Office 365 Import Service to Migrate PST Files Into Office 365 Accounts

Many end users widely use Microsoft Office 365 for messaging and emailing. Sometimes, users want to maintain a local copy of the MS Office mailbox on their system because the cloud saves all data. Furthermore, saving Office 365 mailbox data on a local machine can also help the user in overcoming hazardous situations. At the time of importing PST files back into Office 365, users search for Office 365 import service which is the general and popular method.

Therefore, in this blog, we are going to discuss a step-by-step guide for the implementation of Import service in MS Office 365 also known as Network upload and Drive Shipping. The best alternative for import service for a quick and easy process for PST to Office 365 migration.

Is Office 365 Import Service the Only Way to Migrate PST Files Into an Office 365 Account?

No, there are different ways that you can use to perform this task. In the coming section, we are going to discuss the two manual solutions for this operation.

Approach 1 – Import PST File to Office 365 Using Network Upload

Follow the steps below to upload the PST file in Office 365 Outlook:

Step 1- Copy the SAS URL & install Azure AzCopy

In the Microsoft Cloud, we consider a SAS URL as a network URL for the storage path of Azure. We know SAS as a Shared Access Signature key, which provides all the necessary permissions to upload and copy Outlook .pst files to the Azure storage location.

1. First of all, go to this https://protection.office.com URL address
2. Then, you have to log in to Office 365 by entering all the credentials of an administrator account
3. In the left-hand menu bar, click on Data Governance and then, choose the Import option
4. Under the Import page, select Go to the Import Service option.
5. Now, you can import data to Office 365 on this page, you have to click on the New Import job and choose Upload Email Messages (PST files)
6. When you click on Upload files over a network, the system will show the following page.
7. Now, in Prerequisite Step 2 of the above, hit on Show network upload SAS URL option
8. After clicking on that, copy/ move the URL address, that appeared, and save it to a particular file
9. Similarly, in Prerequisite Step 3, you must click on the Download tool option for downloading and installing the Azure AzCopy
10. On the pop-up window, go to the Run button
11. To exit or leave from Upload files over the network page, press the Cancel button

Step 2- Import Multiple Outlook Data Files into the Office 365

Now to import PST files into Office 365 accounts, you can follow the below steps of the Office 365 import service by using the AzCopy.exe tool:

1. On your computer, open the Command Prompt
2. Then, navigate to the directory where you have installed the AzCopy.exe tool.
3. By default, the software is installed on the given path: %ProgramFiles(x86)%\Microsoft SDKs\Azure\AzCopy
4. Next, run this command to upload PST files to Office 365. AzCopy.exe /Source: (Location of PST files) /Dest: (SAS URL) /V: (Log file location)

Step 3- View a list of PST files Uploaded to the MS Office 365 Account

This step is optional in which you have the Office 365 import service to migrate pst-files; to view the complete list of Outlook data files (.pst) you can install the Azure Storage Explorer. It is inbuilt software. Moreover, there are two reasons for doing this:

1. Check the loading of PST files to Azure successfully.
2. Confirm the name of a specific file for each PST, which is uploaded to the Azure blob. This will help when you have created the PST mapping file because you must define both the filename and folder pathname for each Outlook PST file.

Step 4- Create PST Import Mapping File

After you upload the PST file to the Azure storage location, the next step is to create a CSV (comma-separated value) file, indicating the user’s mailboxes where Outlook PST files will be imported.

1. First of all, you need to download a copy of the PST Import mapping file.
2. After that, open or store a .csv file on your desktop.

Step 5- Make PST Import job in Office 365 Exchange

To create a PST import job in an Office 365 account, you must follow these steps:

1. Navigate to https://protection.office.com.
2. Then, sign in MS Office 365 account with the help of all the credentials for an administrator account in Office 365 Online organization.
3. Choose the option Data Governance and then, press Import
4. In the Import section, a new page will display, where you can choose to Go to the Import service.
5. On the other page, select the New job i.e. on + sign, and choose Upload PST emails from the given options
6. On the Upload files over the network page, you should choose “I am done uploading my files,” check the boxes for “I have access to the mapping file,” and then click the Next button.
7. Proceed to the next step, type in PST import job, and press Next.
8. Now for adding PST file Mapping, you have to click on the Add button.
9. Choose the name of the CSV file that shows up in the list, and click on the Validate option to check for errors in the CSV file.
10. Once you validate the PST file mapping, read the terms and conditions, and enable the checkbox.
11. Eventually, click on the Finish button to submit the job.
12. On the page, the job appears in the list of PST File Import.
13. Select the job and click on the Refresh button to update the status information.
14. Finally, click on View details to get the new status for the selected job.

Limitations Of Network Upload Method

After understanding the above steps, you may have understood that using this method is not an easy task. Performing Network upload requires good experience in the working of Office 365 Admin Center and PowerShell commands. A small mistake can lead to the corruption of PST files.

Approach 2 – Migrate the PST File to Office 365 Using Drive Shipping

For all those organizations who were facing difficulty in understanding the Network upload method, Microsoft the another method in Office 365 import service, which is Drive Shipping.

In this method, the organization/user needs to perform a few steps starting by creating a CSV file with the PST file name and storing it in a hard drive along with PST files. Then, a ship drives to a nearby Microsoft data center.

To perform the complete migration of Outlook PST file to Office 365 using drive shipping, follow the below-described steps:

1. You have to copy the PST files to a BitLocker-encrypted hard disk.
2. Next, ship the hard drive to Microsoft physically.
3. After receiving the hard disk from Microsoft, the data personnel can upload the collected Outlook PST files to the desired place, which is not permanent in Microsoft cloud storage.
4. In the last of Office 365 import service to migrate pst-files, you can use Microsoft Office 365 import service and migrate PST files to Office 365 mailbox.

Conclusion

After considering the need to migrate PST files into an Office 365 mailbox and using the Microsoft Office 365 import service to upload PST files in the above section, we have explained two manual solutions. Along with this, we have highly recommended a commercial tool i.e., Office 365 Import by which users can import multiple PST files to Office 365. Users can choose any of these approaches at their convenience.