How to Migrate Shared Mailbox to Office 365? Elucidated Step by Step Guide

What is a Shared Mailbox?

A shared mailbox is a mailbox that can be accessed by more than one user. It allows members of the tenant to view, read, and respond to messages. A shared mailbox email address is not associated with a dedicated user account, which means there is no user name and password associated with a shared mailbox.

Users do not need to assign any license to the shared mailbox because the user of Office 365 tenant uses their accounts to access the shared mailbox.

What is a Shared Mailbox in Office 365?

A shared mailbox is a mailbox that is accessed by multiple users to receive or send emails. In this type of mailbox, the admin grants the access to the members.
When an admin grants access to a particular mailbox members can see it in their mailbox with a separate folder. Microsoft only offers a storage quota of 50 GB for shared mailboxes.

Let us take a scenario to explain what a shared mailbox is in detail –

Assume that you are the Head of the Human Resources department of an organization where your assistant also needs to access your mailbox to manage the emails and accomplish the tasks, by using a shared mailbox you can assign access to them to manage your emails and contacts.
This example is a representation of a shared mailbox and from this, we can also able to understand the need for a shared mailbox.

What are the Different Ways to Move Shared Mailbox Data to Office 365?

 

Before knowing the procedure to migrate shared mailboxes to Office 365, you have to understand there is no direct way to do this migration. However, you can convert the shared mailbox to Office 365 user mailbox using Exchange Admin Center and using the PowerShell script. Microsoft does not provide any built-in tools for this. 

How to Move Shared Mailbox to Office 365 Using PowerShell Script?

Another option is to convert the shared mailbox to an Office 365 user mailbox through PowerShell scripts. To do this, we have to use the “Set-Mailbox cmdlet” in which we are going to specify the respective email address as the mailbox identity. You can use the mailbox name as well. However, the email address makes it more unique and removes the chances of choosing the wrong mailbox. Which makes it an optimal choice for running in the script.

PowerShell to Convert the Shared Mailbox to Office 365 User Mailbox

Limitations of Using PowerShell to Convert Shared Mailbox to Office 365 User Mailbox

Here are some of the noteworthy limitations that you can encounter:

1. Overall Complexity of the Process – It becomes technical and complex when the PowerShell is involved. While dealing with this process, requires the admin to be technically sound to incorporate the PowerShell script into Exchange Online. Mistype or incorrect PowerShell scripts can result in data loss or other issues. Which can not be undone later. 
2. Chances of Data Loss Risks in the Process – Executing the PowerShell script and selecting the respective shared mailbox email address, all these steps require human efforts. Which can also result in human error at the same time. Choosing the wrong shared mailbox can completely change the identity and permissions of the respective users.
3. Confusion in Permission Handling – Shared Mailboxes often have unique permission settings set by admins. Which allows specific users to access the respective mailboxes. While the shared mailbox to Office 365 user mailbox conversion, any confusion can lead to data duplicacy or a breach in data integrity throughout the process.
4. Only Conversion not Migration – Using this method, only administrators can convert mailboxes to user mailboxes. which eliminates the possibility of the coexistence of shared mailboxes. When a shared mailbox is converted to a user mailbox, that shared mailbox no longer exists.

 

Related: How to Move Office 365 Mailbox to Another User Account?

Change Shared Mailbox to Office 365 Regular Mailbox Using New EAC

• Step 1. Login to the New EAC (Exchange Admin Center) and navigate to Recipients > Mailboxes. 
• Step 2. Here you will find the list of all the user mailboxes and shared mailboxes. Filter the list and set it to display only the shared mailboxes by clicking on the Filter button.
• Step 3. Choose the desired shared mailboxes that you want to convert into regular mailboxes. Click on the display name.
• Step 4. Navigate to more options pane, and then click on the Convert to regular mailbox option. 
• Step 5. It will open the mailbox conversion wizard. Click on the Confirm button to proceed further.

 

Also Read: How to perform Office 365 Tenant to Tenant Migration Step By Step?

Conclusion

 

This problem-solving blog will help users who need a reliable answer on “how to migrate a shared mailbox to Office 365?” In this blog, we have discussed both the methods, a technical and time-consuming manual method, and a quick and reliable automated solution for the same.

 

By using the above-mentioned tool, users can easily migrate shared mailboxes to exchange online, with maximum data protection and integrity.