Migrating Hotmail and business domain email accounts to Office 365 Business Essentials.

[Stewart9]

************ Not Interested In Desktop Outlook **************

I'm planning a migration from Outlook.com to Office 365 Business Essentials.

I have a couple business domain email accounts plus one Hotmail account all nicely integrated using my Outlook.com web application.

Will I be able to setup the Outlook.com(hotmail) accounts in Office 365 Business Essentials' Outlook (Exchange Online)?  Any domain business email account?

I received different answers from Microsoft's (uneducated) sales support, like only email accounts with a domains registered with DoDaddy (ludicrous).  How could that possibly be?

Any guidance appreciated. 

[#2]

Hi!

To confirm,

- Office 365 Business does not come with Desktop Outlook. For that you would need Business Premium which gives you the Desktop version. If you got Outlook Desktop you could set up hotmail, gmail and email accounts assuming those use POP/IMAP or MAPI (Exchange). If you have a paid copy of Outlook 2016 that would work too whilst Outlook 2016 is still in support

- You can use Outlook for IOS app which works with Office 365 Business with Hotmail, GMail and other email accounts assuming these are POP/IMAP or MAPI (Exchange)

- Whilst you get Outlook Web Access with Business Essentials (Online version of the mailbox) this would not integrate hotmail, gmail and the domain accounts.

So, in short, you have three options to integrate them

1.) Get Outlook Desktop via Business Premium or being a copy of Outlook 2016 if you own it to use with Business Essentials whilst it’s still in support

2.) Use Outlook for IOS App

3.) Continue to use Harmony app if it works with Office 365

To note, regarding the domains that part about domains with GoDaddy is false. You can have your domains with pretty much any domain host, or even self host assuming you know how to manage DNS records. You just need to make sure when adding domains to 365 that you or the company work for own the domains, that you can change the DNS records and that the domains are not already in another 365 tenant.

Hope that helps to answer some of your questions!

Best, Chris

[#3]

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@Christopher Hoard wrote:
- Whilst you get Outlook Web Access with Business Essentials (Online version of the mailbox) this would not integrate hotmail, gmail and the domain accounts.

3.) Continue to use Harmony app if it works with Office 365
 
To note, regarding the domains that part about domains with GoDaddy is false. You can have your domains with pretty much any domain host, or even self host assuming you know how to manage DNS records. You just need to make sure when adding domains to 365 that you or the company work for own the domains, that you can change the DNS records and that the domains are not already in another 365 tenant.
@Christopher Hoard 

Chris,

I'm not so interested in Desktop apps.

You stated "Whilst you get Outlook Web Access with Business Essentials (Online version of the mailbox) this would not integrate hotmail, gmail and the domain accounts.". 

Then you stated: "To note, regarding the domains that part about domains with GoDaddy is false. You can have your domains with pretty much any domain host, or even self host assuming you know how to manage DNS records. You just need to make sure when adding domains to 365 that you or the company work for own the domains, that you can change the DNS records and that the domains are not already in another 365 tenant."

So Office 365 Business Essentials Will allow Any Business Domain from any hosting company?

I've added customers' domains a few years back for Office 365 online using the TXT/MS host records.

Would Forwarding work for the Hotmail account to the new Office 365 account?

Sad to see connected accounts go.

Thanks

[#4]

Chris,

I worked 20 minutes on my reply, then someone Marked It As SPAM.

Not a great place for support after all.
I have more questions...

[#5]

I saw that.

Correct, see article about connected accounts which ended last year -

https://support.office.com/en-gb/article/connect-email-accounts-in-outlook-on-the-web-office-365-d70...

In addition regarding the domains it supports a wide range of domain hosts

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/office365/admin/get-help-with-domains/set-up-your-domain-host-speci...

You would typically add these domains via the TXT/MS= method.

Best, Chris

[#6]

I'm kinda familiar with the TXT/MS host record routine.
Have you had any success with Forwarding to an Office 365 account from Hotmail, live, etc?

I have a university Office 365 account I'll test it with next.

Forwarding wasn't very reliable during my recent tests from outside hosting providers to someone elses Outlook.com account.

I really don't understand why Microsoft is pushing Outlook.com users to upgrade to Office 365 Constantly, when its impossible an many cases to setup ones existing accounts and accomplish the same tasks with the Outlook web app in Office 365. (oh yes, profit)

I'll read the articles.
Thanks for your time.

[#7]

Looks like forwarding from my Outlook.com account to Office 365 account works beautifully.

[#8]

Glad it’s worked out and we have got to where you need to be.

Hope I’ve answered your questions!

Best, Chris

[#9]

I found this video, dated 2015.
https://youtu.be/DoRRkYlgTjI