Merge a backup IMAP with production Exchange mailbox.... or how to solve a sync issue

Iron Contributor

About a month ago I did a migration of 3 users and one shared mailbox from IMAP (at their webhost) to Exchange Online. To Migrate the users mailboxes I used the IMAP connection to import their old mail to their new mailboxes.

 

The shared mailbox however, I decided to open one users Outlook, connect both the shared inbox and the old IMAP mailbox and just move all mail and folders from one to the other. Outlook will sync those back to Exchange.... all the other users will see the mail and folder.... everyone lives happily ever after....

 

Ofcourse not... so the users account I used to move the mail is not really syncing things back and the other users (and webmail) doesn't have those items.

 

How to solve this…. is there a way that I can get the Outlook to sync items?

 

Or... should I start al over? I have a back-up of the old mailbox, one month old. I could:

1. Create a new shared mailbox (but how do I get it to use the right exchange identity properties)

2. Move the emailadres to the new mailbox

3. Import the back-up in the new mailbox via the PST import service

4. Somehow get the new items from the old shared mailbox (from the last month) into the new mailbox, without forgetting items and duplicating them.

 

What way could I do this. Is Exchange smart enough to compare mail items on more then message ID... like, subject, size, etc. Or are Message ID's from my IMAP export the same as Items I move from the old exchange mailbox to the new one..... 

 

Any suggestion would be very welcome….

2 Replies

No suggestions? :(

 

(and I don't know if there is another way to bring this topic to attention, so forgive me for doing it this way)

@Michiel van den BroekTurns out I just have to wait a long time. Checked with my customer and all her emails were the same as in the webmail. So it was synced. Now I have to go to the other employee to see if she sees the mails.