How to Move Mail from Network Solutions® to Microsoft 365

Important: To avoid data loss (for example, emails, contacts, calendar events, etc.), you must create a backup of your data before moving from Network Solutions® email to Microsoft 365.

Overview

Microsoft 365 is hosted on a different server than our email service. Moving an email service from Network Solutions® to Microsoft 365 will require the process detailed below.

• Step 1 - Back Up Your Data
• Step 2 - Unassign Mailboxes
• Step 3 - Create New Mailboxes in Microsoft 365
• Step 4 - Restore Email

Step 1 - Back Up Your Data

• Outlook Users on PC Using POP or IMAP
• Webmail Users
• Users of Other Email Clients

Outlook Users on PC Using POP or IMAP

To back up your data, follow the steps below:

1. Open the Outlook app on your desktop, then navigate to File.

   

2. Select Open & Export on the left menu.

3. Next, click on Import/Export.

4. Select Export to a file, then click the Next button.

5. Select Outlook Data File (.pst), then hit Next.

6. Select the account name you are backing up, not just the folder Inbox (for example, [email protected]).

   • Note the location of where you save this file and the name of the file you create (you can change this by clicking the button labeled Browse). Leave the option “Replace Duplicates…” selected and click Next.

7. Add a password to your Data File. This is optional.

Webmail Users

Email

Currently, Network Solutions® webmail does not have any means to export email messages. Please use a third-party email client like Microsoft Outlook to retain email messages.

Calendar

To export your Calendar data, please see Exporting Appointments in Managing Appointments in Cloud Mail.

Contacts

To export your email contacts, please see Exporting Contacts in Adding and Managing Contacts in Cloud Mail.

Users of Other Email Clients

Export your messages, calendars, contacts, and any other data you would like to keep using the instructions provided by your current service provider. Contact your provider for assistance.

 

Step 2 - Unassign Mailboxes

Note: This step will start your downtime. Once you unassign an account, all incoming emails to that account will be rejected, and the messages will bounce back to the sender.

1. Log in to your Network Solutions® account.
2. On the left menu, click Email.

3. Scroll down to the Current Emailboxes section, then check the box(es) of any mailboxes you are unassigning, then click Unassign at the bottom of the screen. You may need to repeat this process if you have multiple pages of accounts.

Note: All mailboxes under the domain name you plan to set up in Microsoft 365 must be unassigned.

4. Select Continue to complete the unassign process.

5. Log out of your Network Solutions® Account Manager.
6. Log back into your Account Manager to verify all the mailboxes for your domain name have been unassigned.

 

Step 3 - Create New Mailboxes in Microsoft 365

Once all your mailboxes are unassigned in your Network Solutions® Account Manager, you can create the mailboxes in Microsoft 365. Please see How to Create the First Microsoft 365 User Account for instructions.

Note: If your domain is hosted with Network Solutions®, your DNS records will be set up automatically. If your domain is not hosted with Network Solutions®, it will be necessary to change the records with your current DNS provider manually.

 

Step 4 - Restore Email

To restore your email once in the Microsoft 365, please follow the steps below:

1. Once logged into Outlook, click the File tab on the top left.

Note: If you do not find this option, please refer to Microsoft’s support article to know your Outlook version and get the correct import instructions.

2. Click on Open & Export, then select Import/Export. The Import/Export wizard opens.

3. Choose Import from another program or file, then click the Next button.
4. Select Outlook Data File (.pst), then click Next.
5. Click the Browse button, then select the .pst file to import. Under Options, choose how you want to deal with their emails and contacts. Then, click Next.

6. If the .pst file is password protected, you must enter the password, then click the OK button.
7. Select Import items into the same folder, then select a mailbox. Doing so will import the data into the folder you select.
8. Click Finish.

Outlook will begin importing the contents of the .pst file automatically.

Note: If you only want to retrieve a few emails or contacts from the file, you can open your Outlook Data File, then drag and drop the emails or contacts from the file to their existing Outlook folders.