How to Merge Two Office 365 Accounts Easily?
How to merge two Office 365 accounts is a technical headache for M365 admins as there is no direct “Merge Account” or “Combine Data” button.
So if you find yourself in a situation where you have to perform this sort of Outlook account amalgamation there can be quite a few challenges.
Admins have to balance storage consumption with licensing constraints. Moreover, users need to be educated on which account types can be joined together and which ones ought to remain separate.
Don’t worry here in this writing you will find some solid strategies that lay out the scenario-specific steps to fix the problem. Let us first understand under which circumstances an O365 account merger request evolves.
Why Users Want to Merge Two Office 365 Accounts?
There is no single reason common for all but a wide variety of pre-conditions that result in a 2+ account joining request from a user to the admin. Some of them are explained below:
- Company mergers or acquisitions: This is perhaps the most common reason. Whenever two companies merge together, or one acquires the other, employees need to be brought under a single umbrella, which means that some accounts will end with the same function. So to reduce duplicity, admins often want to merge similar IDs together.
- Personal and work account consolidation: Interns or temporary employees may initially use their personal Office 365 accounts. This is because a formal work account isn’t immediately provisioned. However, if these roles become permanent, the data accumulated in the personal account needs to be transferred to a newly created, company-managed work account.
- Cost optimization: Sometimes companies may purchase more licenses than they require or find out about a new subscription type that gives a higher value. In such circumstances, admins may want to merge two or more accounts to save some money.
These are just a few reasons. Your situation might be different but it does not make your requirement any less genuine. Now that the reasons are clear, let us address the biggest concern in the minds of admins and users.
Is It Possible to Combine 2 Microsoft Accounts?
Admins and users must understand that in Microsoft 365 a true account merger is not possible. This is applicable regardless of your account type, subscriber licenses, data amount, etc. Then how to merge two Office 365 accounts?
Before we reveal the solutions, here are some reasons that prevent Microsoft from developing a native solution.
The technical complexity of merging diverse systems spread across Outlook, OneDrive, Xbox, Azure, Skype, and more is too difficult.
Also Read: How to Migrate from One Office 365 Tenant to Another Easily?
Each account has its Unique ID that acts as a primary key across these services and is often immutable and strongly attached. Changing these values is outside of the scope of even Global admins.
Even if somehow admins can bypass this unique identifier, they would encounter yet another challenge in the form of data conflicts. Resolving these data disagreements is both labor-intensive and time-consuming.
Cost is another significant factor; every second of downtime means a loss in productive time. Making merging too costly, especially for a large set of resources.
If admins or users try to forcefully merge two accounts, they can introduce invisible security risks, thus making accounts vulnerable to outside attacks and unauthorized access.
Reverting to a non-merged state may become even more difficult adding the risk of data loss or corruption.
You might unknowingly violate some privacy regulations like GDPR, so it’s best not to experiment on your own and utilize only the tried and tested methods.
Before that, let us explain which account types are compatible for the merging activity.
How to Merge Two Office 365 Accounts & Which O365 Accounts Can’t be Joined Together?
Data inside personal accounts ending with @outlook.com and @hotmail.com can be combined with each other.
Similarly, email IDs with an @on.microsoft.com or custom domain with an M365 business subscription can be merged with each other.
Also, it is possible to join the business account with a personal account.
Steps to Connect Two Emails in Outlook Client
New Outlook Client
- Settings Cog > Accounts > Your Accounts > Add Account.
- Enter email and hit continue.
- Choose a suitable provider:
- Microsoft 365 for an Office365 or an Exchange account.
- Outlook.com for a personal @outlook.com, @hotmail.com, @live.com.
Note: Having an account before prompts Outlook to automatically fill in the email address.
- Fill in the password.
- Select either Allow your organization to manage the device or No, sign in to this app only.
- You should see a Success message indicating a proper syncing of your account with the client.
Classic Outlook Client
- File > Add Account
- Outlook will perform a preliminary search; if it is unable to find any previous account data in the cache, type in the email address and press connect.
- Type in your password in the portal.
- If all steps are correct you should see an Account added alert.
- Restart the classic client for changes to take effect.
Outlook Mobile Client
- Tap on profile icon.
- From the left-most bar tap on the + icon.
- A pop-up will appear on the lower side of your screen, click on Add an account.
- If you had ever attached another account before, Outlook will present it; you can continue from here or tap skip if you want to add some other account.
- Enter your email > Press CONTINUE.
- Enter your password and tap Sign in.
- Your account should appear in the application. Close and restart if it doesn’t or verify whether or not you did the steps as per the instructions.
- You might have put in the wrong credentials; Outlook won’t allow you to add a second account if that is the case.
Outlook Web
Unfortunately, you cannot keep more than one account on the web version. So, web-only users can switch to a client or follow any of the alternatives present in the next section.
What to do for Using Two Office 365 accounts at the same time?
Use two different browsers (e.g. Chrome and Firefox) to open the two accounts and switch between them as you please.
Forward all existing emails to the main account and set up a new rule that does this automatically for you.
Add a shared mailbox (or ask an admin to add it) but beware you may not be the only one who has access to this secondary account.
Make an Office 365 Group and migrate Office 365 groups to another place. You can add two (or more) accounts there and share all incoming data in a single viable area.
Use Classic Outlook’s export and Import facility to combine the data of two accounts. New, Mobile, and Web versions lack this facility.
Professional Way to Link Two or More M365 Email Accounts Together
Use SysTools Office 365 to Office 365 Migration tool. This software simplifies the merger procedure for two accounts belonging to either the same business domain or different business domains.
With provisions to include multiple workload types such as emails, contacts, calendars, etc., you can safely combine the data of two accounts.
Moreover, this tool can handle shared mailboxes as well, so you can deposit data from license-less areas to the ones with a live M365 business subscription plan.
Step By Step process to use the tool:
Step 1. Install the app on the system and pick both endpoints as Office 365.
Step 2. In the workload area, mark the checkbox next to the workloads you want to include in this merger.
Step 3. Then, use the Source page to validate the details.
Step 4. Likewise, use the Destination page to validate the details.
Step 5. The mapping area provides 3 different types of options Fetch, Import, Download.
Step 6. Finally, view, Select, Prioritize, and Validate the Selection then Start Migration.
Conclusion
Now the seemingly impossible query of how to merge two Office 365 accounts is resolved. Here we taught users why they can’t merge directly, the security implications of a merger, and the possible tactics they can employ.
Moreover, with the introduction of a professional tool, all inter and intra-organizational merging scenarios can be dealt with a swift and easy method.
