Import PST to Office 365 Without Data Loss in Minutes – Top 4 Solutions

If you have finally decided to switch over to the Microsoft 365 environment, then you would probably be trying to import PST to Office 365 account also. However, it becomes quite troublesome for a new Office 365 user to get a grasp of the Admin Center and migrate PST to Office 365.

Those who are new to Microsoft 365 or not familiar with this type of migration, don’t worry. Today, I’ll share all the possible solutions to move Outlook files simultaneously without any hassle. But before, let’s take a quick look at the reasons behind it.

Why Import PST File to Office 365?

If you are on this page, you have your reasons to move Outlook files to Microsoft 365. Still, those who are not aware of the benefits of this procedure can go through these points:

• All emails are stored in one secure location in Office 365.
• Prevent data loss from corrupted or stolen Outlook files.
• Give users easy access to old emails on any device.
• Remove the need for old servers or local PST backups.
• Make email management and backups simpler.
• Keep all data protected under Microsoft’s security.

Now, we have clear insights into the reasons behind the process. Next, I’ll explain the techniques to migrate PST to Office 365. 

How to Import PST to Office 365?

As a Microsoft 365 admin for 15+ years, I know how frustrating when you can’t access your Outlook file data. But when it comes to import them to Microsoft 365, it becomes problematic without proper planning. So, first, let’s have a quick prerequisite for the same:

• The Target mailbox must be licensed for Exchange Online.
• Have appropriate admin credentials for the Microsoft 365 account.
• Assign Mailbox Import Export Role, and Mail Recipients via Exchange Admin Center or PowerShell.
• Check PST File Health before proceeding, or run ScanPST.exe on files to repair corruption(if any).
• Each PST should be under 20 GB. For larger files, split them.
• Keep filenames unique, e,g, mohitjha_year.pst to avoid conflicts.
• Uploads must be mapped into an import job within 30 days.

These pre-migration steps need to be verified to avoid errors. When everything is confirmed, then only move to the below solution sections.

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

This method is quite simple and generally the most efficient for importing a single PST file. Without MS Outlook installed on your system, it’s impossible to migrate PST to Office 365 user account using this method. In my personal experience, it takes too much time to complete the task due to configuration timing.

Still, for small data migration, follow 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)” to import PST to Office 365.

• 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 the Office 365 account.

#Method 2. Migrate PST to Office 365 Via Network Upload 

This method requires admin credentials to access Microsoft Purview; hence, this method is only for administrators.

Below is the overview of the steps: 

• Go to Microsoft Purview Import Portal.
• Create a new import job, select Upload your data, and copy the SAS URL generated.
• Download AzCopy v10 (the only supported tool).
• Run:

• Download the CSV template from Purview.
• Edit it with details like FilePath, Mailbox, and IsArchive. Example:

• Upload the CSV back into Purview, validate, and start the import.

Moreover, before you proceed with this method, there are a few prerequisites that need to be followed to ensure an error-free import PST to Office 365 job:

• 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 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.
• When you migrate PST to Office 365 in bulk, you may 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. In Exchange Online, there is a limit on the message size, i.e. 150 MB.

Now let’s jump to the steps.

Steps to Import PST to Office 365 Using Network Upload 

• Step 1. Using your admin credentials, log in 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 the Microsoft 365 dropdown, click on Import to migrate PST to Office 365.
• 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 import PST to Office 365:

• Step 7. Launch the Command Prompt on your local computer, on which you have downloaded the AzCopy tool. Navigate to the directory where you have saved azcopy.exe.
• Step 8. Now, copy the command below 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 to migrate PST to Office 365 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 are any errors associated with your CSV file. Click on the Save to submit the job and import PST to Office 365 easily.

• 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 the 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 open; it will show you the data insights, including the size and the age of your data.  

Here you will get two options to migrate PST to Office 365, i.e.  

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.

#Method 3. Use Drive Shipping to Import PST to Office 365

When uploading isn’t feasible due to bandwidth or volume, you can:

• Encrypt PSTs on a BitLocker-protected drive that meets Microsoft’s requirements, i.e. NTFS, 10 TB, supported SATA or SSD.
• Register a drive shipping job in Purview and ship it.
• Understand that Microsoft will charge $2 per GB and may take 7–10 business days after receiving the drive.
• Validate data after import as usual.