Monday 26 September 2016

Manually Import PST to Office 365 | Free How-to Guide

Looking for the best way to manually import pst to Office 365? Already executed import service and still stuck? Well, then you are in right place today. Learn quick and easy ways to import pst files to Office 365 step by step manually. Before that, I would like to highlight the clear confusion between PST and Office 365. 

Understand the Difference Between PST File and Office 365


PST File:
 A PST or .pst (Personal Storage Table) is a file extension for a Microsoft Outlook email client. It allows its users to access items of multiple accounts configured to Outlook by a personal Outlook data file to each individual user. After you’ve configured any account to Outlook, when a new item appears, it will always save that information in .pst file format.

Office 365: As compared to MS Outlook (a desktop-based application) Office 365 is a web-mail Outlook and hence it is popularly referred to as OWA- Outlook Web Access. Any new items appear in Office 365 will be saved to its server and can be accessed through the server only over the internet.


Instant Solution: Download Office 365 Import PST Tool to directly import multiple PST files into Office 365 user accounts including emails, contacts, calendars, and tasks without losing any data.







Table of Content:

How to Manually Import PST to Office 365 - Free Ways

Here, we will be discussing 2 manual ways for importing .pst file into O365 mailbox: 

  1. Using Import/Export Wizard of MS Outlook - For Single User Only 
  2. Using Import Service to Directly Import PSTs Via Admin Center

Method#1: Importing a .pst File into Office 365 Using MS Outlook

  • To import Outlook PST data to Office 365, you’ll actually need to use Outlook. Firstly open your Office 365 and create an account as an administrator.
  • Now sign into Office 365 as other user and add (configure) Outlook Profile into it.
  • Once you are signed in as other user, you’ll be able to see and add other users mailboxes too.
  • Click on File >> click on Import and Export >> click on Next.
  • Select Outlook Data File (.pst) >> click Next >> click on Browse to provide the storage location of your PST file.
  • Just below the Browse button, under Options, you’ll see three sub-options, choose Do not import duplicates.
  • Click Next >> if you’ve encrypted your PST file with password, then you’ll be asked to provide them >> enter the correct password and click on OK button.
  • And if the PST file is not locked with any password, then after you click Next, a pop-up box will appear asking you to choose the folder to import from. Here you can select the Inbox folder or any folder which are available in your Outlook mailbox.
  • After you’ve chosen the folder to import, check the box pointing to Include subfolders.
  • Just below the Include subfolders, you’ll see two options: Import items into the current folder and Import items into the same folder in >> select the box pointing to Import items into the same folder in
  • After you’ll done all the above steps successfully, click on Finish to complete the procedure.

Limitation of Manual Method 

With the manual solution, if you’ve fewer items in your .pst file then it can be easily imported to Office 365. But in the same import process, when their size is large then the manual procedure may take more time than required.

Method #2: Using Import Service

The Import service in security & compliance of Admin Center allows to bulk import PST to Office 365 user mailbox. There are two ways to use Import Service for the job: 

  1. Network Upload: This service allows you to upload your .pst files to a temporary Azure Storage in Microsoft Cloud. Then use the Office 365 Import Service to manually import PST to Office 365 user mailbox in your organization. This method is quite complex and can be operated via Admin only. To know how import service works, click here
  2. Drive Shipping: If you don't want to go through the hassle of technical stuff, then drive shipping is the alternative to Network Upload. Here, you need to copy the PST files into a bit-Locker encrypted hard drive and then physically ship the drive to Microsoft Data Center. The rest of the work will be done by Microsoft's team and they will charge $2 per GB of PST file. To know how drive shipping works, click here

Why You Shouldn't Use Manual Method?

Although the manual ways to import PST to Office 365 are free of cost and don't require you to spend a penny, a user requires higher technical skills and expertise to make the job done. 

In the case of a single pst import, it can be directly done with the help of MS Outlook application. But, this task is best suited when the number of pst file and number of user is only one. 

Whereas, techniques such as Drive Shipping are not at all free. We cannot say it is a manual technique, it is more a paid service from Microsoft. And it is not at all recommended to use, because every time when you need to do the job, you need to perform all costly and time taking steps again and again. 

Then what to do?

It's simple, take the help of advanced and specially designed software that doesn't require any technical knowledge and doesn't cost much to complete the job. 

Import PST Files Into Office 365 Via Automated Tool

To overcome the hassle of synchronization and manually uploading PST files in each account, it better to take help from a professional tool. Using an automated tool users can import important data by filtering the unwanted data from Outlook. As the tool offers a category and date-range filter option, it can be used to filter the data that only need to be imported from the PST file to Office 365. One such solution is mentioned below.

Using the automated tool, the user doesn't require an Admin account id or password to import data into its own account. The tool offers the option to import single/multiple PST files directly into Office 365 user mailbox at once. And, there is no limitation on the amount of PST file data that can be imported using this utility.



Tips: User can import PST file into Shared Mailbox using Office 365 Admin Account. 

5 simple steps to import PST to Office 365 (Not Manually):

Step 1: Download and Launch the Office 365 Importer
Step 2: Enter Office 365 account credentials for login (click on 'Is Admin' to login as Admin)
Step 3: Click on Add File(s) /  Folder option to import Outlook PST file
Step 4: Select the Category of data to import & Apply the date-range filter.
Step 5: Set Additional filters and click on Import button.

Following are the instructions with screenshots: 
  • To start the import process, first login into the tool by using 'Is Office 365 Admin'
Note: Without Admin credentials login requires user account Id and password during authentication. 




  • Use the Add File(s) and/or Add Folder option to import .pst file path into the tool
  • To map the pst file with the designated Office 365 account, either do it manually from tool UI or create a mapped CSV file and upload it via the "Add CSV" option.
  • Select the accounts using checkbox and authenticate them. Once the authentication is finished, click on the Next button. 
  • From the next window, select the categories of items to import from .pst file and also set a date-range filter for each.

  • Set the Include Folders (if required) and Additional Filters such as:
    • Attach Outlook PST File
    • Exclude Deleted Items
    • Incremental Import
    • Exclude Sent Items
  • Finally, hit Import button to begin the process 


  • The tool will import PST to Office 365 user mailbox and once done, it will show you the status as completed and the option to Save Report.

Conclusion

We aren't biased with any particular method, it has been observed via genuine reviews that users are satisfied with the method to manually import pst to Office 365 when the pst file size is small. However, as the number of Office 365 users increases, it becomes quite difficult to work with a manual solution. In that case, the user prefers an automated tool to directly import multiple .pst files into multiple Office 365 user mailboxes simultaneously. 
Manually Import PST to Office 365 | Free How-to Guide Clark Kent 4.5 of 5
Looking for the best way to manually import pst to Office 365? Already executed import service and still stuck? Well, then you are in right...

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