How to Import Outlook Calendar to Office 365 – Four Ways to Migrate

If you want to import Outlook Calendar to Office 365, this guide is for you. It explains why it’s crucial to perform this task to access data safely. It outlines four methods—three manual and one automated. Furthermore, it also sheds light on the challenges associated with manual approaches, especially for handling larger data sets.

Calendars play a crucial part in day-to-day business communication. They hold the schedule of important events and meetings. And, what would be better if you could access and manage your schedule from anywhere and on any device? So, if you are an Outlook user then it’s about time you should import your calendar data to Office 365 to get all the benefits of the cloud platform. But, you may ask, how to Import Outlook Calendar to Office 365?

Well, this question bothers most Office 365 users. Let’s have a look at the below user query.

Just like the above user, many users are facing similar issues while importing their mailbox data to Office 365. And, don’t know about the most suitable method yet.

Before discussing the solutions for importing Outlook Calendars, let’s first understand different scenarios for importing the same to Exchange Online.

Why there is a Need to Import Outlook Calendars to Office 365?

First of all, calendars are stored in PST files. And, these files are fragile and can easily get corrupted if left unused for days. So, to keep your important data safe, the only way out is to import the Outlook files to Office 365.

On the other hand, let’s understand a situation through an example. Suppose, an organization has backed up all the calendar data in PST format on the desktop. Now, there arises a requirement for those sent items for investigation purposes. So, in this case, to open the important files, it becomes necessary to import PST to Office 365.

Hence, it’s better to transfer Outlook(.pst files) to Office 365 beforehand to avoid trouble.

Now, let’s have an in-depth discussion on the four different ways to import calendar files that are in PST format.

4 Different Ways to Import Outlook Folders to Office 365

These 4 methods consist of 3 manual approaches and 1 automated approach.

Manual Methods

• Import/Export Wizard
• Drive Shipping Method
• Network Upload Method

Automated Method

• Using Professional Tool

Having said that manual methods come with their own set of limitations. This is why, to avoid the limitations, IT admins opt for the automated method. Besides, this method has various advantages that help in executing a smooth and sound import process.

However, let’s discuss the manual methods first and then move toward the automated methods.

Import Outlook Calendars to Office 365 Manually

1. If you have a few PST files that you want to import to Office 365, then you can use the Import/Export wizard. It is a native method supported by Microsoft. Here, you need to configure your Outlook account then you can follow the below steps.

• Open MS Outlook, go to the File tab, and click on Open & Export>>Import/Export
• In the next window, select the file type i.e. Outlook Data File(.pst), and click on ‘Next’
• Then, select the desired PST file path that you want to import by clicking on the Browse button.
• Next, tick on the Include subfolders to import the entire file.
• At last, provide your Office 365 ID and click on Finish

However, this method is not suitable for users who want to import a huge number of events that are in the form of PST files.

2. You can go for the Drive Shipping Method for importing PST files in bulk. But, you have to pay $2/GB of data to be imported.

Basically, in this method, you need to copy the PST files to a hard drive and then physically send them to Microsoft. After receiving the hard drive the Microsoft representative will transfer them to your Office 365 account.

However, this facility is available in limited countries. Above all, you can send a maximum of 10 drives at a time.

Hence, you can say, this method is not convenient and cost-effective at all if you have data in terms of TB.

3. Next, comes the Network Upload Method. This is a technical approach that uses PowerShell scripting language. Hence, before attempting this method, you must make sure that you have expertise in the language. Otherwise, you may end up with an unsatisfied result just like the user(that we’ve discussed in the beginning). Or, in the worst case, your data may get corrupted.

So, it seems like manual methods can not be considered a one-stop solution for importing data.

But, fortunately, you have an automated method that can mitigate almost all the challenges of manual methods.

Let’s have a look at the same.

Effortlessly Import Outlook Folders to Office 365 Using Professional Tool

Not every individual/organization has the same requirements when it comes to importing documents to Office 365.

However, the Outlook to Office 365 Migration Tool takes care of the unique needs of the users and fulfills the same.

Download Tool Purchase Now

Such as,

• Sometimes, users wish to import multiple local files to Microsoft 365, and on the other hand, some users want to migrate only selective data. And, with the software, users can execute either of the cases.
• In some cases, users don’t want to import the Deleted or Sent items to Office 365. Luckily, the ‘Exclude Deleted or Sent Item Folder’ option is there for the same.
• If a user wants to bring in a particular folder to Office 365 then it is certainly possible with the ‘Include Folder’ option.

Other than the above, the import tool:

• Can be easily used by any user as it doesn’t involve any PowerShell scripting language.
• Is accessible in any part of the globe.
• Provides an option to perform an Incremental import i.e. if the user has used this tool at least once to import the PST files then in the next attempt, it will only migrate the new items. That means no chance of duplicate files.
• Allows users to import their PST files to a shared mailbox in Office 365.
• Can easily move the contacts, calendars & tasks along with the emails.

Detailed Steps to Import Outlook Calendar to Office 365

• Step 1- First, download and install the software and proceed with the steps which are mentioned below.
• Step 2- Choose Outlook as the Source and Office 365 as the Destination.
• Step 3- Select the items from the workload section and apply the Date filter as per the requirement.
• Step 4- Now in the source screen, choose the location of the PST file, validate it, and Next.
• Step 5- Enter the Admin Email and Application ID in the Destination section, validate it, and Next.
• Step 6- Now it’s time to add the users to the tool using several options
  Fetch Users – Automatically fetch the users from the Source.
  Import Users – Import all the users using the CSV file.
  Download Template – Download a sample CSV file to add the users.
• Step 7- After the successful validation of the users, import the calendar to Outlook 365 by clicking on the Start Import button.

Conclusion

As you can see, there are many ways to import Outlook Calendar to Office 365. However, the manual approaches are somewhat challenging and not suitable for all types of users. Hence, this write-up has explained a one-stop solution method at the end that can be used by both naive and technically sound users.