Migrate mailbox from Zimbra to Office 365 – Free Guide

Updated On - February 21, 2024 by Nasir Khan | Reading Time: 6 minutes

Zimbra is a widely used open-source and collaborative email solution among micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises. It’s cheap, easy, and flexible, making it a solid choice for organizing your inbox, to-do list, calendar, memos, and more. Businesses, however, are always on the lookout for better options, so they can switch to more convenient services as their requirements evolve. The migration from Zimbra to Office 365 is one such movement that has been gaining momentum. The benefits of Zimbra have been addressed; however, the platform is not without its drawbacks. Zimbra’s lack of advanced features makes it unsuitable for large corporations. For the same price, Office 365, for instance, is a better option because it integrates SharePoint, OneDrive, Teams, and Yammer. In contrast, Zimbra does not have these capabilities and has abandoned its desktop client. Now users are looking for a reliable way to migrate mailbox from Zimbra to Office 365.

Strategy to migrate mailbox from Zimbra to Office 365

Before making the switch to Office 365, careful preparation is essential. The risk of failure or lost data can be minimized by planning and preparing the source and target settings. We’ve compiled a checklist of things to think about before, during, and after the move.

1. Make sure all your current mailboxes, mail, and source data are backed up.
2. Count how many mailboxes you wish to move from Zimbra to Office 365 and how much data is included in those mailboxes.
3. Compile a list of all the Zimbra files and access rights you wish to export.
4. Build out Office 365 user accounts with mailboxes and licenses as needed.
5. Make sure you have sufficient bandwidth and network capacity to complete the migration.
6. Inform your stakeholders and end-users of the migration strategy.
7. Conduct a trial migration before making any major changes.

Tasks to complete before migrating Zimbra to Office 365

Manual migration strategy discussed here require the following preparation steps.

• Ensure you have administrative privileges on both the original and destination servers.
• The admin account is the authority to migrate mailboxes on behalf of all other users in the organization. Give this user full administrative access to Zimbra. Provide the Office 365 administrator with impersonation privileges and access to the Organization Management role group.
• Create a CSV file including all of your Zimbra users.
• Launch Zimbra’s Control Panel a. b. Use the drop-down menu next to “Accounts” to access your list of accounts c. In the box labeled “Domain,” enter the domain where the accounts are located. In the expanded Settings menu on the right, select “Download.”
• Set up Office 365 user accounts and distribute subscriptions
• Create and set up the Public folder mailboxes on the destination server before migrating to Office 365 Public folders.
• Similarly, you may enable Office 365 In-Place archive migration for mailboxes in the administration portal.
• You must add and validate the domain on Office 365 if you have a custom email domain from the source to which you wish to retain and receive emails.
• Set up Office 365 for massive message sending and receiving.

Two Simple Ways to migrate Zimbra mailboxes to Office 365 

Here are two ways to migrate mailbox from Zimbra to Office 365

1. Use the Archive method for migration
2. Utilize the Regain Zimbra to Outlook migration tool.

1st method: Use the archiving technique to transfer your data from Zimbra to Office 365

In this approach, the TGZ file is exported from the Zimbra client and then converted to a PST file. After that, use Azure AzCopy to transfer the PST file to Office 365.

A few factors must be remembered when employing this strategy. Transferring your PST files to AzCopy and importing your mailboxes can be complex and time-consuming if you don’t have the right guidance and support. You’ll need a third-party program to make the TGZ file usable in Outlook PST format.

You may also migrate your emails over IMAP by compiling a .csv file of the users you wish to migrate and then setting up a migration endpoint in the Exchange management console (EAC). Both methods can be challenging to implement and time-consuming to learn if you want to move a lot of data simultaneously. Therefore, we advise using Regain Software’s straightforward Zimbra migration procedure.

2nd method: Use Regain Zimbra to Office 365 Migration tool 

Regain software has specially developed Regain Zimbra to PST Converter tool to ease the migration process. The software is laced with several features which come in handy to make the process desired and enhanced. Below is the step-by-step process of the software pursuing which you can easily migrate mailbox from Zimbra to Office 365.

Free Download100% Secure Buy NowPrice: $69

Migrate mailbox from Zimbra to Office 365 in a few clicks

• Install and open the software in your system.
• Click on the Browse button from the ribbon bar.
• Click Add file and select Zimbra files to migrate into Office 365.
• Now from the ribbon bar, click Office 365 option.
• Provide Office 365 credentials and click on the Import Now button.
• Now all your Zimbra files will be migrated into Office 365 mailboxes.

So, it is a simple and a few clicks process to migrate mailbox from Zimbra to Office 365. Apart from its straightforward process, several features in the tool make the process desired and provide enhanced results. Some of its features are as follows:

Highlighted Features of the Regain Zimbra migration tool

• Offers various file formats to export Zimbra files: The software is design with keeping users’ needs at the center of the development process. We’ve provided several popular file formats, such as PST, EML, MSG, MBOX, HTML, etc., to convert TGZ files (Zimbra mailbox).
• Migration into Office 365 Mailbox: The software is mainly designe to migrate mailbox from Zimbra to Office 365. You just need to add your Zimbra files and make a few clicks to migrate Zimbra mailbox into Office 365.
• Migration into Office 365 Public folders and Archive mailbox:  Office 365 offers public folder and archive mailbox features, and probably every Zimbra users want to get these features. The regain software allows users to migrate mailbox from Zimbra to Office 365 public folders and archive mailboxes.
• No additional setup required: Regain Zimbra to Office 365 migration tool is a standalone utility, and you don’t need any other software or subscription to accomplish your task. Also, you don’t even need technical expertise to migrate mailboxes.
• 100% secured and trusted tool: Several Microsoft MVPs and Administrators have held Regain Zimbra migration tool in high regard. The tool doesn’t store any credentials and effectively keeps the folder hierarchy and data integrity during and after the migration.
• Preview Zimbra files before Migration: Everyone wants to know about the tool before migrating them to different locations. Regain Zimbra migration tool processes the added files and displays a preview of the data before the migration. This feature comes in handy to ensure data accuracy.
• Select/deselect unwanted folders: As mentioned above; the software displays a preview of the added files. Also, you can select/unselect unwanted folders from the migration process. Hence you can get desire results of the migration.
• Free Trial version: Regain software know there can be different migration scenarios, and by keeping this in mind, we offer a free version of the software. Using the trial version, you can check the tools, skills, and features before investing.

Conclusion

Office 365 has changed the way of communication and collaboration, and with its advanced features, it is ruling the niche. Nowadays, several users want to migrate mailbox from Zimbra to Office 365. After reading the blog, we hope you’ll accomplish the task. Before making any decision, make sure to try the free Zimbra migration tool by Regain Software.

Frequently Asked Questions

Ques1. I have Zimbra mailbox data saved in the TGZ file; will the same data be reflected in the Office 365 mailbox?
Ans. You get the same email properties and original folder hierarchy in the target using the Regain Zimbra to Office 365 Migration Tool (aka Zimbra Converter).

Ques2. What other targets does this tool offer other than Office 365?
Ans. Users can migrate TGZ files to Exchange Server and save them in PST, MBOX, EMLX, MSG, RTF, and PDF like other prominent file formats.

Ques3. What are the limitations of the free demo version of the Regain TGZ Converter?
Ans. The demo version allows migrating 30 items per folder as a trial. With the licensed version, there are no such restrictions. In working both are same.

Ques4. Is this professional utility from Regain Software compatible with Windows 11 Pro?
Ans. Yes, this utility is compatible with all Windows OS, including Windows 11 Pro. It is also capable of migrating in all Exchange versions.