How to migrate emails from IONOS to Microsoft 365 Exchange Online

Step 1 - Choose the correct Microsoft 365 plan

Microsoft offer different business plans depending on which services and applications you need. I find a lot of my customers just need Microsoft 365 Exchange Online.

Step 2 - Create a Microsoft 365 Business account

If you already have a Microsoft 365 Personal of Family account this will not change but you will still need to purchase a Microsoft 365 Business account.

Step 3 - Setup your domain in Microsoft 365 and add DNS records to your domain

To have your emails setup in Microsoft 365 instead of IONOS you need to prove to Microsoft that you own your domain (eg. yourcompany.co.uk). This is done by logging into your IONOS account and updating DNS records.

Step 4 - Add user accounts to Microsoft 365

Once you domain is approved you can create new email accounts in the Microsoft 365 Admin portal. The accounts won't be live but will be later when we update more DNS records in your IONOS account.

Step 5 - Setup Microsoft 365 Entra Admin Center so BitTitan MigrationWiz can talk to Microsoft 365 Exchange Online

To get all of the emails in your IONOS email account moved over to Microsoft 365 I recommend using a 3rd party tool called MigrationWiz by BitTitan. To be able to use this tool changes have to be made in the Microsoft 365 admin portal so MigrationWiz can move your emails from IONOS into Microsoft 365.

Step 6 - Setup MigrationWiz for the first phase migration of existing IONOS emails into Microsoft 365 Exchange mailboxes

MigrationWiz makes the transfer of all your existing emails into Microsoft 365 much easier. During this transfer your emails continue to work as they always have. There is no downtime during this process and you won't lose any emails. The first phase moves all emails older than 30 days. Once complete if you open the Outlook web app from the Microsoft 365 Admin portal you will see all your IONOS emails (except recent emails less than 30 days). Please note this Outlook is still not live.

Step 7 - Update DNS records at so all new emails go through Microsoft 365 Exchange Online

To have all your emails routed through Microsoft 365 you need to update DNS records in your IONOS account. You need to update the MX records, CNAME records and TXT records. This process of updating your DNS records only takes a few minutes but during this time your emails will go down.

Once these records are done all new emails will flow into the new Microsoft 365 email box. If you send yourself an email from a different email address such as Gmail you will see it arrive in the Outlook webmail you looked at in Step 6. You will also be able to reply to the email.

Step 8 - Setup MigrationWiz to do the second and final phase migration of existing IMAP emails into Microsoft 365 Exchange mailboxes

There are still emails (younger than 30 days) in your IONOS email account. The next phase of MigrationWiz moves these emails and it doesn't take long.

Step 9 - Setup Outlook after migrating your emails to Microsoft 365 Exchange Online

If you were using Outlook (Classic) Desktop app for your emails you will need to create a new Outlook profile so it will talk to the new Microsoft 365 email servers rather than the IONOS email servers. You will want to export your address book, contacts list and calendar before setting up the new profile.

Let's jump straight in!