Efficiently Import Multiple PST Files to Office 365 Using 5 Quick Steps

If you have finally decided to switch over to Office 365 platform, then probably you would be trying to import PST to Office 365 account also. Although, the idea of an empty mailbox sounds interesting, however, what if in case you require your old emails and other items? It’s become quite troublesome for a new Office 365 user to get a grasp over the Admin Center working and import a PST file into user accounts.

If you are an expert or have experience with Office 365 then, yeah, Network upload is a good option. However, being a newbie to Office 365, you shouldn’t take risks while importing PST data to Office 365. There are other ways to import PST files into Office 365 such as using Outlook and Automated tools. Here is a quick way to do the same.

Now let’s discuss the step-by-step manual methods to import multiple PST files to Office 365.

Method #1: Import PST to Office 365 With Outlook Application

Another free method for importing PST files to Office 365 is with the help of the MS Outlook application. This method is quite simple and generally the most efficient to import a single PST file. Without MS Outlook installed on your system, it’s impossible to import PST to an Office 365 user account using this method. Although this method takes too much time to complete the task due to configuration timing, the method is totally free. Following are the steps to import data to an Office 365 account using MS Outlook:

Step 1. Open the MS Outlook App, and go to the File tab at the top-left corner of the window.

Step 2. Now, go to Account Settings, and click on the Add Account option.

Step 3. Enter the details of the Office 365 user account where the PST file needs to be imported and click on the Configure button.

Step 4. After the configuration is finished, go to the File tab and choose the Import/Export option.

Step 5. You will get an Import/Export wizard window on your screen. Choose the “Import from a file” option from the list of options available on the screen.

Step 6. Next, choose “Outlook data file (.pst)” for importing PST file.

Step 7. Browse the PST file location in the MS Outlook App.

Step 8. Choose the Office 365 mailbox where you wish to import the PST file.

Step 9. Click on the Finish button to start importing PST data to Office 365 account.

Method 2: Import PST Files to Office 365 User Account Simultaneously

The only way other than Network upload for importing multiple PST files into Office 365 user accounts is by using an automated tool. The most feature-rich solution for bulk import PST to Office 365 is using SysTools Office 365 Import Tool. The automated tool not only allows to import multiple PST files but also filters the data of the PST file while importing it into an Office 365 user account.

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Detailed Software Steps with Screenshots to Import Multiple PST Files to Outlook 365

Step 1. Launch the software on your computer. From the home screen select Outlook as the source platform and Office 365 as the Destination.

Step 2. Moving to workload selection, enable all the desired mailbox categories you wish to import into Office 365. Apply a built-in date filter if you need to import selective PST data files to Outlook 365.

Step 3. In the source tab, set the folder path of the PST files, that you have saved on your computer.

You have to arrange PST files in folders named after the target O365 email IDs as follows:

Make a folder in the root drive, such as E:/PST/user1@domainName.com/ (place all user1’s PST files here)

• E:/PST/user2@domainName.com/ (place all user2’s PST files here)
• E:/PST/user3@domainName.com/ (place all user3’s PST files here)

And so on…

Then, select the folder “E:/PST/” in our tool as the Import Folder Path. Validate by clicking on the validate button. Once validation is successful, permissions will be granted to the source platform. Click Next to import multiple PST files to Office 365.

Step 4. Now in the destination tab, use the Office 365 admin credentials to log into the software.

Step 5. Click on the validate button to validate required permissions, then click Next.

Step 6. On the Users screen, use any of these options to add users from the source.

• Fetch Users: Use this to fetch users from the Source.
• Import Users: This Imports users through CSV file.
• Download Template: Provide a sample CSV file for creating a CSV file.

Step 7. Now, select the required user accounts and click on the validate button to authorize the selected user permissions. Once users are validated, click the Start Import button to import multiple PST files to Office 365.

Method #3: Import Multiple PST files or Bulk PST using Network Upload 

Since this method requires admin credentials to access Microsoft Purview, hence, this method is only for administrators, if you are trying to import PST to your own mailboxes then consider the above method using Outlook. 

Below is the Overview of Steps: 

• Step 1: Copy the SAS URL and download the AzCopy tool.
• Step 2: Upload your PST files to Microsoft 365 (Azure blob storage).
• Step 3 (Optional): View a list of the PST files uploaded.
• Step 4: Configure the PST Import mapping file.
• Step 5: Configure a PST Import job.
• Step 6: Filter data and start the PST Import job.

But Before you proceed with this method there are a few prerequisites that need to be followed to ensure an error-free import job.

Before Importing Make Sure:

• The first and most important thing is to make sure that the admin accounts you are going to use in the Network Upload, must be assigned with the Import Export role in Exchange Online. So that it can easily create and import PST jobs in the Microsoft Purview portal. 
• Another important permission that needs to be assigned is the Mail Recipients role in Exchange Online.
• While importing large-size PST files you can encounter errors and downtime, which also impacts the performance of the PST import process. To overcome this make sure your PST does not exceed the size of 20 GB. 
• Microsoft does not allow the import of PST files with more than 300 levels of nested folders, so it’s important to avoid exceeding the recommended limit.
• If the PST file that you want to import contains a mailbox item larger than 150 MB, then the item will be skipped and will not be imported during the Network Upload process. As Exchange Online, there is a limit on the message size i.e. 150 MB.

Now let’s jump to the steps.

Steps to Import Bulk PST Using Network Upload 

Step 1. Using your admin credentials login to – https://purview.microsoft.com/ ( Microsoft Purview portal).

Step 2. From the left pane,  click on the Data lifecycle management, and select  Microsoft 365. From Microsoft 365 dropdown click on Import.

Step 3. Select the Add Icon and then click on the New import job from the import tab. It will open and display the import wizard.

Step 4. Provide all the necessary details such as the name of the PST import job, description, etc. Make sure not to use uppercase letters and do not include spaces in the name. You can use lowercase letters, numbers, hyphens, and underscores.

Step 5. Now you will move to this page – Do you want to upload or ship data? Click on the Upload your data, and click on Next.

Step 6. It will open the Import data page. Here you have to perform two things,

firstly click on the show SAS URL, and copy it. Save it to a file where you can access it later. Then download the AzCopy tool on your local computer, it is an executable file, so no need to install it.

Now let’s move to uploading PST files.

Step 7. Launch the Command Prompt on your local computer, in which you have downloaded the AzCopy tool. Navigate to the directory where you have saved azcopy.exe.

Step 8. Now copy the below command and Run it in the CMD to upload the PST files to Microsoft 365.

azcopy.exe copy “<Source location of PST files>” “<SAS URL>”

Step 9. After executing the above command, your PST files are now uploaded to Azure blob storage. 

Step 10. Now download a sample copy of the PST Import mapping file from here- https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/p/?LinkId=544717

Step 11. Make sure not to change and header data, just update the placeholder data with your own data and save the CSV file.

Now we can start the PST import job:-

Step 12. Navigate to this – (https://compliance.microsoft.com/), and sign in with the same admin credentials. 

Step 13. Following the same steps navigate to this screen –  Do you want to upload or ship data? Click on the Upload your data, and click on Next.

Step 14. From the – Import data page, click on I’m done uploading my files and I have access to the mapping file check boxes, and then click on Next.

Step 15. Submit the CSV mapping file that you created on the Select the mapping file page.

Step 16. Once you have uploaded the CSV file, click on Validate to check if there is any error associated with your CSV file. Click on the Save to submit the job.

Step 17. It will display a flyout page showing the status analysis in progress. Click on the Refresh icon, to update the info. When it gets completed you can see the Analysis completed displayed in the status column. Now the data is ready to be imported into Office 365 mailboxes. 

Step 18. On the Import tab in Microsoft Purview portal, click on the import jobs, that you have created earlier, and click on Import to Microsoft 365.

Step 19. You will see a Filter your data wizard opens, it will show you the data insights, including the size and the age of your data.  

Here you will get two options such as –  

1. Yes, I want to filter it before importing. (A)
2. No, I want to import everything (B)

Choose accordingly and click on Import data to start the import job.

Why Choose Automated Tool Instead of Network Upload to Import Multiple PST Files?

As you may have seen the above Network Upload method to import PST to Office 365. It is a good solution for importing multiple PST files, however, the method itself is quite cumbersome. It requires a great understanding of the PowerShell command and Administrator privileges and technical work for the execution. Additionally, its alternative Drive Shipping method is currently available in limited countries and quite costly too.

Whereas the automated tool method is quite a simple and user-friendly solution. It doesn’t require any technical knowledge nor is it region-dependent. In only a few limited steps any layman or newbie Office 365 user can perform the import task. Additionally, the tool provides multiple functionalities while importing PST files to Office 365 user accounts. The following are some unique features of the automated tool:

• Import emails, contacts, calendars, and task data from a PST file.
• Allows to import multiple PST files into multiple Office 365 accounts simultaneously
• Incremental import feature to skip already imported data in the next attempt.
• Include/Exclude folder option for importing sent and deleted files
• Allows to import the PST file in the shared mailbox of Office 365
• Option to create a mailbox with the same name as the PST file for storing emails.
• Multiple options for including PST files in the tool.

Also Read: How to Migrate Users and Computers From One Forest to Another In 3 Separate Ways

Conclusion

In this guide, you have learned the best alternative of the Network Upload method to import PST to Office 365. We have provided automated solutions and manual solutions using MS Outlook for importing. If Office 365 Import service is not available in your region or you are a newbie to Office 365, then it is highly recommended to go for an automated tool to import multiple PST files to Office 365 mailbox.