Move Emails from POP3 Account to Microsoft 365: Admin Guide to Migrate Emails, Folders & Mailbox Data

What Are POP3 Accounts, and Why Were They Used?

POP stands for “Post Office Protocol.” It’s a standard email protocol used by webmail (Gmail, Outlook, etc.) and mail apps (Microsoft Outlook, Thunderbird, Apple Mail, etc.). Email clients such as Outlook use POP3 accounts to access your mail server and download all mail locally on the system. In the past, POP3 accounts were mainstream, as they offered features that included network conservation, maximum data privacy, simplified backup, etc. Below, we discuss why they were a popular choice for accessing the mail server.

How to Set Up POP3 Account in Microsoft 365?

As we discussed, POP3 accounts were a great choice in the past because of their privacy focus and network conservation. They were also the default option for users to access their mail server. Now, we will see how to set up your POP3 account in Microsoft Outlook.

1. Open Microsoft Outlook on your system.
2. Navigate to File → Settings → Accounts.
3. Select Accounts, and on the right panel, click on Add account.
4. Enter your personal or company email address and click Continue.
5. When the password prompt appears, click on “Advanced setup” under the prompt.
6. Then, select the POP option; after that, enter all your credentials and continue.

Some Features of POP3 Accounts

Reasons why POP3 accounts were mainstream in earlier days.

• Privacy reasons: POP3 accounts provided 2 types of encryption. For non-standard encryption, it uses port 110, and port 995 is used for a secure SSL/TLS encrypted connection.
• One-way download: After connecting to mail servers, POP3 accounts download all mail to local storage on the device.
• Server cleanup: Mail gets deleted from the mail server after it gets downloaded to a local storage system.
• Offline access: Downloaded mail is stored on a local system, so accessing it does not require an internet connection.

How to Move Emails from POP3 Account to Microsoft 365

To move your emails from a POP3 account to Microsoft Office 365, there are both a native method and a dedicated tool. Users can go through both methods and choose which method to follow, which suits them best.
1) Native Method

2) Professional Tool

Native Method to Migrate POP3 Email to Office 365

The native method is a preferable choice if the user wants to migrate on a small scale.

Step 1: Exporting PST files

1. Open Microsoft Outlook on your computer.
2. Navigate to File → Open & Export → Export.
3. Under Export, click on Get Started.
4. On the next screen, browse to your PST file.
5. Then save the PST to the desired location.

Step 2: Connect to Microsoft 365.

1. Open Microsoft Outlook again.
2. Navigate to File → Settings → Accounts.
3. In the right panel, click Add account.
4. Now, log in to your Microsoft 365 account.

Step 3: Importing PST files

1. Navigate again to File → Open & Export → Import.
2. In the right panel, click Get Started.
3. Then, select your exported PST file.
4. After that, select your Office 365 mailbox as the destination.
5. Click Next, and your import will start.

Professional Tool to Transfer Emails from POP3 Account to Microsoft 365

From above, we learned that the manual method is not suitable for bulk migration. Organizations and users with larger amounts of workload depend on dedicated tools. In such scenarios, IMAP Backup Tool helps users with a simple GUI for migration and several features. Features include folder mapping, preserving folder hierarchy, duplicate handling, facility to stop migration mid-process. Now, we will discuss what more the tool can provide.

Key Features of Aryson IMAP Backup Tool

Below are some great features provided to users to transfer emails from POP3 account to Microsoft 365

1. Duplicate detection: Users can remove duplicates on the basis of subject, from, body, cc, and to.
2. Multiple filter options: Filters include custom folder name, skipping attachments, etc.
3. Skipping Migrated Files: It has an option to skip previously migrated files to reduce the chances of redundancy.
4. Date Filter: You can choose a start date and end date when applying filters to migrate workloads within that range.
5. Advanced options: Users can exclude empty folders and deleted emails, fetch emails without attachments, etc.
6. Free up server space: it provides an option to enable server cleanup after migration.
7. Attachments: users can also use their email attachments separately and save them in a custom folder.

Steps to Migrate POP3 Email to Office 365

1. Open and install the Aryson IMAP Backup Tool, click the Open in Browser option.
2. Select the “IMAP/POP3 Migration” option under Source.
3. Choose the POP3 option, then log in to your POP3 account.
4. Now, choose the POP3 server and port accordingly and click on “Test Connection.”
5. After that, click Continue, and tick the Inbox option, then click Continue to filter.
6. Choose “Office 365” from the dropdown and connect your Microsoft account.
7. Now, apply filters as required and click Continue.

Watch the Complete Migration Video

Overall Difference Between Native Method and a Professional Tool

Here we look at the main differences between both methods and choose a suitable method to move emails from POP3 account to Microsoft 365

Conclusion

In earlier times, POP3 accounts were mainly used, but their usage has decreased. There were several limitations, such as no cross-sync, less availability of sharing messages, a one-sided download option, etc. Therefore, users prefer to move emails from POP3 account to Microsoft 365 while preserving the folder structure. For this, users can either follow a manual method or use a dedicated tool, but the manual method becomes inefficient for bulk migration. To address this, the IMAP Migration Tool is the recommended choice. It has a straightforward GUI and versatile features, including duplicate handling, date filters, skipping attachments, etc.

Frequently Asked Questions

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