Lost my mind! How to move my desktop Outlook 2016 PST folder and contents to Office 365

Question

Look for some help. I have been at this for over 20 HOURS! I have over 15K emails covering 15 emails accounts, on my desktop Outlook 2016.

I signed up for Office 365 (mistake?). The sole purpose was to access my emails (old and new) from anywhere on any device.

I cannot find a single valid DIY on how to move my exisit emails over to Office 365. Does this not exist? I see some paid software that allows for this.

Any real tangible help would be appreciated. Thank you.

darrellaas · Answer

This is the support article, showing you how to connect your 15 email accounts to Outlook.com. https://support.office.com/en-us/article/add-your-other-email-accounts-to-outlook-com-c5224df4-5885-4e79-91ba-523aa743f0ba
You might need to&nbsp;manually set up the account (server) settings for each. That's when you start using POP or IMAP incoming server settings for each of your 15 accounts.&nbsp;&nbsp;

darrellaas · Answer

Hi Lee. Do you know much about how you connect to each of your email accounts?
Do these words sound familiar? POP, SMTP, IMAP? Do you download your email to your pc but also leave a copy online in your email accounts? If you download your email, it's stored in a file called a Personal Archive (a .PST file.) This is one guide you can follow to import your downloaded email from a .PST file to your Office 365 mailbox. https://support.office.com/en-us/article/import-email-contacts-and-calendar-from-an-outlook-pst-file-431a8e9a-f99f-4d5f-ae48-ded54b3440ac

If you still plan to keep each of your 15 email accounts, you might be able to connect them into one mailbox in Office 365. This next support article shows you how to connect an email account from a different provider, to your Office 365 mailbox. https://support.office.com/en-us/article/connect-email-accounts-in-outlook-on-the-web-office-365-d7012ff0-924f-4f78-8aca-c3912d886c4d

Try those two articles. If it doesn't fit your situation, Meetup the conversation going on this thread.

lee dye · Answer

Thank you Darrell, I suppose I should have elaborated further. I do have a PST file, I have no idea what to do with it. My IT guy at works simple says take my Outlook pst file and import it into Office 365. There is no option. When I go into Office 365 and choose Outlook there is no such import ability.

This pst file contains all of the information from my Outlook desktop account including 15 email accounts, email, calendar, etc. These are of course downloaded on there.

I gather from your answer that Microsoft does not support this.

I will look into canceling my Office 365 subscription and just install Outlook onto all of my devices. I figured Microsoft was a little more advanced that this.

Thanks,

darrellaas · Answer

Hi Lee. Microsoft does support your scenario. It's just not a user friendly way to achieve. What Office 365 subscription are you using? Is it just the desktop software or does it include a mailbox too? (Business or Enterprise subscription.)Are you using Outlook on your desktop (eg Outlook 2016) to download your email? You can use the Import feature. You just need to know where the PST files are and follow the steps. Make sure you have connected to your new Office 365 mailbox first. Select that mailbox before you try to import from the PST files.

darrellaas · Answer

When you wrote "There is no option. When I go into Office 365 and choose Outlook there is no such import ability." it sounds like you're using Outlook on the web.

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Lost my mind! How to move my desktop Outlook 2016 PST folder and contents to Office 365

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