Q: How do I migrate from/to MS365 / Office365 after they disabled IMAP in October 2022?
A: Here is how to do this
First of all, Microsoft 365 did not disable IMAP in their email service. What they did is to limit access to their own devices/apps. All other programs/apps (like e.g Thunderbird, Apple Mail) are considered 'unsafe' now. As you may know, using IMAP is the Basic Requirement for our Migration Service.
But luckily, there is a way to access MS365 / Office365 via IMAP with these "unsafe" Clients. This works for the free services like hotmail or outlook.com, but also for the paid plans in O365.
This new method is called "App passwords". For this to work, you need to activate 2-step signin - then you can create a app password that you can use for one specific device or service. In other words, you create a app password which you will use instead of your regular password if you want to use the IMAP functionality. This is what you need to do:
- Log in to outlook.com/MS365/O365 using your credentials for your account
- Go to your account settings
- Now activate '2 Step Verification' - go through all steps
- It doesn't matter which method you choose - chose the one that suits you best (Phone call, text message, 2nd email ...)
- When done, you will be able to click the new menu item 'App Passwords'
- Now create a new App Password by clicking the respective Menu item in the settings. You will now see the App Password - copy this Password and store it in a safe place. Use this Password for the migration.
- Now go to your migration module, enter you credentials , but use the App Password you just created instead of your 'regular' Password
- The Migration will now start - wait until finished. You can see Status on the status page.
- If you have chosen to do a resync, wait until it has also finished. Now, the Migration is completely finished.
- For security reasons, you should now revoke/delete the App Password in your Microsoft Account.
- Optionally, you can also deactivate the 2 Step Verification again.
Please Note:
- In the commercial Version of O365, this Meethod only works with accounts that are not Administrator Accounts. This is intended by Microsoft for security reasons.
- For this method, all known limitatons from/to O365/MS365/outlook.com etc apply.
- External Servers are beyond our control, especially their reaction time, transmission speed and processing speed.
- Furthermore, Limits of external Servers are also beyond our control, especially storage space, speed and connection limits.
Please note, we cannot provide support for external Services. If you need help with creating a App Password as suggested above, please contact gmail support.
Further helpful resources:
https://support.microsoft.com/de-de/account-billing/aktivieren-der-zweistufigen-%C3%BCberpr%C3%BCfung-f%C3%BCr-ihr-microsoft-konto-c7910146-672f-01e9-50a0-93b4585e7eb4
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/account-billing/how-to-use-two-step-verification-with-your-microsoft-account-c7910146-672f-01e9-50a0-93b4585e7eb4
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/account-billing/turning-two-step-verification-on-or-off-for-your-microsoft-account-b1a56fc2-caf3-a5a1-f7e3-4309e99987ca