After you successfully synchronized calendars with Microsoft Exchange Online, you can synchronize public folders if necessary.
The following public folder synchronization methods are available
Table 1: Public Folder Synchronization Method Comparison
| Synchronization |
2-way synchronization |
Yes |
Yes |
| Migration from Exchange 2007 |
Yes |
No |
| Migration from Exchange 2010/2013/2016 |
Yes |
Yes |
| Migration from/to Exchange 2019 |
No/Yes |
Yes |
| Add, update, delete messages |
Yes |
Yes |
| Update public folders automatically (permissions including group permissions; rename, move folder) |
Yes |
Yes |
| Handle deleted public folders automatically |
Yes |
Yes |
| Add new public folders |
Yes |
YES, BUT RERUN NEEDED |
| Synchronize public folders’ mail-enabled status |
No |
Yes |
| Re-migrate public folders deleted on target |
Limited
Legacy agent only works in manual mode. |
Yes |
| Resync |
Limited
Legacy agent only supports the entire collection of folders. |
Yes |
| Synchronize permissions |
Yes |
Yes |
| Synchronize SMTP address and advanced folder properties |
No |
Yes |
| Configuration |
Define migration scope |
Yes |
Yes |
| Modify migration scope |
Yes |
Yes |
| Content filtering |
Yes |
Yes |
| Support for existing content structure on target |
Yes |
Yes |
| GUI |
Yes, except for manual configuration of Outlook profiles on agent host |
NO, MIGRATION BY MMEX POWERSHELL SCRIPTS ONLY |
| System Requirements |
Minimal requirements |
Minimum 2 hosts,6 agents, Outlook is required. |
1 host, 1 agent |
| Performance |
Overall performance |
Low |
High |
| Monitoring |
Synchronization statistics |
No |
Yes |
Before you migrate public folders to Microsoft Office 365 using agents you should take in consideration some specifics mentioned in Public Folder Synchronization Caveats subsection.
Synchronization by legacy Exchange agents
Consider the following specifics before you migrate public folders to Microsoft Office 365 by legacy Exchange agents:
- During synchronization of pubic folders with Microsoft Office 365 Exchange Online or Exchange 2013 or higher, Public Folder Target Agent is unable to set the message owner (creator) correctly for items in folders. The account of the corresponding administrative mailbox becomes the creator of the message instead of the actual mailbox owner.
This causes unwanted effects on the target. For example, the user cannot modify and delete their own migrated messages unless they have Owner permissions on the containing folder. This behavior is due to Exchange and Office 365 design decisions aimed at preventing security risks.
- Migration of public folders to Office 365 is significantly slow with Public Folder Synchronization Agents than with Migration Agent by Exchange. This is due to the extra time that the agent takes to match source and target recipients and process permissions.
- The administrative mailbox and account cannot be specified separately for public folder migration to Office 365. All public folder synchronization activity will reuse the account specified when the Office 365 target organization was added in the Migration Manager for Exchange console.
The account you specify will require additional configuration for public folder-related operations. For details, see Additional Configuration for the Public Folder Synchronization Account (Legacy Exchange Agents only).
If you change the account after migration has started, this will result in full resynchronization from target to source. In addition, you have to manually perform the Reapply Agents Configuration operation for the public folder synchronization job in the Migration Manager for Exchange console.
- Only one Public Folder Target Agent instance performs all migration to Office 365. This means the choice of agent host must be made carefully. This should be a dedicated host rather than the same host as for the source Exchange server; otherwise, public folder synchronization performance will degrade.
Also note that if you change the agent host after migration has started, you have to manually install all the required agents on the new host and perform the Reapply Agents Configuration operation for the public folder synchronization job in the Migration Manager for Exchange console.
To avoid data loss and source-bound data duplication, initiate full resynchronization from the source to the target. This is needed because some PUB files may be left behind on the old agent host (causing loss of the data contained in them) or, in the case of two-way synchronization, the new agent host does not have information about which folders have been restored and don’t need to be copied to the source (causing data duplication).
- The administrative account used for public folder synchronization with Office 365 requires the Owner client permission on all target public folders. Notify your users that they should expect to see this account as the owner of their public folders. Consider setting an informative display name for this account.
- Before you begin migration to Microsoft Office 365, you need to provision user accounts in it. For that, use the Migration Manager for Active Directory (Office 365) console. The information about user matching is stored in the corresponding migration project. It is important that you use the same migration project in the Migration Manager for Exchange console when you configure public folder synchronization.
- Mail-enabled folders are synchronized as non-mail-enabled with Office 365. As a workaround, after migration use native tools to make the folders mail-enabled.
- During public folder migration to Office 365 involving Migration Manager for Exchange Public Folder Synchronization Agents, make sure there are no batch public folder migrations being performed with native Microsoft tools in the source or in the target.
Synchronization by Migration Agent for Exchange with extended MMEX PowerShell module
Consider the following specifics before you migrate public folders to Microsoft Office 365 by Migration Agent for Exchange with extended MMEX PowerShell module:
- During synchronization of pubic folders with Microsoft Office 365 Exchange Online, MAgE is unable to set the message owner (creator) correctly for items in folders. The administrative account becomes the creator of the message instead of the actual mailbox owner. This causes unwanted effects on the target. For example, the user cannot modify and delete their own migrated messages unless they have Owner permissions on the containing folder. This behavior is a result of Exchange and Office 365 architecture aimed at preventing security risks.
- A single MAgE instance performs all migration to Office 365.
- The migrated public folders always inherit the client permissions from this root folder. To avoid granting unnecessary privileges, make sure that the client permissions for the target root folder are granted to the administrative account only before starting the migration.
- Synchronization should be rerun in case new public folders are added.
To synchronize public folders take the following steps in the Migration Manager for Exchange console:
- Set up a new public folder synchronization job.
- Add a public folder collection.
- Start public folder synchronization.
It is recommended that you synchronize public folders before you migrate mailboxes. Before the users are migrated to the new environment, you need to copy the contents of the public folders to the new servers. This will ensure that the first migrated user will have access to up-to-date public folder information.
Before you begin, open the properties of the target Office 365 organization, go to the Default Agent Host page and specify the computer where to install the necessary agents for synchronizing public folders with Exchange Online.
To create a new public folder synchronization job, right-click the Public Folders Synchronization node of the console management tree and select the Add Public Folders Synchronization Job option from the shortcut menu.
This will start the Add Public Folders Synchronization Job Wizard that will help you to install the public folder synchronization agents and configure the job.
This section guides you through each step of the wizard and explains the available public folder synchronization options. For more details, see the related topics.
Step 1. Select Exchange Servers
The public folder synchronization job is set up between the source Exchange server and Microsoft Office 365. Select your Office 365 tenant as the target organization; the choice of target server is disabled, because it becomes irrelevant.
For the source server, specify a mailbox that will be used by the public folder synchronization agents.
On the Office 365 end, the synchronization uses the Office 365 credentials and mailbox specified in the properties of your Office 365 organization.
The account under which the public folder synchronization agents are running must have full access to the administrator mailboxes so that they can get administrative access to the synchronized folders.
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Note: To learn how to configure public folder migration administrator mailboxes, refer to the dedicated Exchange environment preparation documents. |
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Caution: Changing the agent's administrator mailbox after the public folder synchronization has been started is not recommended. This will lead to resynchronization of public folder contents. |
Migration Manager will retrieve the public folder hierarchy using the mailboxes you specify. If you are logged on under an account that does not have access to these mailboxes, click Advanced to use an alternate NT account to retrieve the hierarchy.
The wizard will also create the first collection for the job. This first step prompts you for the collection name.
Step 2. Select Public Folders
The next step allows you to configure the public folder synchronization collection. Select the root folders to be synchronized. If you don’t want to change the folder hierarchy, the easiest way is to select All Public Folders on both the source and target servers as the synchronization root. Simply select Public Folders in both the Source server box and the Target server box. The wizard will ask if you want to create a Public Folders folder on the target server and synchronize all the source public folders to this folder. Select Yes or No as appropriate.
Alternatively, you can select an existing Exchange folder as a target root folder. If the target root folder does not exist, you can create it by selecting the Add New Folder option from the shortcut menu as shown below.
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Note: Migration Manager for Exchange does not actually create the public folders. The public folder root will be created by the Public Folder Target Agent when the first PUB file comes from the corresponding source or target public folder. |
To add a pair of folders to the collection, select the folders in both lists, set the synchronization direction, and click Add. The folders and all their subfolders will be marked as included to the collection.
You can also select the synchronization direction. Click the <-> button to change the initial source-to-target direction of synchronization if necessary.
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Caution: Once you start the public folder synchronization process, do not change the synchronization roots for any jobs or collections. Changing the selected folder pairs after the synchronization has started might result in duplicate folders in one of the environments. |
To exclude a folder from synchronization, right-click the folder in the tree and click Exclude. The public folder synchronization agents will not synchronize the content of the folder, but will create it on the corresponding server and synchronize its subfolders, if any.
Click Exclude PF with subfolders to exclude from synchronization the folder itself and all its subfolders.
Step 3. Specify Agent Installation Path
The wizard will install the public folder synchronization agents on the Exchange servers or the corresponding default agent host. If no Migration Manager for Exchange component has been yet installed on these servers, you will be able to specify the installation path for the agents. As soon as the agents are installed, the QMMEx$ServerName$ shared folder will be created in the path you specified. All the agents or components you install later will be installed in the same location. However, if by the time you install the public folder agents, any other agents or components have already been installed, you will not be allowed to specify the installation path for the agents, and they will be installed in the location where the QMMEx$ServerName$ shared folder has been created.
By default the shared folder is created in the %SystemRoot%\System32 folder. For 64-bit Microsoft Exchange the default shared folder is created in the %SystemRoot%\SysWOW64 folder.
Step 4. Complete the Wizard
After the agents are installed, the wizard will inform you that you can start the public folder synchronization job. It is strongly recommended that you verify all the agents and collection settings before starting the public folder synchronization.
Step 5. Commit Changes
After a new job is created, it is marked with an exclamation mark. This means that you need to update the public folder synchronization agents’ databases before starting the job. Right-click the job in the management tree and click Commit Changes on the shortcut menu to update the agents’ task lists on the remote servers.
You can also commit changes for all the public folder synchronization jobs you have created. To do that, right-click the Public Folder Synchronization node in the management tree and select Commit All Public Folder Jobs from the shortcut menu.
