How to Import PST to Shared Mailbox Office 365
PST files may cause a headache to the users outside the Exchange Server environment. From the eDiscovery point of view, PST files are not considered as a secure option for data security. When it comes to data migration, it is common to find that users have accumulated a large amount of data in gigabytes or possibly, terabytes. Hence, it is required to transport the emails from the mail server and store it in the PST file format. For these problems, Microsoft offers a tool named as PST Capture Tool. Microsoft allows the users to import PST to shared mailbox Office 365 with the help of Import Service..
But, there are some prerequisites before the transfer process starts:
- An admin account on the O365 tenant
- Import Export Mailbox role assigned to the admins
- High upload bandwidth will be considered as the bonus
Quick Solution: To easily import multiple PST files into Office 365 shared mailboxes, download the tool below:
How to Import PST to Shared Mailbox Office 365
This feature is built on the Azure storage established by Microsoft. It is used to store the PST file before importing them into the mailboxes.
For the PST file to be imported first, storage account will be generated. It will take a few minutes and there are chances that a user wishes to give it two attempts before it is created. For that, it is required to click on the option “Show network upload SAS URL.” This URL will comprise of the following things:
- Storage Account Name
- Container Name
- Shared Access Signature
Let’s Take an Instance:
https://dd092cec1d084ab8b190526.blob.core.windows.net/ingestiondata?sv=2012-02-12&se=2017-02-05T13%3A33%3A07Z&sr=c&si=IngestionSasForAzCopy201611212055520769&sig=aeBqKqsM
ilU8PDHueVj3Q4c5hkgE%3D
- Storage Account Name: dd092cec1d084ab8b190526
- Container Name: ingestiondata
- Shared Access Signature: ?sv=2012-02-12&se=2017-02-05T13%3A33%3A07Z&sr=c&si=IngestionSasForAzCopy201611212055520769&sig=aeBq
KqsMilU8PDHueVj3Q4c5hkgE%3D
The shared access signature consist of the following parts:
- sv: storage service version
- se: expiration date
- sr: storage type (Container/Blob)
- si: Storage identifier
- sig: Signature
This URL will be used by the AzCopy / Azure Storage Explorer tool to import the Outlook PST file.
Note: The URL may change with the passage of time but, the shared access signature part is certainly valid for 60 days.
Import PST to Shared Mailbox Office 365 PowerShell- Upload PST
Once a user has done the storage provisioned, the upload procedure can be started. To upload PST to shared mailbox Office 365 PowerShell is an alternative for the tool. Suppose, AzCopy can be used. It is the command line tool to import PST to shared mailbox Office 365 account. Azure Storage Explorer, it is the graphical tool. They both are good at one’s place and any of them can be used.
#Azure
Note: It is needed to use AzCopy version 5.2 or higher. Otherwise, a user will get some 404 errors:
“Failed to validate destination: One or more errors occurred. The remote server returned an error: (404) Not Found. The specified resource does not exist.”
#AZURE STORAGE EXPLORER
And now, the software can also be used to upload the PST file.
Note: A user can also identify the list of files located on Azure with its PowerShell line (require Azure.Storage module): “New-AzureStorageContext -SasToken ($SharedAccessSignatureURL -split ‘\?’ | Select-Object -Last 1) -StorageAccountName ($SharedAccessSignatureURL -split ‘\.’ -split ‘//’)[1] | Get-AzureStorageBlob -Container ($SharedAccessSignatureURL -split ‘\?’ -split ‘/’)[3] | Select-Object -ExpandProperty Name”
Upload PST to Shared Mailbox Office 365 – Mapping File
Once the PST file is uploaded to the Azure storage, it is needed to build a CSV file that will map Outlook PST files to destination folder and mailboxes. For instance,
It is really needed to maintain the structure of PST file, the case is kind of delicate for the “TRUE” or “FALSE”, and for the name of Outlook PST file.
Import PST File to Shared Office 365 PowerShell
It is the final step, it is needed to import PST mapping file and execute the import option so import pst to shared mailbox Office 365 Powershell would going to complete.
Click on “Finish” and the process is complete. The import process will continue on the Microsoft side. A user can also examine the progress with the help of details of the batch job.
Limitation of Manual Solution
Although this is a free method which can help user to import PST to shared mailboxes, but the method is quite trick for some organizations. Additionally, this method is only available in certain parts of the world. In case, you get a message “import service for your region has not rolled out yet!” then it means you cannot use Import service for now. In such cases, user can go for alternative solution below.
Alternative Solution For Azure AzCopy Tool
If you find the above solution difficult or faces error during the import process, then you can take help of automated tool. The automated tool can help you to ease the complex process & the best tool for such purpose is Office 365 Import tool. Additionally, there are multiple filtering option provided by the tool to import selective emails from a PST file into Office 365 shared mailbox. Follow are the working steps of tool to import PST to shared mailbox Office 365:
1. Download and Launch the Office 365 Import tool
Office 365 Importer Purchase Now
2. Click on ‘Is Admin’ to login for importing PST to shared mailbox.
3. Import PST file into tool using Add File/ Folder option
4. In User Id section, enter shared mailbox Id and authenticate
5. Select the Category of data need to be imported from PST file
6. Apply Advance filters like Include folder, Incremental import, Exclude folders (optional)
7. Click on Import button to start the process of data migration to Office 365
Note: Download and try the demo version of tool first. It allows to import 25 emails from each folder of PST file for free,
The Observational Verdict
When the feature was released initially, it was of great importance. Additional functionalities are expected to be added in future. Other than that, this option is great for the PST files accumulated after the migration process. Also, the Microsoft Office 365 drive shipping option is considered helpful when the organizations have the PST file in terabytes. The size of the mailbox allotted to the user is 50GB and there is unlimited file archived in Office 365, it is not possible to store all the data on the server. That is when the need to import PST to shared mailbox Office 365 PowerShell emerges.
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