PST files are a common file format used by Microsoft Outlook, which is the email client that comes with Office 365. You can’t open and edit PSTs directly in Excel or Word. One way to import a PST into your office 365 account is using File Explorer, but you’ll need to complete some steps before it’s possible.
The “how to open pst file in outlook 365” is a question that is asked quite often. In this article, I will show you how you can import an Outlook PST file into Office 365.
Importing PST data to Office 365 is one of the duties that an administrator can never avoid while managing mail systems like Exchange Online. There are many options for importing PST files into Office 365.
Importing PST Files using the Outlook Import Wizard is one option. When you just need to upload a limited number of PST files or if Outlook users will import the PST files themselves, this is the best option.
Another option is drive shipping, which entails saving PST data on a secure hard drive and delivering the hard drive to one of Microsoft’s physical sites. The contents of the hard disk are then uploaded to an Azure Storage location, allowing you to build a PST import task.
Finally, if your location allows it, you may utilize the network upload option. As the name indicates, the network upload option entails uploading PST files from your business network to an Azure Storage location via the internet.
In this post, you’ll discover how to import a PST in Office 365 utilizing the network upload option, which is one of Microsoft’s import services.
PST Import Requirements in Office 365
This post will be written in a How-To format. These are the criteria that must be met if you wish to follow along with the examples.
- A user of Office 365. You may get an Office 365 Trial if you don’t have it yet or if you wish to set up a test tenancy.
- In Exchange Online, an Office 365 admin account has the Mailbox Import Export role assigned. You may PST Files Import into Office 365 mailboxes using this role.
- An Exchange Online admin account with at least the Mail Recipients role set. This position is automatically assigned to the Organization Management and Recipient Management groups.
- One or more Office 365 mailboxes. When importing the Outlook Data Files, this Office 365 mailbox will be the destination.
- There must be at least one PST file. When importing data to Office 365, the items’ Outlook data file PST will be read. If you don’t already have it, follow this link to learn how to make a PST file.
- If you wish to use the GUI to see the uploaded PST files, you’ll need to install the Azure Storage Explorer program.
- It is necessary to install the Azure AzCopy utility. This link will take you to a page where you may download the relevant version of AzCopy.
It’s important to note that the network upload option only works with the version of AzCopy from this URL. Any other AzCopy versions will not function.
Obtaining the SAS URL for Azure Storage
Assume you’ve previously prepared your PST files and are ready to upload them. However, before you can upload files, you must first decide where they will go. The upload destination in this scenario is an Azure storage location.
First, log in to the Office 365 Security & Compliance portal. Then, go to Information Governance —> Import —> PST Files Import.
PST Files Import
An overview of the quantity of data presently housed in your Office 365 organization will be shown to you in the form of a graph. To begin the construction of the PST import task, click the Job opening for an importer button beneath the graph. For reference, see the screenshot below.
Job opening for an importer
After clicking on the Job opening for an importer, you will be asked to enter the name of the job similar to the image below. Fill in the name of the job. In this example, the name is demo-import. Then, click Next.
Enter the import job’s name here.
Then, as seen in the figure below, you are provided with two possibilities. Choose the option to upload your information.. Then press the Next button.
Choose the option to upload your information.
When you get to the Import screen (seen below), click the Show network upload SAS URL option. As a result, the SAS URL for the Azure storage location where you may upload your PST file will be generated.
To see the network upload SAS URL, go here.
The SAS URL will be shown, as illustrated in the image below. To store this value, click the Copy to clipboard option and save it wherever you can find it later.
Copy the upload URL from the network.
You now have the SAS URL for the Azure storage location, which you can use using the AzCopy tool to upload to.
You already have the network upload destination in the form of an SAS URL at this point. You should also have the AzCopy utility installed if it is needed. You’re ready to start uploading PST files if you have the PST files available in an accessible place.
Launch the AzCopy software to begin uploading the PST files. There are two options for doing so.
You can either go to Start —> Microsoft Azure —> Microsoft Azure Storage AzCopy.
Azure Storage is a Microsoft service. Menu item AzCopy
Alternatively, run CMD and go to the directory where the AzCopy utility is located. C:Program Files (x86)Microsoft SDKsAzureAzCopy is the default location.
You’ll need to give the AzCopy tool certain settings. These are the possibilities:
- /Source:<Location of PST files> – the location where the PST files are stored as the source.
- /Dest:<SAS URL> – this is the SAS URL that you generated and copied in the previous section.
- /V:<Log file location> – this enables the verbose logging and specifies the path where to save the log file. This is needed so that if anything goes wrong, there will be logs to refer to later on.
- When utilizing AzCopy with the created network upload SAS URL, this is a mandatory parameter. This option does not need to be changed or given a value.
The following command will upload the PST files in C:PST. C:templog will be the location of the verbose log file.
Please notice that the source folder in this example only includes one PST file, june.pst, which is around 28MB in size.
AzCopy.exe /Source:”C:PST” /Dest:”https://a8c32f019edf48c4afad560.blob.core.windows.net/ingestiondata?sv=2015-04-05&sr=c&si=IngestionSasForAzCopy202004072358219110&sig=jyv%2FT%2F%2FgSryh1FiLsmzPKkAxVOOmuMxPofTmxVF82zU%3D&se=2020-05-08T14%3A54%3A51Z” /V:”C:templog” /Y
You should get something like this after executing the code at the command prompt, as seen in the picture below. The time it takes to upload PST files is determined on your network speed and the size of the files you’re transferring. The upload took just around 9 seconds in this case for a file that was roughly 28MB in size.
Uploading PST files to an Azure storage location using AzCopy
Viewing the PST Files Uploaded for Confirmation
After the upload procedure is complete, check that the PST files were uploaded to the correct location, which is an optional but recommended step. The Azure Storage Explorer may be used to look at the contents of an Azure storage location.
You may access Azure Storage Explorer from the Start Menu if you installed it as described in the Requirements section of this article.
Open the connect dialog box by clicking the open button., which is represented by the plug icon, once the Azure Storage Explorer is open.
Open the connect dialog box by clicking the open button.
Select User a shared access signature (SAS) URI when the Connect to Azure Storage dialog box appears. Then press the Next button.
Select Use an SAS URI (shared access signature).
Paste the SAS URI that was produced before into the URI box on the Attach using SAS URI page. There is no need to modify the value of the Display name box since it will be automatically filled in. Then press the Next button.
In the URI box, type the SAS URI.
The Connection Summary window appears, reminding you to only connect to sites you know and trust. However, since you know where the SAS URI originated from, you may disregard the warning and select Connect in this situation.
Connect by clicking the button.
The contents of the Azure storage location are shown when the connection is established. The PST file that was uploaded using the AzCopy utility is listed, as you can see in the image below.
The PST file that was uploaded is shown.
Creating the PST (Personal Storage Table) for Import
A PST (Personal Storage Table) is a CSV file that contains columns related to the PST import method. Each PST file to be imported is represented by a row in the mapping file. This implies that if you want to import two PST files, you’ll need to construct two rows, one for each PST file.
Only one PST file is imported into one Office 365 mailbox in this example. The mapping file is shown below as an example.
Exchange,,june.pst,[email protected],FALSE,/,,,, Workload,FilePath,Name,Mailbox,IsArchive,TargetRootFolder,ContentCodePage,SPFileContainer,SPManifestContainer,SPSiteUrl
Below is a picture of the CSV file when opened in Microsoft Excel for better reading.
PST (Personal Storage Table)
The snapshot above shows that there is just one row, which represents the single PST file that was uploaded. Also, please keep in mind that the top six columns are relevant for PST mapping out of all the columns.
- Workload – This column should always be set to Exchange.
- FilePath – If you didn’t select a sub-folder while using the AzCopy tool to upload the PST files, this field should be kept blank. Otherwise, the name of the sub-folder must be specified.
- The filename of the PST file is called name.
- Mailbox — This is the email address or GUID of the mailbox into which the PST file’s contents will be imported.
- Set this value to TRUE if you wish to import the PST data into the archive mailbox. Set the value of this column to FALSE if you want the PST to be imported into the main mailbox instead.
- TargetRootFolder – You must give the folder name here if you wish to import the contents of the PST file into a particular folder inside the target mailbox. Otherwise, use the forward-slash character “/” or leave this column blank.
Save the mapping file to your computer. with a CSV extension after you’re happy with it. The file is stored as C:TempPST Map.csv in this case.
Continuing to Create PST Import Jobs in Office 365
Now that you have the PST files uploaded to the Azure storage location and the PST (Personal Storage Table) prepared, you’re ready to resume the PST import job creation.
Return to the Import page where you previously created the SAS URL to begin building the PST import task. Check the I’m finished uploading my files and I have access to the mapping file check boxes this time. Then press the Next button.
Fill in the blanks in the two checks.
The Select the mapping file screen will appear next. When you click the Select mapping file button on this page, the Open dialog box will appear.
Select a mapping file by clicking on it.
Locate and select the PST (Personal Storage Table) you previously created. In this example, the PST (Personal Storage Table)name is C:tempPST_Map.csv. Once you’ve selected the PST (Personal Storage Table), click Open.
Choose the CSV file with the PST mapping.
You’ll be directed back to the screen where you may choose a mapping file. This time, the file name of the mapping file will be shown. You’ll also see a red letter prompting you to verify the CSV mapping file.
Validating the mapping file is necessary so that any problems in the entries may be fixed before proceeding with the PST import procedure. Make sure the Validate button is selected.
Validate should be selected.
If no issues were identified with the mapping file after selecting the Validate button, the result would look like the picture below. After that, click Save.
Save the mapping file to your computer.
After hitting Save, the PST import process will be done, and you will get a success status like the one below. You may close the window and return to the list of PST import tasks by clicking Close.
Import employment creation has been a success.
Filtering the Data and Finishing the PST Import Job (Optional)
You must wait for the job’s status to change to Analysis done at this point. After you’ve finished the analysis, click the Ready to Import to Office 365 link.
The job analysis for imports is finished.
Click the Import to Office 365 button after the details of the import operation have shown.
Begin the PST import process.
You have two choices on the following screen, titled Decide whether you want to filter your data before importing it.
- Yes, I’d want to filter it before importing — This option enables you to filter the things you wish to import from PST files. Filters may be applied to the items depending on attributes such as the item’s age or kind (i.e., email, calendar, contact).
- No, I want to import everything — If you choose this option, the task will import all items from the PST files. Messages are often migrated or mailboxes rehydrated using data from PST backups using this option.
The option to import everything will be chosen in this case. After you’ve made your choice, click Next.
For additional information on filtering things before importing PST data to Office 365, see Filter data when importing PST files to Office 365.
Choose to import everything.
The size of the data to be imported will then be shown. There isn’t much to do here besides press the Import data button.
Confirm that you want to import the data.
The import task has been successfully begun, as seen in the figure below. You’re also told to look at the Import page to see how far the import has progressed. To return to the Import page, click the Close button.
The PST import process has begun successfully.
Return to the Import page and keep an eye on the process. There was no “estimated time to finish” shown during the testing for this item. There was also no precise documentation of how long the import task took to finish. So, at this point, there’s almost nothing left to do except wait.
The import task is now complete, as you can see below. This means that the PST data has been completely imported into the Office 365 mailbox.
The status of the PST import task is being tracked.
Conclusion
You learnt how to utilize the network upload option to import a PST to an Office 365 mailbox in this post. You now know how to get the SAS URL, which is the Azure storage location used to transfer PST files using the AzCopy tool.
The network upload option is currently the sole free and officially supported way of mass PST import to Office 365.
In terms of scripting, the Office 365 Import PST is not yet completely automated. It is, nevertheless, preferable than having to import PST data one profile at a time using Outlook.
Additional Reading
The “import pst to exchange online” is a process that can be done in Office 365. The process of importing the PST file into Exchange Online will allow users to use their email from outside of the office.
Related Tags
- pst to office 365 migration tool free
- import pst to office 365 powershell
- import pst to outlook
- upload pst to office 365 without outlook
- office 365 pst import analysis in progress
