Office 365 Migration Stuck on Syncing/Completing

Aftab Alam | Updated On - January 24, 2023 |

Read time: 5 minutes

A migration between Exchange Server and Office 365 is considered completed after all the messages from the source mailbox are transferred to the destination mailbox. This process is called syncing, and when the batch migration is in the final stages, then it denotes status as syncing. But in some cases, when the size of the mailbox is too large, or the receiving Office 365 mailbox does not have proper permissions, then syncing is stalled, and the migration will get stuck for an unlimited period.

You can view the status of the mailbox migration batches in the Exchange Admin Center. In the above case, you will see that syncing process still running but none of the mailboxes has migrated yet.

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As you can see in the above image, even after the considerate time of starting the migration batch, the status is Syncing, and under the Mailbox status, zero mailboxes have been synced from the total four in the batch. If you want to check it in detail, click on the View details option. It shows that the migration has stuck, and you need a proper solution in the specific situation.

Resolving syncing issue

If you have faced such a problem earlier, then you may be aware of the struggle to complete the migration. But here is a solution that you can follow and resume a stuck migration request.

Read Also : How Small Organizations Can Migrate Exchange Mailboxes to Office 365?

First, you should know the actual status of the migration by running the following command –

After it shows the status as Syncing, then OK. But if it shows the status as Queued for a long time, you need to troubleshoot the problem.

1. There is a possibility that the Exchange Server does not have ‘ContentSubmitters’ Security Group, which is necessary for placing the data. So, you need to create it in the Active Directory by following the upcoming steps
   • In Active Directory, right-click on the folder where you want to create the security group, click New, and then choose Group.
   • Provide the name ‘ContentSubmitters’ and select the Group Type as ‘Security.’
   • In the Active Directory, go to the View tab and check the Advanced Features.
   • Now go to the ContentSubmitters group, right-click and select Properties. Here, under the Security tab, see if the Administrators Group has the Full Control option checked. Check it and click OK.
   • Click the Add button, and input the name ‘Network Service,’ . Then, click OK.
   • Provide Full control to the newly created group Network Service.
   • Finally, restart the two Exchange Services – Microsoft Exchange Search and Microsoft Exchange Search Host Controller.

   Now, go to Exchange Management Shell and run the same command –

   Get-MoveRequest | Get-MoveRequestStatistics

   Now the status of the migration batch should be changed to Syncing or any other stage of migration.

2. If the migration status shows ‘StalledDuetoCI,’ then it is an issue you need to rectify.CI means Content Indexing, and you must turn it off for the respective mailbox database until the migration is complete.To get the complete name of the database, go to Exchange Admin Center and check the databases tab. Here, selects the database for which you are conducting the migration. Then go to database copies and get the complete name of the database.
   Now go to Exchange Management Shell and run the command –
   Set-MailboxDatabase “MailboxDatabase12345” -IndexEnabled:$False

   After running the command successfully, restart the Exchange services like Microsoft Exchange Search, Microsoft Exchange Search Host Controller, and Microsoft Exchange Mailbox Replication.

   Now recheck the status of the migration.

   Get-MoveRequest | Get-MoveRequestStatistics

   The status of the migration should change to Migrating or Syncing. But keep in mind that you need to enable content indexing after successfully completing the migration.

   Set-MailboxDatabase “MailboxDatabase12345” -IndexEnabled:$True

   Using the troubleshooting methods mentioned here, you can effectively resolve this issue.

3. While creating a new migration batch, you have different options available to start and complete the migration process. You will see the below options if you start migration:
   Manually start the Batch later.
   • Automatically Start the batch.
   • Start the batch automatically after the chosen time.

   Similar to the above process, completing the migration process also includes the below options:

   • Manual complete the batch.
   • Automatically complete the migration batch.
   • Complete the batch automatically after the chosen time.

   If you want to prevent from the above issue, it is recommended to choose the manual to complete the batch option. As this is a manual method, you need not wait to complete the syncing process.

Conclusion

It is now common for organizations to face unexpected issues during Exchange to Office 365 migrations. Shortage of physical resources, lack of expert supervision, unavailability of professional migration tools, etc., are some of the reasons for the issues that occur while migrating Exchange to Office 365. By using a professional tool like Kernel Office 365 Migration, many of these issues can be foreseen and avoided. Also, this tool helps in automating many migration tasks.