Rediffmail to Office 365 Migration Made Easy | Latest Guide (2025)
Moving away from a legacy email system to a modern cloud suite is a significant upgrade for any organization or individual. So when users request to learn the tactics behind a successful Rediffmail to Office 365 Migration, their request is genuine. They want to experience how much of a difference the advantages of M365 security, storage, and services make to their current Rediff environment. However, the lack of direct transfer support from either of the two endpoints means this is easier said than done.
That is no problem; this is the only guide you need. It has all the steps from start to end. Filled with unique tips that explain what to do and what not to do. Before that, let’s glance through the problems users face with their Rediffmail ID, prompting a quick move toward an Outlook account.
Why Opt Out of Rediff and Choose O365 Instead?
While Rediff Mail has been around for many years and has served its customers faithfully, its lack of updates and old-school look put it behind its modern counterparts. On the other hand, Office, or Microsoft 365 as it is now called, has defined the current era of cloud-based business suites. The key advantages of O365 that give it the edge over Rediff are:
- Massive Storage: The default mailbox size is 50 GB, on top of which organizations get an auto-archive feature that extends the mailbox capacity to up to 1.5 TB. Plus, there is OneDrive and SharePoint.
- Enterprise Grade Security: Organizations and individuals that choose Microsoft as their productivity provider get the state-of-the-art multilayer spam phishing and malware protection that outclasses Rediff in every domain.
- Full Office Suite: You get an email service and a set of tools used in a business environment daily. From classics such as Word, Excel, and PowerPoint to the new Teams, OneDrive, and more.
- Multi-device access: User can see their emails anywhere on any device. Moreover, all the contacts and calendar events stay in sync across all your devices, so you never miss any important details.
Now that we know how useful Office is compared to Rediff, let’s look at some of the don’ts of the migration process.
What NOT to Do During Rediffmail to Office 365 Migration?
Here is why forwarding emails to the new Office accounts is a flawed approach:
Auto Forwarding Dismissed: A rule that automatically sends any incoming email to the O365 address is not a true migration because most of your emails never leave the host. Plus, if you had an email conversation web spanning multiple threads, such poorly thought-out forwarding can break and make it so you can never decommission the Rediff account. No organization is happy bearing the extra costs of two separate non-compatible systems.
Manual Forwarding is Worse: If Auto forwarding only affects a small section of your data, this manual forwarding idea of sending emails is highly destructive and should be avoided at all costs. Here is why we put such a strong warning against it:
- You lose all of the email metadata: Perhaps the biggest flaw. As you may already know, when you get any email, it contains the content and other stuff hidden from plain view, like server details, timestamps, etc. This is extremely important data, especially as email conversations are legally admissible documents. Any alteration made to them, whether knowingly or unknowingly, can lead to compliance violations.
- Like auto-forwarding, manual forwarding is disastrous for the complex emails that are usual parts of professional conversations. Because the meta-data linking threads are absent, each forwarded message becomes an isolated island.
- It makes the messages messy. Every email appends a “Fwd:” in the subject line and cluttered header information (———- Forwarded message ———-) inside the body.
- This method only moves emails; it doesn’t move the folders they were organized in. Everything gets dumped into your inbox. The clutter can make emails hard to find; it is useful to learn how to unhide emails in MS Outlook if they seem to be missing. Moreover, the manual labor required for this makes it completely impractical.
How to Correctly Transfer Rediffmail to Outlook On Your Own?
We will be using the free new version of Outlook Email client. It is installed by default on all Windows PC. If you don’t have it, get it from the Microsoft store and continue with this DIY transfer of email data:
- Step 1. Outlook Client Preparation.
Open Outlook. If this is your first time using Outlook, click the settings cog at the top right.
- Then, Accounts > Your Accounts > Add account.
- Type the O365 account address and hit continue.
- Enter the password and Sign in. (You may be asked to choose the platform select Microsoft 365)
- Pick No; this app only (Appears if you add a school or work account.)
- Right-click and select Create new folder once the account is in the folder pane. Name it something clear, like “Rediffmail Import.” Readjust the folder placement to parallel your cursor to reduce drag and drop time.
- Step 2. Connect Your Rediffmail Account
- Right-click on your recently added account > select Add Account.
- Add your Rediffmail account by entering your full email address (yourname@rediffmail.com) and password following the rest of the setup prompts.
- Right-click on your recently added account > select Add Account.
- Step 3. Put Rediffmail into Outlook Account
- Go to your Rediffmail Inbox. Select a small batch (50-100 emails).
- Drag this batch and drop it into the “Rediffmail Import” folder you created.
- Go to your Rediffmail Inbox. Select a small batch (50-100 emails).
Problems Within the Manual Approach
Free Rediff users may experience rate limiting or throttling where Outlook shows their account as access denied. Don’t worry. Your account has not been banned, and your data is also safe. It’s a classic tactic used by free service providers.
When you drag and drop an entire folder with hundreds or thousands of emails, you tell the server, “Send me a massive amount of data right now!”
Rediffmail’s system is designed to handle this differently for free and pro users. For a free account, the system is programmed to say: “Whoa, this free account is trying to download its entire history. This is not typical usage and puts a heavy load on our servers. Let’s limit the connection.” It then deliberately drops the connection.
Re-connect from the settings menu (don’t do it from the account pane directly. It won’t work). Pro users, on the other hand, face no such issues. So, if content account denials are becoming too much of an issue, buying a Rediff subscription is a way out. Note that there is no free trial or refund.
Business users can further streamline the transfer process using an automated tool.
Steps to Automate a Rediffmail to O365 Migration
We use the SysTools IMAP to Office 365 Migration Tool to quickly put the data into their new position.
This professional utility connects to both servers and automates the admin’s entire process. Benefits include:
- Direct Server-to-Server Transfer: This drops the email client requirement entirely.
- Filtering Capability: To ensure only selected data goes into the destination account.
- Delta Sync: To bring those messages that came during the migration run.
- Reporting: Includes both summary and detailed reports for precise post-migration evaluation.
After Rediffmail to Office 365 Migration is Done Secure Your M365 Account
Your Rediffmail to Office 365 migration isn’t finished once the emails are moved. Complete these steps to finalize the transition.
- Migrate Contacts and Calendar: Email migration doesn’t include contacts or calendars. You’ll need to export them from Rediffmail and import them into O365. Once in Office 365, you gain powerful new capabilities, like exporting your Exchange calendar for backups.
- Update Your MX Records: If using a custom domain, point your domain’s MX records to Microsoft’s servers to ensure all new mail arrives in your O365 mailbox.
- Set Up Mobile Devices: Remove your old Rediffmail account from your phone and add your new Office 365 account. If you run into issues on mobile, such as Outlook for Android stuck on the reorder screen, community forums often have solutions.
- Inform Your Contacts: Send a final email from your new O365 address to notify your contacts of the change.
Rediffmail to Office 365 Migration by File Format Uploading
Some users ask if they can first export their Rediffmail data to another format. Unfortunately, Rediffmail does not provide bulk export tools like Google Takeout. This means you cannot directly export to formats like MBOX. However, if you have emails from another source in that format, you can learn how to import MBOX into Outlook 365 separately. For Rediffmail, the direct IMAP connection in Outlook is the only viable path.