Forum Discussion
IMAP Question
I manage staff access for a Church. We have IMAP email hosted with our website hosting provider. Not everyone who has email through us needs Microsoft 365. Is there a way to have a hybrid solution where those who don't need a Microsoft 365 license can maintain IMAP email through our hosting provider but also allow those on staff who have a Microsoft 365 license to take advantage of Exchange through O365?
- Hey there! I assume there is only one domain in play here? If that's the answer then the short answer is no, since a domain points to a single email system to handle the mailflow. IT would perhapse be possible to achieve what you want with some DNS magic, but I would highly not recommend it.
Also, IMAP is a very old protocol, and services like M365 will stop supporting these durint October/November, so even If you got this scenario to work there is no guarantee that it wouldn't be issues in October November.
I would instead want to ask you, what's the reason not to move all users to M365 and Exchange Online? Even if the users that dont need the full M365 experience everyone can benefit from Exchange Online and its protection, and only use the web email interface and phone app if need be.
Looking forward to your reply! 🙂
Kind Regards
Oliwer Sundgrenoliwer_sundgren Thanks for your reply. That's what I thought as well. My main reason is that casual email users don't need Microsoft Office and I don't really want to pay twice since we are already paying the web hosting company and email is included. Lastly is there a way to create email alias' as well. Example, we have an email address for email address removed for privacy reasons that is an alias that automatically sends to multiple people. Is there a way to do that in Microsoft 365?
- Hello again! No worries at all 🙂
I understand, paying twice is always sad. There are ways to achieve having mailboxes in Microsoft 365 and another system for the same domain, however it is a bit tricky to set up if the other system is not Exchange Server 😉 So what you want to do is possible, but will require time and help from outside of this forum since there is a lot to get into.
Regarding your other question, If I understand you correctly you want to have an email address, and when you send emails to this address it should get sent to multiple users, is that correct?
In that case, what you want to set up is a "Distribution list" in Microsoft 365 (Exchange Online)
That is a group with an email address attached to it, and when you send an email to it all the members in the group will get the email.
Let me know if that answers your question or if I can assist further 🙂
cheers!
Oliwer
