Moving Exchange 2010 Public Folders to Exchange Online

Help! My users are still using public folders on Exchange 2010!

Microsoft Exchange Public Folders have long been an indispensable way to share information among users and store information within an organization. Now that Exchange 2010 is deprecated, however, enterprises must consider which options make the most sense for them – moving the folders to an upgraded on-premises version of Exchange or Office 365/Exchange Online.
With many companies transitioning to Exchange Online, let’s explore the technical challenges involved with migrating from Exchange 2010 to Exchange Online as well as possible solutions that might mitigate these hurdles.

Prior to any migration taking place, a pre-migration planning stage is crucial to assess the content and structure of public folders, identifying any potential issues that could arise during migration. Areas to review include:

• Security of existing folders
• Sizing of existing folders, cleaning up or removing old data
• Archiving, retiring old public folders
• Cost, IT involvement and third-party licenses, if chosen

Additionally, it’s important to determine the required permissions and access rights for users to access public folders in Exchange Online, which may involve reconfiguring these settings before starting the migration process.

Once pre-migration planning has been completed, migration can start and, like any process, issues may arise – not only with Exchange 2010 itself but with any clients upgrading to Exchange Online as well.

Selecting Migration Tools

Selecting an effective migration tool for your enterprise is of utmost importance. Microsoft provides public folder migration scripts as a starting point; I've found them effective; however, for more complex moves utilizing third party tools like Bittitan or Skykick has proven more manageable. The utilization of third-party tools not only facilitates scheduling of migrations but also enables more efficient detection and resolution of migration errors. Moreover, the tools are fully compatible with the migration API, which considerably enhances the level of detail in the error logs, thereby significantly easing the troubleshooting process.

Deprecating Basic Authentication

Microsoft has recently deprecated basic authentication in Office 365 and Exchange Online, making the migration of legacy Public Folders challenging. Recently, in collaboration with Microsoft, we were able to get Microsoft to approve a policy exception allowing on-premises basic authentication access for moving folders.

If moving legacy Exchange 2010 to Exchange Online, Microsoft may not approve of a policy exception. You may have to work with either Microsoft to move your public folders to Exchange Online or with a third-party provider to bypass the Basic Authentication issues presented by Exchange 2010. This needs to be investigated and planned for before any migration can take place.

Large Public Folders Synchronization

Migrating large amounts of data to Exchange Online can put undue strain on your network bandwidth, leading to connectivity and bandwidth issues during migration. For optimal results, we advise performing migration during off-peak hours when network bandwidth availability is sufficient, scheduling migration jobs during off-peak hours when it will impact your users the least.

Synchronization of Large Public Folders and Related Metadata

Migrating large public folders may take significant time and can be particularly complex if they contain associated metadata like calendar appointments or tasks. To address this challenge, consider how you organize the migration during your pre-migration planning. Try incremental migration methods and breaking large folders down into smaller chunks. This will provide an easier migration experience.

Permissions and Access Control Management

As mentioned in pre-migration planning, simplifying permissions and access control management where possible will be helpful as migrating without causing disruption to users can be an intricate process if there are many users and groups requiring different levels of access. Therefore, it is vital to plan carefully to maintain all permissions during migration.

Resolution of Conflicts and Errors during Migration

While migrating data between folders, you may run into conflicts or errors that prevent successful migration of public folder data. Therefore, it’s crucial you closely monitor migration processes and output logs to address any conflicts or errors.

Migration Delta Synchronization

If you are not prepared to fully sunset Exchange 2010 after your migration is complete, be sure all the data remains synchronized between Exchange Online and any remaining Exchange 2010 servers. This may prove challenging if your folder structures contain complex folder structures with large volumes of information requiring updating.

Whether using Microsoft’s solution with PowerShell or a third-party application, each can be used to keep a delta synchronization in place. A delta synch only adds in new data to the migration since the first migration – and is much less stressful than doing a full migration.

Leverage pre-migration planning to proactively identify and circumvent potential contingencies, including unresolved server vulnerabilities, faulty porting protocols, and PowerShell modifications. Not all the specifications constitute official prerequisites, as specified by Microsoft, for the transfer of public folder data.

Each migration procedure entails a host of obstacles that necessitate strict attention. Therefore, it is highly recommended that a test migration be executed after the establishment of the requisite environments. This preliminary migration would help to pinpoint and fix any issues that may arise before the actual migration takes place.

Important: Be certain you use the correct version of PowerShell modules and other patches; only following their respective module numbers is surefire way of success in migration.

Once a migration is complete, several post-migration tasks should be carried out including verifying data integrity and consistency; reconfiguring clients for access to Exchange Online public folders; decommissioning any remaining Exchange 2010 public folders; as well as documenting any remediation steps that were required to resolve errors encountered during migration.

Migrating from on-premises Exchange can make reconfiguring client access to Exchange Online Public Folders an intimidating challenge in hybrid environments, as it requires moving configuration files locally while making sure users are configured to use these new public folders properly. Run the below PowerShell command.

Set-OrganizationConfig -RemotePublicFolderMailboxes $Null -PublicFoldersEnabled Local

After you run this command, it may take 15 to 30 minutes for changes to take effect and Microsoft Outlook might prompt users to restart Outlook multiple times before taking effect.

If this command does not work as expected, you may need to reach out to Microsoft and request they run back-end jobs to sync your users to Exchange Public Folders.

Migrating public folders from Exchange 2010 to Exchange Online can be a difficult process, but with proper planning and execution it can be accomplished successfully. To ensure success it's essential to identify and address potential challenges as early as possible; use appropriate PowerShell scripts and migration tools; perform post-migration checks to make sure the transition was a smooth experience; as well as conduct any required post-migration tasks to ensure an uncomplicated transition process.

Migrating public folders from Exchange 2010 to Exchange Online can be a difficult process, but with proper planning and execution it can be accomplished successfully. To ensure success it's essential to identify and address potential challenges as early as possible; use appropriate PowerShell scripts and migration tools; perform post-migration checks to make sure the transition was a smooth experience; as well as conduct any required post-migration tasks to ensure an uncomplicated transition process.