 2. Create Users in Office 365

In this step, you need to add users along with licenses either in one shot or several attempts. Ensure that every added user should have a mailbox in O365 where the G Suite emails will migrate.

Stage 3. Make a list of G Suite Mailboxes

Once you have migrated G Suite to Exchange Online, you need to enlist all the mailboxes whose data is going to be transferred to O365 mailboxes. For this, use any version of MS Excel. Make sure while making the migration file, you must have an app password for every Gmail user mailbox whose mails are going to be imported into Office 365. Moreover, there is a provision that 50,000 mailboxes can be moved in batches.

• Login to G Suite as an admin.
• From the interface, opt for Users.

• Select each user and note down their email address.
• After that, sign in to Office 365. Then, move to Users >> Active Users. The information under the username will be used further for making the migration file.

• Now, open Excel and create three cells of Email address, Username, and Password as shown in the screenshot.

• Type the following details in each field in the Excel sheet and save the file in CSV format.

• Column A – Mention the O365 mailbox address
• Column B – Gmail user’s mailbox mail address
• Column C – Password associated with the mailbox

Stage 4. Make a Connection Between Office 365 & G Suite

To migrate G Suite to Exchange Online, you need to create an interface between both applications. For this, go through the below steps.

1. Open EAC and opt for Recipients >> Migration.
2. After that, click on More and opt for Migration endpoints.
3. You need to click on New to make a migration endpoint.
4. On the following window, go with the IMAP option.
5. On the next page, type imap.gmail.com under the IMAP server box. Plus, make sure the rest of the settings remain the same.
6. If the connection is established successfully, provide a suitable migration endpoint name and click on New to finally make the migration endpoint.

Stage 5. Ready to Migrate the Files by Creating a Migration Batch

In the 5^th step of the G Suite to Exchange migration guide, if you want to migrate G Suite mailboxes in bulk you need to utilize the migration file that was created in the earlier step. For this, follow the below steps.

1. In EAC, click on Recipients >> Migration.
2. Click on New+ and opt for Migrate to Exchange Online from its drop-down menu. Then, you need to select IMAP migration and click Next.
3. Upload the migration file and wait till O365 validates the file.
4. After the successful validation, the number of Gmail mailboxes gets displayed on the interface.
5. Now, pick the migration endpoint that was created in the above stage and hit the Next button.
6. In the IMAP migration configuration page, opt for all the default values and hit Next to continue the process.
7. After that, on the Move configuration page, you need to create a migration batch.
8. On Start, on the batch page, perform the following operations.

• Opt for Browse to forward the migration report to other users.
• After that, select the option Automatically Start the batch and click on New. By doing this, the migration process gets started and a Syncing status is shown under the STATUS column.

Stage 6. Post-Migration Operations

Once you migrate G Suite to Exchange Online with the tool, move the MX record to Office 365 that previously pointed to the Gmail account. Afterward, ensure that messages are forwarded to O365 or not. Once it is confirmed, remove the migration batch and terminate the synchronization task.

All in all, it depends on the user which method they choose for G Suite to Exchange Online migration. So, choose wisely!

Conclusion

To sum up, G Suite migration to Exchange Online is complicated because there are two cloud platforms involved: G Suite and Exchange Online. It is important to follow pre- and post- migration checklists to ensure a smooth migration.

If you want to migrate manually, there are six stages. Each step requires attention to detail, so you may want to carefully perform each step. In the end, migration method will depend on the user’s preference.