Migrating Hosted Exchange to Microsoft Exchange

This article details the procedure for migration from Microsoft Hosted Exchange email service to Microsoft Exchange.

Microsoft is ceasing the Microsoft Hosted Exchange service before the end of September 2025 and all email accounts setup on it must be backed up and moved to Microsoft Exchange. The main difference between the two deferent mail servers, is that Microsoft Hosted Exchange email is held on 3rd party servers whereas Microsoft Exchange email is held on Microsoft servers. Email stored on Microsoft Exchange servers tends to be more stable, simpler for end users to set up and have better spam and virus protection among many other features.

From the outside the process should be fairly simple – Backup the existing email onto a local PC, change the MX records on the DNS and restore the email onto the new mail server. In reality, there is a bit more to it!

Our current preferred transfer technique is;

• Agree a time and date to carry out the migration. Clients are advised how long the procedure may take – considering the total volume of email and the speed of their internet connection.
  
  
• Create the record sheet of all the email address, passwords, forwards, aliases etc.
  
  
• We also need to know what computers the email addresses are installed on. Some computers may have more than one email address which we will need to know about.
  
  
• Send a email to all clients to advise them on the procedures and point out where they can get support setting up Outlook, phones and webmail.
  
  
• We create all the new email addresses on Microsoft Exchange. and send your administrator teh list of passwords by TEXT or WhatsApp.
  
  
• Before we commit, we need to make sure that the email address to be migrated is backed up on the clients PC.
  
  We log into each of your PC’s to take a note of email settings and backup every one of your email email addresses into individual profiles.
  
  This is to ensure we have access, we can do a backup and to ensure that there is enough space on your system to hold all the needed backup(s).
  
  If we are not satisfied that all the email addresses data is backed up, we will abort the migration and re schedule the operation.
  
  
• At the agreed time and date, we carry out backup of all of the clients email on their PC by remote access. We then export it to .PST file which is to be used to restore the email data later. This date and time is best arranged well out of working hours to minimize the chances of losing any email.
  
  
• If we don’t host your domain, we will need the contact details for the person who does before we can proceed.
  
  
• Arrange with yourself and domain hosting support person (if it is not Megganet) the date and time for the migration.
  
  
• Once we are satisfied the email is backed up on the clients computers, the DNS records are updated for the Microsoft Exchange server. If we do not have access to the relevant DNS records ourselves, we will need to arrange a specific date and time for them to change with your current DNS hosting person. We will give them the Microsoft ID (in the form of a TXT record) to insert into the DNS for your domain. This is to confirm ownership. Once completed, we get Microsoft to confirm the settings change, then your domain name hosting person makes a second set of changes to your DNS records. From that point on, your email will be hosted on the Microsoft Exchange.
  
  
• Delete the outgoing email addresses(s) on your devices as it (they) will not be able to connect to the old system any more.
  
  If you levee an outgoing email address on your device then your device will continuously ask you for the password for it. This may be confusing as no password will work and the outgoing email address you should be deleting on your device has the same name as the new one.
  
  
• The new email accounts are set up with a new profile within Outlook on the client’s computer and the data manually restored either form the .PST on each of the clients computers. We carry this out by remotely accessing each PC individually.
  
  
• Each computer is checked manually to ensure the backed up email is being restored correctly.
  
  
• Please note that it may take some time to restore all your email so we recommend you leave your computer on overnight. Also, by default, Outlook may only make available the last 12 months emails. You can click a link within Outlook to see older email. This is to save space on your computer and speed up indexing and searching.
  
  
  

Whenever my current mail client (Outlook) ceases to be working using the old system, what do I do?

Firstly, use your webmail to check your email. It should be fine. Then contact Megganet to arrange for Outlook to be configured on your PC by remote desktop.

Microsoft Exchange webmail is available at https:\\outlook.com

Some large mailboxes may take some time to restore so not all email will be available straight away.

We have been migrating clients for a while now and the transfer has mostly been uneventful. In some cases, we have had to call off the migration and reschedule another date and time due to unforeseen circumstances.

Changing DNS records

When we migrate a clients email from Hosted Exchange to Microsoft Exchange, we will need to change the MX records, autodetect, CNAME, SPF and any others specified by the new provider.

Once an clients MX records change, access to the old mailboxes is terminated and email can only be retrieved from a backup so, please make sure you have an offline backup of all the clients email accounts. If you need access to email which you have not copied to the new service, we are charged £170 per email address by our Exchange Server provider, if they can recover the email.

Your email is backed up by us accessing all your PC’s and backing up each manually. We will also let the client know when the transfer is to complete. We use our remote access program to remotely change the settings on our clients computers, configure the mail client and start the data download.

Email address passwords

Your old email address passwords may not meet the current email address password policy and if so, we will need to change them. For security reasons, we don’t send passwords and what the password is for in the same message but we can send you the new passwords to your local administrator by TEXT message or WhatsApp.

What is the chances of losing email?

During the MX record propagation, there may be a chance someone may send you an email. If it is not delivered to either your old mail server or your new one, it would bounce back to the sender as undeliverable.

During the MX record propagation, there may be a chance someone may send you an email. If it is not delivered to either your old mail server or your new one, it would bounce back to the sender as undeliverable.

To eliminate this, we create the full list of email addresses on Microsoft Exchange server. Also, we normally carry out the switch over at a time when your domain hosting person is available (if it is not Megganet), your computers are on and it is as far out of hours as is reasonable.

What about contacts and calendar?

Your contacts and calendar are backed up and restored on your PC (by us by remote control). It would not be unusual to carry out an occasional backup anyway.

On rare occasions, the contacts and calendar restore as additional contacts and calendars and are not your defaults. You can manually move them into your new system or run with both systems.

Email addresses not provided by us or supported by us.

This procedure is only for email addresses we support and are hosted on the outgoing mail server. If you have email addresses not provided by us or supported by us, they will not be touched.

Signatures

Email signatures in Outlook do not transfer and will need to be re created in the new Outlook profile. The easiest way to do this is to copy the old signature from an email in your sent items and paste it into the signature location in the new profile.

Other customisations, not installed by ourselves, will need to be reinstalled by who ever installed them in the first place.

What about existing email accounts on my device?

Once your email server changes, existing email addresses on it will fail to work. You may be asked to enter a password for the outgoing email address. When the migration has completed, you should delete the outgoing email address on your device, and re add the email address as a new email address account. Please remember, we are unable to support mobile devices over the phone or by remote access.

External transfer

If the email is being transferred from Microsoft Hosted Exchange to Microsoft Exchange by a company other than us, they will be responsible for backing up the clients data and transferring it to Microsoft Exchange.

Mobile devices

We are unable to obtain remote access to any mobile devices however, you will get links to web sites which have end user instructions so you shouldn’t have too much difficulty.

The main issue with mobile devices is when end users do not delete the old email address or they delete the wrong email address.

You should delete the relevant email addresses before configuring it for the new system.

Microsoft have their own apps for Android and iOS which you can download form Outlook for iOS and Android | Microsoft 365

There are native iOS and Android apps available and instructions for these options will be in the pre update email we send to all current client email addresses.

Webmail

Your new mail will be available form Outlook.com. All you need for this webmail service is your email address and your email address password. The webmail service is designed to have the same look and feel of Desktop Outlook.

Alternative email service provider

If you wish to use a new email provider, we will submit the full list of email address and passwords needed to get access to the clients email. Note that for obvious reasons, we will not send a list of emails and their passwords in the same message. We will, however, send the list of email accounts by email and passwords by TXT or WhatsApp to the new provider.

Cost

We carry out all the necessary work on your computers remotely and although there is considerable time needed by ourselves, we will not be charging our clients for this. In the unlikely event, you are unable to get a mobile device to work with the new mail service, we will not charge if you bring it to Megganet for configuration. If you need an Engineer callout, we would charge our usual rates.

Further information

If you have any concerns at any stage of the process, please contact me and I will help you with any issues.

This page is to expire when all clients have been moved to Microsoft Exchange.