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Import OLM to Office 365 Quickly: The Most Efficient Techniques

import olm to office 365

Ashish Ratan Singh | Modified: October 14, 2022 | Migration, Office 365 | 6 Minutes Reading

“I have been using MS Outlook on my Mac system for many years. Now I have decided to migrate my Mac Outlook data files to Office 365 and now I have saved these OLM files on Windows OS. I looked up a solution to import OLM to Office 365 directly but failed. One of my friends told me that, first of all, these Mac Outlook 2011 files should be converted to PST format to move them into the MS O365 account. Is it correct? Can anyone suggest to me a proper solution to transfer/ import OLM to Outlook 365 account?”

Nowadays many are searching similar queries to find a solution to migrate OLM file format of Microsoft Outlook Mac to Office 365. This file format stores emails, contacts, attachments, and other mailbox items of Outlook 2011 for Mac in it. Like other files, the Outlook Mac 2011 file is also prone to corruption. There are many reasons that may cause file corruption. Therefore rather than risking your crucial data in the OLM files, one can store the data on the web. Hence, it is suggested to import OLM file to Office 365 account because Office 365 provides online cloud storage to its users which are highly secure.

How to Migrate OLM to Office 365 Manually

The manual procedure to import Outlook Mac to Office 365 can be done mainly in two steps. The first step is to transfer OLM files into PST file format. Then the second step is to convert these PST files to MS Office 365 user account. Now let us briefly explain each step below.

Step 1: Import OLM to PST File Format

The first step to import OLM to Outlook 365 is converting the Outlook Mac file into a Personal Storage file, first, the user needs to set up an IMAP Email account. It’s very simple to create an IMAP account. It requires four easy steps. This process can be started with the creation of an email account in Gmail. Once that account is created, log into it and follow the given steps below.

I – Create IMAP Email Account in Gmail

  1. Click on Gear button >> Settings >> Forwarding and POP/IMAP.
  2. Then check the IMAP status, If it is Disabled, Enable it and hit on Save Changes.

Thus an IMAP email account is created in Gmail. Now you have to set up Mac Outlook with the created IMAP email account.

II – Setup Your Mac Outlook in IMAP Gmail Account

  1. Open Mac Outlook.
  2. In main menu >> Tools >> Accounts.
  3. Now on the accounts page, press Email.
  4. Provide your account information. i.e, enter the Email address, Password, and other needed information.
  5. Now click Add Account option.

The above steps will successfully add the IMAP email account to the Outlook account. You can this account in the Mail tab. Now you want to create a Gmail label to sync that into your Mac Outlook.

III – Synchronize Gmail Label to Mac Outlook

  1. Login into the created Gmail account >> hit on the Gear button.
  2. In the list scrolled down >> Click Settings >> Labels.
  3. Now, create a new label by pressing Create new label button.
  4. Right after creating a label, open the Mac Outlook account and update the IMAP mailbox by clicking on Send/Receive option.

IV – Move Emails from Mac Outlook to IMAP Mailbox

In this step, the emails and other mailbox data in the OLM file will be transferred to the IMAP mailbox, before starting to upload OLM to Office 365 account.

  1. Launch Mac Outlook on the system.
  2. Right-click on the mailbox item. Click on Move >> Copy to Folder.
  3. Type the name of the IMAP folder and hit Copy.
  4. Update the Mac Outlook IMAP folder by hitting on the Send/Receive option.

All the copied emails have been synchronized to the IMAP mailbox folder. Now one needs to change all the emails from the IMAP mailbox to Windows Outlook PST format. For this, one needs to set up the same IMAP email account with Outlook in Windows. You can drag the IMAP mailbox folder into the Windows Outlook Inbox Folder.

Some Drawbacks of Above Discussed Manual Solution:

  • The process is a little risky, so take a backup of OLM files.
  • The entire process is time-consuming and confusing.
  • It also requires sound technical knowledge of the user while operating.

The first step, i.e. importing OLM files to PST format in the entire process of uploading OLM to Office 365 is so risky. It is divided into four subparts and makes the procedure so lengthy. So instead of using this lengthy process, there is much software that can perform the same task quickly. One such utility is OLM to PST Converter. It is one of the best tools that allow its users to move OLM file to Outlook PST including the items emails, contacts, calendars, notes, and journals at once.

Step 2: Import PST File to Office 365

To migrate OLM file to Office 365, first, we converted .olm files into the .pst format, then we need to import PST to Office 365 webmail. For this, there are two different manual methods available. The user can choose any of them as per the requirement and suitability.

  1. Network Upload: In this, an admin can move the PST files along the network and can save all the PST files into O365 by using Office 365 Import service. In this network upload method, the user needs to install the Azure AzCopy tool, to copy the PST files into Office 365 account.
  2. Drive Shipping: In this given method, the admin or the user can send the data files to an external storage device like an encrypted hard drive. Then physically transfer those data to Microsoft. After finishing shipping, the admin can use the Office 365 Import service to access the on-premises data in Office 365 user account.

Limitations of Manually Importing .pst Files into O365

To migrate OLM to Office 365 is a laborious process because moving PST to Office 365 manually is not a simple task. It is confusing for a user who is not aware of the internal working of an Office 365 account. That is, it needs technical knowledge to successfully complete the process without errors.

Transfer Outlook PST files into an Exchange Online account can be done quickly using alternative tools. There are many applications available that allow the user to migrate .pst files to O365 easily. One such efficient professional product is SysTools Office 365 Restore Software. It can upload Personal storage files of any size (no file size restrictions) into Microsoft Office 365 user account.

Conclusion

Many Office 365 users are searching for a solution for moving .olm files. Migrating files from Mac Outlook to Office 365 manually is not an easy task. It is a very lengthy process that is divided into two main steps i.e. converting OLM file to PST format and then transferring that local PST file into an O365 account. Since there is no direct method available to import OLM to Office 365, this article introduces two efficient utilities that can be used instead of those two manual steps. These applications will help the user to import OLM to Outlook 365 quickly in a few steps.