With the introduction of Exchange Online, users get the advanced features of Exchange Server without actually having an on-premises Exchange Server in their organization. The Exchange Online is available with the Microsoft 365 subscription plans of Business and Enterprise Editions. You can purchase it as a standalone application, but with Microsoft 365, it is integrated with other MS Office applications. One benefit of having a Microsoft 365 subscription is that you can subscribe to licenses as per the number of supposed users.

Why import OST to Office 365?

Having your Exchange mailbox data on a cloud platform like Office 365 has many advantages. Emails in Office 365 are universally accessible provided you have the net connectivity. So, many Exchange users like to keep a copy of their Exchange mailboxes on Office 365. To facilitate this easily, one can move their offline Outlook Data File (OST) to Office 365 accounts. And this can be done in many ways.

Let us know some causes which tend users to move their OST files to Office 365 environment.

Reasons to move from OST to Office 365

• Organizational shift owing to Office 365 advantages
• Exchange crash and need a reliable platform
• Avoid big Exchange maintenance downtime
• Quick access of data in safe environment after accidental deletion

How to import OST emails to Office 365?

There are no direct methods to migrate OST emails to Office 365. However, you can convert OST files to PST format, and then upload them to Office 365. Also, there are many third party tools to help you save OST emails directly in Office 365 accounts.

1. Convert OST file to PST format, and then upload to Office 365.
2. Import OST files directly in Office 365 using third-party tools.

Method 1: Upload to Office 365 after converting OST files to PST

It is an indirect method to export OST files to Office 365. First, convert OST files to PST format and then upload them to Office 365 accounts.

• Step 1: Convert the OST file into PST format.
• Step 2: Migrate the PST file to Office 365 environment.

Both these steps can be performed in different ways.

Step 1: Convert the OST file to PST format

There are four different ways to convert OST file to the PST format.

• Create a new PST file and copy OST items in it.
• Use the archive feature of MS Outlook.
• Use the Export feature of MS Outlook.
• Use third-party OST to PST conversion tool.

Create a new PST file and copy OST items

This method helps to move mailbox items to new PST file.

1. Start the Outlook Application from the Application menu. Click Open.
   
2. Click New Items, then go to More items present as the last option. Then choose Outlook Data File.
   
3. After creating a new PST file, you can move the data to the new data file folder. Choose the emails, right-click them, and choose Move. Then click Other Folder.
   
4. Choose the new data file folder and then click OK button.
   

Use the archive feature of MS Outlook

1. Start Outlook application and click the File option.
   
2. In the Cleanup Tools drop-down, click the Archive option.
   
3. Archive your mailbox content at a suitable location. Then click OK.
   

Use the Export feature of MS Outlook

1. Start Outlook and click the File option. Then choose the Open & Export option.
   
2. Click Import/Export.
   
3. Click Export to a file, and then click Next.
   
4. Choose Outlook Data File (.pst) and click Next.
   
5. Choose all the folders that you want to put in the PST file. Then click the Next option.
   
6. Give a location to the new PST file, then use the options to handle the duplicate items and click the Finish button.
   

Step 2: Migrate the PST file to Office 365 environment

After converting the OST file to PST, you can upload it to Office 365 in different ways.

• Upload to Office 365 using Azure AzCopy.
• Drive shipping to Microsoft.
• Use Third-party OST to Office 365 migrator tool.

Network upload using Azure AzCopy

You can directly upload the PST file to Office 365 using AzCopy.

1. Download and install Azure AzCopy and copy the SAS (Shared Access Signature) URL (the SAS URL will provide the necessary permission to migrate the PST file to Azure).
2. Upload the PST files to Office 365.
3. Create the PST mapping (CSV) file.
4. Create an import job in Office 365 to import PST file.
5. Filter the data and initiate the PST import job.

Because the Azure AzCopy is the method provided by the cloud platform of Microsoft that is separate from the Office 365, so you need to take some precautions before starting the upload process;

1. The user should have the Mailbox Import Export Role assigned by the Office 365 Administrator to run the process. Such Role is deactivated by default and any user or group does not have it. The Administrator can assign the role to the user or Organization Management Role group.
2. The network upload method will work only with the AzCopy tool. You cannot use the Azure Storage Explorer to directly upload the PST files.
3. The PST files should be present in the network-shared folder otherwise the tool will not be able to access the folder.
4. The upload method is not suitable for the large-sized PST files. The PST file should be not more than 20 GB in size.
5. It is possible to import the PST file to an inactive mailbox of the Office 365 account.
6. After importing the PST files, you should change the retention hold policies of the Office 365. Because there are chances that the incoming emails will be quite older and the system will remove them due to current retention policies.
7. The maximum message size is 35 MB that the tool can upload to Office 365.

Drive shipping PST files to Office 365

Drive shipping to Microsoft helps to import PST files to Office 365. Here, you just copy the PST files to a hard disk drive and send the drive to Microsoft. Microsoft will copy the data from the disk drive to the cloud.

Method 2: Import OST files directly to Office 365 using third-party tools

Importing OST files to Office 365 is not that easy. Novice and non-technical users find it a difficult task. That is why third-party tools are advised for direct OST file to Office 365 migration. Kernel Import OST to Office 365 is a useful tool for this.

How to import OST files to Office 365 easily?

Kernel Import OST to Office 365 imports OST files directly to Office 365 mailboxes. This is how you can do this:

1. Install Kernel Import OST to Office 365 tool and open it by double-clicking its icon. When you are on the home screen of the tool, add your OST file in the Add Source section and add Office 365 mailboxes in the Add Destination section.
   
2. Select your Office 365 mailboxes to map them with OST files that are to be imported; then, click Set Filter and Migrate.
   
3. Now, apply filters to OST data by criteria like Review PST Folders to Migrate, Date filter, Item Type Filter, Exclude Deleted folder, Exclude empty folders, etc. and then click I am OK, Start Migration.
   
4. When your OST items are successfully migrated to Office 365 mailboxes, you will get a summary of the process (to save the summary, click Save report to CSV).
   

Conclusion

Due to the complications of manual methods (first, convert the OST to PST files and then migrate it to Office 365), the professional tool of Kernel Import OST to Office 365 becomes an easier and simple answer. It has a simple interface to add the multiple Outlook data files and then migrate them directly to Office 365 account. There are multiple helpful features like CSV file support, source and destination account mapping, and advanced filters.