Zoho Mail has quickly gained traction to become a competitive emailing service. However, businesses still have to look towards third-party tools for other business-critical needs like collaboration tools. Here is where relying on an industry leader like Microsft 365 is a better option. Therefore before one can start using the alternative, they must first migrate Zoho Mail to Office 365 environment.
This migration is easier said than done. Don’t worry, we are here with a complete guide to help you every step of the way. So, let’s start by establishing why Office 365 is better than Zoho Mail.
Reasons to Migrate Email from Zoho to Office 365
Limited Global Presence: As organizations expand across boundaries, they need a service that can keep up with their ever-increasing demands. Office 365 no doubt has its servers in multiple locations but Zoho is still playing catch up in this field.
Lacking Business Tools: Office 365 covers all the domains for communication it has Teams, for storage it has Onedrive, for server management it has Exchange, not to mention, Word, PowerPoint, and Excel. Zoho lags in all these areas requiring an IMAP migration.
Questionable Client Support: Even with its premium subscription plans Zoho only offers direct support on weekdays. So the organizations that operate during weekends don’t have a communication channel for resolving any issues. Office 365 has 24×7 support worldwide.
Apart from this users gain multiple advantages in switching their email provider from Zoho to Office. So let’s first cover the manual migration method and learn why it is not recommended.
Manual Method of Zoho to Office 365 Migration
Here we take advantage of Outlook desktop client’s ability to set up multiple emails simultaneously.
Stage One to Migrate Zoho Mail to Office 365
Step 1. Open the Outlook Desktop Client Go to File and click on Add Account.
Step 2. If you are using version 2016 and above, simply enter your Zoho email and hit Connect.
Step 3. Users who are using Outlook 2013 or below, must enter their username, email ID and password then hit the Next button.
Step 4. Sometimes in earlier versions (2013 and below), Outlook asks for your password. Don’t Worry, Type it again and click OK. With this, your Zoho Mail is ready to use in Outlook.
Step 5. Once all the emails are visible go to File, click Open & Export then press Import/Export.
Step 6. Next up select “Export to a file”, click on Next, pick Outlook Data File (.pst) format as output, and hit Next.
Step 7. Browse for the Zoho email account to export its data.
Step 8. Select the location to save the exported data, type file name, click on OK, then hit Finish.
Stage Two of Zoho Mail to Office 365 Migration
Step 1. Attach Office 365 account to Outlook the same way you did in the case of Zoho. (Repeat Steps 1- 4 of the previous stage).
Step 2. Visit File, click on Open & Export then press Import/Export.
Step 3. Now choose “Import from another program or file”, then press Next.
Step 4. Select file format as Outlook Data File (.pst). Then hit Next.
Step 5. Pick the PST file you exported previously and hit Next. Select the Office 365 mailbox from the dropdown menu and hit the Finish button.
There are quite a few limitations to this method which are explained below.
Drawbacks of Manual Method of Zoho to Office 365 Migration
- It is not a direct transfer, therefore, it takes up unnecessary time for the users.
- Multiple instances of data conversion might introduce errors within the data.
- This method to migrate Zoho mail to Office 365 only transfers one user at a time.
- Access to user-level credentials is required, creating a security flaw.
- No real-time information on the amount of data moved.
Automated Way of IMAP migration from Zoho to Office 365
Among the various tools present in the market none can match the user experience and speed of SysTools IMAP to Office 365. This tool combines sophisticated algorithms with an easy-to-use interface all in a single package.
The features that make this tool the top choice for Zoho to Office 365 Migration are given below.
- Choose a particular set of emails to migrate with Date filtering.
- Assign priority to users and move the data in a queue
- Get a complete report with all details of Zoho to Office 365 migration
- Migrate the data of 20 users simultaneously.
- Receive 24×7 support for all tool-related queries.
Follow the steps given below and complete the Zoho to Office 365 migration
Procedure to Work With the Tool
Here is an expansive list of steps that users need to follow if they choose to use the tool
Step 1. Load the tool onto your machine, and pick IMAP and Office 365 as the source and the target respectively.
Step 2. Scroll to the Workload section, tick the icon next to emails, and specify a date range, using the Date filter.
Step 3. Next, go to the Source Tab and select Zoho in the IMAP Server name. Enter the remaining details and press Next.
Step 4. Enter and validate the Office 365 Admin email address and Application ID, then hit Next to continue.
Step 5. Upload a pre-formatted CSV file with user data or make changes to the template given in the tool and upload it in CSV file format.
Step 6. In the preview section, select and validate users, then press the Start Migration button.
Wrap-Up
At the end of the article to migrate Zoho Mail to Office 365, users now have a substantial increase in their ability to perform this task. Apart from the basic manual method this article also uncovered an automated tool to achieve the best results. Now it’s up to the user to decide whether they want an easy or a time-consuming way of email transfer.