How to Migrate Contacts from Exchange to Office 365: A Step-by-Step Guide

Outline: In this guide, you will learn how to migrate contacts from Exchange to Office 365. If any organization switches to the cloud, therefore, migrating contacts from Exchange is important. However, We will also provide best practices and answers to some of your most common questions to make a smooth migration. If you are an IT admin or a business owner, this article breaks the process down so easily that your data remains safe and intact during the process.

Table of Contents, 

1. Why Migrate Contacts from Exchange to Office 365?
2. How do you migrate contacts from Exchange to Office 365?
3. Steps to Export Contacts from the Exchange
4. Steps to Import Contacts into Office 365
5. Migrate Contacts from Exchange to Office 365  Using PowerShell Scripts
6. Automated Tools to Migrate Exchange contacts to Office 365 
7. Common Issues and Troubleshooting
8. Best Practices For Moving Contacts to Office 365
9. Bring it All Together
10. FAQs

The Migration of organizations to cloud-based services, from Microsoft Exchange to Microsoft Office 365 become important. As everyone shifted towards the cloud for better productivity. Apart from emails and calendars, the transfer of contacts is also important for communication with clients and colleagues. Having contacts transferred from Exchange to Office 365 has become an important task in the work list of IT teams so that there is no data lost and no communication is broken in the process.

In fact, for any IT professional or administrator, it’s important to understand how to migrate contacts from Exchange to Office 365 which requires knowledge of both manual and automated methods, as well as available tools and best practices.

Moving to the next section, where we will discover the reasons for the Exchange to Office 365 contact migration.

Why Migrate Contacts from Exchange to Office 365?

This migration from Exchange to Office 365 provides several organizational benefits to several organizations, primarily for enhancing accessibility, security, and scalability. Office 365 allows you to view your contacts from anywhere using any device and experience the full value added through integration with the Microsoft platform. The migration also includes contacts migration, which allows the use of the address books and shared contact lists in your organization. Therefore, understanding the process for migrating contacts from Exchange to Office 365 is key to avoiding the loss of precious data during this transition.

After knowing the reasons now, moving to the next section where we will discuss the queries that come from the user for a better understanding.

How do you Migrate Contacts from Exchange to Office 365?

If you run a small organization, you can manually migrate Exchange contacts to Office 365 by following these steps:

Steps to Export Contacts from the Exchange

• Open Microsoft Outlook with your credential ID on a PC connected to Exchange.
• Go to File > Open & Export and choose “Export to file”.
• Select Outlook Data File (.pst) and choose which folder you want to export.
• At last, save the file on your local drive.

Note: You can remove duplicate contacts from the saved file. 

After that you need to import your contact in Office 365, for this follow the following steps.

Steps to Import Contacts into Office 365

• Open Outlook with the credential ID connected to Office 365
• Navigate to File and then  Open & Export after that select Import/Export.
• Select Import from another program or file and choose the saved PST file.
• From here you can Import the contacts into the Office 365 mailbox.

Moving to the second method i.e making use of PowerShell

Migrate Contacts from Exchange to Office 365  Using PowerShell 

This method is fine the organizations who have a large scale of mail contact and require accurate results. However, making use of PowerShell requires an IT expert who knows scripting. Let’s go through the steps of how to use PowerShell for the migration.

Must prepare the PowerShell environment by installing an important script module

Step 1. Run the given command after launching the PowerShell as administrator.

Step 2. Connect PowerShell to Exchange Online

Step 3. Export the contacts from Exchange to the local device using this command 

Step 4. After exportation, you need to import the file, by following the command given below

Note: Change the filename in the command according to your file name 

However, this method needs an expert person who knows the PowerShell and the other method applies to the small-scale industry. Therefore, it’s better to use automated tools to avoid errors when you transfer contacts from Exchange to Office 365.

Jumping to another method for moving mail contacts.

Automated Tool to Migrate Exchange contacts to Office 365 

One of the professional solutions that comes out of the boxes is the SysTools Exchange to Office 365 Migration Tool. It helps the user to simplify the complex migration process. Whether the organization’s size is huge it overcomes the issue and migrates

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Benefits of Using Automated Tools:
Some of the benefits of the tool are listed below.

• Bulk Migration: Migrate contacts for multiple users simultaneously.
• Error-Free: Automation reduces the risk of human error.
• Time Efficiency: Faster than manual methods, especially for large migrations.
• Detailed Reports: Track the status of your migration for each user.

Common Issues and Troubleshooting 

If you are facing some common issues during Exchange to Office 365 contact migration and you are unable to resolve them, then these tips may be helpful. Here are the solutions for the same. Let’s go through with them one by one.

1. Missing Contacts: If some contacts are missing after checking in post-migration, you need to check the original PST file or the Exchange mailbox for the errors. However, You may need to re-import the missing data.
2. Duplicate Contacts: Duplicate contacts can appear if the migration is repeated or if there are pre-existing contacts in Office 365. You can use the Outlook Duplicate Remover tool to clean them up.
3. Slow Migration Speed: For large datasets, the migration might be slow. Ensure stable network connectivity and that the migration server has adequate resources.

Best Practices For Moving Contacts to Office 365

If you want to move your mail contact you need to make sure that the migration is smooth, users need to follow the best practices so that there is no data loss.

• Backup Your Data: Always take backup of the data whether contacts or something else before starting the Exchange to Office 365 contact migration to prevent information loss.
• Test the Migration: Try to run a small test migration first to make sure that there are no issues before moving the complete organization.
• Use Reliable Migration Tools: If you’re migrating a large volume of data, use professional tools for a smoother Office 365 contact transfer.
• Schedule Downtime: Plan the migration during non-business hours to avoid the disturbance of your daily tasks.
• Crosscheck after Migration:  check the data integrity and make sure that no contacts are missing after transferring.

Bring it All Together

Migrating contacts into Office 365 from Exchange is extremely important to any organization moving to the cloud. It becomes seamless and error-free if you follow these steps- Whether manually or using automated tools, verify your migration, and follow the best practice, backup your data. The right approach, how to migrate contacts from Exchange to Office 365 becomes an easy task, making sure your organization’s contacts are safely transferred and ready for use in the cloud.

Also Read: Recover and Restore Mailbox in Exchange 2010 Server

FAQs

Q- Can I migrate contacts separately from emails?
A- Yes, you can choose to migrate only contacts by exporting the contacts folder from Exchange and importing it into Office 365.

Q- How long does the migration take?
A- The time depends on the size of your contact list and the method used. Manual migrations take longer, while automated tools speed up the process significantly.

Q- Can I use PowerShell for small migrations?
A- Yes, though PowerShell is more suitable for bulk migrations, it can be used for smaller ones as well.

Q- Is there any loss of contact during migration?
If you follow each step mentioned above correctly there should be no data loss. However, always take data backup and test the migration to make sure that everything goes smoothly.

Also See: How to Migrate Exchange 2019 to Office 365?