In Exchange environment, both public folders and shared mailboxes are used for collaboration and to store mail items, such as messages, calendar, etc. However, choosing one over the other depends on your business requirements.
Sometimes, you need to migrate Exchange public folders to shared mailboxes in Office 365. There could be many reasons why you need to migrate a public folder to a shared mailbox. Some common ones are:
- Migrating to Microsoft 365 and moving away from public folders and opting for Microsoft 365 Groups.
- To have simplified access as there is no specific or complex permissions.
- Reducing the administrative effort to maintain permissions in the hierarchies.
In this article, we will be going through different methods for migrating Exchange public folders to shared mailboxes in Office 365.
Methods to Migrate Public Folders to Shared Mailboxes
You can use Microsoft Outlook, PowerShell commands in the Exchange Management Shell (EMS), or a specialized EDB to PST converter tool to migrate public folders to shared mailboxes. Let’s discuss these methods in detail.
1. Use Microsoft Outlook
One of the common and easy methods to migrate a public folder to a shared mailbox is by using Microsoft Outlook. However, this method is suitable for migrating small public folders. Depending on the size of public folder, the process may take a considerable amount of time. If the size of public folder is large, Microsoft Outlook will not be able to handle it.
In this, first you need to export public folder to PST and then use Outlook to import the PST into the shared mailbox. Also, the user’s profile configured in Outlook must have access to the public folders and their hierarchy, and to the shared mailbox.
Moreover, it’s not possible to continue if the process is interrupted or Microsoft Outlook crashes. During this process, Microsoft Outlook will become unresponsive and continuing to use it will result in a crash.
Steps for Migrating Public Folder to Shared Mailbox using Outlook
You need to first export the public folder to PST by using the below steps:
- In Outlook, click on File > Open & Export and then click on Import-Export.
- Click on Export to File and select Outlook Data File (.pst).
- In the next window, scroll down and select the public folder you want to export and click Next.
- Enter the location to save the PST file and click Next.
- Click Finish.
Once done, you need to import the PST file into the shared mailbox by using the below steps:
- Click on File > Open & Export and then click on Import-Export.
- Click on Import from another program of file.
- Select Outlook Data File (.pst).
- Select the PST file and choose if you want to replace or allow duplicates.
- Select the folder to import from the PST file.
- Choose to import in the current folder or the same folder.
- Click Finish.
Drawbacks of this method:
- Cannot be used for large public folders
- Needs full access to the public folders
- Not reliable
- Time-consuming
2. Use PowerShell Commands
To migrate public folders to shared mailboxes, you can also use PowerShell commands. However, you need some technical expertise to execute the commands. Before running the command, you must ensure that Microsoft Outlook is installed on the machine where the script will run and the user’s profile configured in Microsoft Outlook has all the rights to the public folder and its sub-folders.
Below is the PowerShell (.ps1) script that you can run to export to PST:
# Load Outlook COM Object
Add-Type -AssemblyName “Microsoft.Office.Interop.Outlook”
$Outlook = New-Object -ComObject Outlook.Application
$Namespace = $Outlook.GetNamespace(“MAPI”)
# Specify the Public Folder directly by its path
$PublicFolder = $Namespace.Folders.Item(“Public Folders”).Folders.Item(“FolderName”)
# Specify the Destination PST File Path
$PSTFilePath = “C:\PST\PublicFolder.pst”
# Add PST File to Outlook
$Namespace.AddStore($PSTFilePath)
$PSTFolder = $Namespace.Folders.Item(“Outlook Data File”)
# Copy Public Folder to PST
$PublicFolder.CopyTo($PSTFolder)
# Remove PST from Outlook
$Namespace.RemoveStore($PSTFolder)
There are some variables that you can change to customize the export. These are:
- $PSTFilePath: This is the destination where the PST file will be exported.
- $PublicFolder: This is to specify the public folder and the folder name to be exported.
Once the export is completed, you can open the exported PST file in Outlook to confirm that the export is successful.
To import the PST file into the shared mailbox, you can use the New-MailboxImportRequest command in the Exchange Management Shell (EMS). To run this command, you need to have the necessary roles assigned. This can be done by running the below command in the Exchange Management Shell (EMS).
New-ManagementRoleAssignment –Role "Mailbox Import Export" –User "<User importing>"
In addition, you need to have a network share access to the PST file. Ensure that the security group Exchange Trusted Subsystem and the user have full access to the share and the files.
To import the PST file into the shared mailbox, you can use the New-MailboxImportRequest command (see the below example).
New-MailboxImportRequest -Mailbox "<Shared Mailbox Name>" -FilePath \\srv01\PST\PF1.pst
To monitor the progress of import process, you can use the Get-MailboxImportRequest command.
Drawbacks of this method:
- Need to setup Microsoft Outlook profile
- Needs full access to the public folders
- Expertise in scripting and commands
- Not a smooth process
3. Use an EDB to PST Converter Tool
The methods mentioned above have some drawbacks. However, you can overcome such challenges by using third-party EDB converter tools which specialize in such processes. One such tool is Stellar Converter for EDB.
The tool can easily open offline and online databases from any version of Exchange Server and of any size. After a quick scan of the databases, you can granularly export user mailboxes, shared mailboxes, user archives, public folders, disabled mailboxes, and even deleted and purged items to PST and other file formats.
With this tool, you can simplify the process by exporting directly to a live Exchange Server database or Microsoft 365 tenant with automatic mailbox matching and parallel export to speed up the process. Stellar Converter for EDB can help reduce the complexity and effort, and guarantees a smooth process.
Conclusion
There are various reasons why you need to migrate public folders to shared mailboxes. Above, we have mentioned different methods to migrate public folders to shared mailboxes. However, you may face some challenges while migrating using Outlook and PowerShell. So, the best and easiest option is to use Stellar Converter for EDB that can help you migrate public folders and other items from Exchange database (EDB) file in just a few simple steps.
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