How to Migrate Public Folders to Office 365 Shared Mailbox?

Office 365 Shared Mailboxes are Preferred over Public Folders Because

• On shared mailboxes, no license needs to be assigned like other user mailboxes and public folders. Thus it saves the cost for the users. Also, members of the shared mailboxes can be easily selected and assigned from the Office 365 account users.
• Users can access the shared mailboxes from their mobiles while one cannot access Exchange public folders

These 2 advantages are enough for the users to migrate public folders to Microsoft 365 shared mailbox. However, different kind of users may have different sort of reasons for this migration. Let us know how you can migrate public folders to Microsoft 365 folders to shared mailbox manually.

Procedure for moving Microsoft 365/Exchange Public folders to Microsoft 365 Shared Mailboxes

Using Microsoft 365 Admin Center

To transfer public folders data to the shared mailboxes in Microsoft 365, the user must have a shared mailbox. If you do not have shared mailbox in Microsoft 365, so here is the procedure using which you can create the shared mailbox in your Microsoft 365 account. Just follow the given steps:

1. Open your Microsoft 365 account with the authorized credentials (global administrator).
2. Then click on Admin option on the welcome page. Move to Admin Center.
3. From the rightmost panel, under Groups category, select Shared mailboxes option.
   
4. Then click on the option +Add a mailbox to add a new shared mailbox.
5. Provide a name for the mailbox, then enter the email ID for it and click on Add option.
   
6. Now that the shared mailbox is created with the desired assigned members. You can view it under the shared mailboxes category.
7. Select the mailbox and then click on Edit option against the Members option.
   
8. Select it, click Edit icon and then click on +Add members to select the users which you want to add as members to the shared mailbox.
   
   After selecting the users and then click on Save.
9. The members will get added to the shared mailbox, click Close.
10. Now the shared mailbox is created. You can view it under the shared mailboxes category in Recipients section in Exchange Admin Center.
    

There is another way to create the shared mailbox in Microsoft 365, using Windows PowerShell application connecting it with Exchange Online, thus using Exchange Online PowerShell.

To connect Windows PowerShell with Microsoft 365, follow these set of instructions.

1. Run the Windows PowerShell as an administrator on your system.
2. Execute this command:
   $Cred = Get-Credential
   A dialogue box will get opened. Here, enter the Exchange Online account user name and password credentials. Click OK.
3. Next, create a new PowerShell session for the Microsoft 365.
   $Session = New-PSSession -ConfigurationName Microsoft.Exchange -ConnectionUri https://ps.outlook.com/powershell/ -Credential $Cred -Authentication Basic –AllowRedirection
4. Finally, run this command to import the created session.
   Import-PSSession $Session

Now, the Microsoft 365 account is successfully connected to the Windows PowerShell connection (now Exchange Online PowerShell) and users can run any command to modify the Microsoft 365 account.

The main command syntax for creating a shared mailbox in Microsoft 365 in Exchange Online PowerShell is –

New-Mailbox -Shared -Name “< mailbox name>” -DisplayName “< mailbox display name>” -Alias tom | Add-MailboxPermission -User < mailbox address> -AccessRights FullAccess –InheritanceType All | Set-Mailbox -GrantSendOnBehalfTo < mailbox address>

Note: The Administrator is required to enter few details at the respective locations in the above command at the like – full name for the shared mailbox to be created, its display name, user mailbox address to assign Full Access rights and that user mailbox address to which he want to assign the Send on Behalf to permission.

But this method is generally not suggested as it includes running the complex cmdlets and therefore there is more risk of manual errors.

Final Way to Move Microsoft 365 Public Folders to Shared Mailboxes – Professional One

Now, to move the public folders from Microsoft 365 or Exchange to Microsoft 365 shared mailboxes, you cannot rely on manual solution as there is no such direct method for it. So, we recommend you to try the exclusive Microsoft 365 migration software designed to migrate public folders to Microsoft 365 shared mailboxes. This software is designed with the intelligent and robust algorithms which allow direct migration of public folders to shared mailboxes in cloud environments. User needs not to worry about any version of Exchange or Microsoft 365 for migration as it supports all of them. To know about the complete working of this automated tool with other beneficial options, visits its website, download the free trial version and experience yourself.

Now, that you have conveniently migrated the public folders to Microsoft 365 shared mailbox using this powerful third-party EDB to PST Converter tool, that shared mailbox can be accessed through Outlook Web Access feature in Microsoft 365. You just need to right click on the user name and then select the Add shared folder option and then on selecting the shared mailbox, you can view the data available in it.

Conclusion

Due to differences in features and facilities between Microsoft 365/Exchange public folders and Microsoft 365 shared mailboxes, there is a need for migration. Users can create shared mailboxes themselves using Microsoft 365 Admin Center or Windows PowerShell, but for migration of public folders to shared mailboxes in Microsoft 365, a trusted third-party Microsoft 365 to PST tool is required. The software is the one which ensures you the migration with satisfying performance and security.