CodeTwo Exchange Migration

CodeTwo Exchange Migration takes the most grueling part of a server migration or upgrade – the move of users’ mailboxes and public folders – off your back. A configuration wizard guides you smoothly through the migration job setup and the Automatch feature pairs source and target mailboxes. After these steps, simply click Start and the program automatically performs a direct migration of the mailboxes you selected to the target environment (without deleting items on the source server side).

Our biggest advantages over the competition or tools provided by Microsoft are:

• direct migrations from any Exchange Server (including Small Business Servers) to Exchange 2019, 2016, 2013 or 2010 (no need for double-hop migrations or migrating data in batches);
• migrations from Office 365 (Microsoft 365) organizations to on-premises environments;
• migrations from hosted Exchange services to in-house Exchange servers;
• radically simplified migrations to new domains or forests;
• easy public folder migrations;
• different data filtering options (migrate only what you need);
• more control over IMAP migrations;
• intuitive user interface (no PowerShell skills required);
• competitive price.

See a full comparison of CodeTwo Exchange Migration vs Exchange native migration tools.

Yes, you can.

Unless activated with a paid license key, CodeTwo Exchange Migration is functional for 30 days, with the only limitation being that you can migrate a maximum of 10 items per folder. This means that if you’re using the program to migrate e.g. a user’s mailbox, only 10 emails from each mail folder, 10 calendar items from each calendar, 10 contacts from every contacts folder, etc., will be migrated.

Once you purchase the license and activate your copy of CodeTwo Exchange Migration, you can resume the migration and move all remaining items.

You can download the CodeTwo Exchange Migration installer here.

The program performs Exchange-to-Exchange migrations by accessing your source server mailboxes via Exchange Web Services (EWS) or MAPI (used primarily for legacy versions of Exchange Server) in order to read their contents. Then, the selected data is copied to the target server mailboxes (this time only via EWS).

To connect to an on-premises Exchange server, the user operating the program needs to have certain management roles assigned. If any required role is missing, the program will help you assign them. To establish a connection with source Office 365 (Microsoft 365) tenant, CodeTwo Exchange Migration is registered in that tenant’s Microsoft Entra ID (Azure Active Directory). The registration can be performed automatically by the program (which is perfectly safe, as the program authenticates with your Office 365 tenant using OAuth 2.0 tokens), or you can decide to register the program by yourself (learn more).

During IMAP migrations, CodeTwo Exchange Migration reads data from email folders in source email accounts using the IMAP protocol, and then copies these folders and their contents to mailboxes on the target Exchange server.

It is necessary to have mailboxes prepared in the target environment prior to migration. If they are missing, you can automatically create them directly in the program. CodeTwo Exchange Migration can also automatically match source mailboxes with their target counterparts.

For more details on how the program works, see this article.

Yes, you can. CodeTwo Exchange Migration lets you migrate mailboxes and public folders from Office 365 (Microsoft 365) to Exchange 2019, 2016, 2013 or 2010.

Learn more about migrating from Office 365 in the user’s manual.

Yes, CodeTwo Exchange Migration supports migrations of emails from those and other servers, e.g. HCL Notes (formerly IBM Notes and Lotus Notes), Google Workspace (formerly G Suite), Zarafa or Kerio Connect via the IMAP protocol. Compared to IMAP migration tools provided by Microsoft, CodeTwo Exchange Migration gives you control over many more aspects of the process. For further details, see this page.

When migrating from IMAP servers, there are two limitations that you should be aware of:

• you can only migrate email folders (due to the IMAP protocol limitations),
• you have to provide credentials for all user accounts that you want to migrate.

Yes, they are. 

To migrate from third-party hosted Exchange services (e.g. Rackspace or Intermedia), you need to meet the following requirements:

• The admin account used in the program needs to be assigned the ApplicationImpersonation role to all source mailboxes you want to migrate.
• You need to create a CSV file with a list of matched source and target mailboxes. The file must include email addresses and GUIDs of all mailboxes included in the migration process.

CodeTwo Exchange Migration connects with hosted Exchange services through EWS, which means you can migrate mailboxes from Exchange Server 2010, 2013, 2016 and 2019.

For details on how to configure the program for hosted Exchange migrations, see this article.

Yes. The program migrates encrypted emails the same way as regular mailbox items. Bear in mind that such emails will remain encrypted on the target server – the program does not decrypt them during the migration process. This means users from the target Exchange server may not be able to open emails that were encrypted on the source server. This is the expected behavior, as encryption helps ensure that only intended (original) recipients can view the contents of protected email.

Yes, you can use CodeTwo Exchange Migration to migrate both the primary and archive mailboxes created in Exchange (on-premises and online).

You can select the types of mailboxes you want to migrate in the Mailbox type step when configuring a migration job. It is also possible to migrate the contents of archive mailboxes to primary mailboxes existing on your target Exchange server. Learn more in the user’s manual…

Yes. CodeTwo Exchange Migration supports all languages, regardless of the language on the source and the target server. The software moves all special language characters so that all items can be migrated with no issues. Learn more in the user’s manual.

No, technical support for this product is included in the license price. Our team can be reached via phone or email. When necessary, online sessions are performed to help resolve issues. You can find out more about our technical support program on this page.

Additionally, we have made technical documentation for CodeTwo Exchange Migration available online for all users:

• User’s manual
• Knowledge Base

The application is licensed based on the number of source mailboxes you want to migrate. Each mailbox consumes 1 license once you start a migration job. If you enabled archiving in Exchange for a source mailbox and you migrate its primary and archive mailbox in the program, still only 1 license is consumed. To migrate Exchange public folders, you need to use up 100 licenses (this number is fixed; it does not matter how much data is contained in these folders).

For example, you purchased a 200-mailbox license and used our product to completely migrate 25 mailboxes and started migrating 10 more mailboxes. In this situation, you would have 165 seats left and could use them to migrate, for example:

• another 165 mailboxes (primary and/or archive); or
• another 65 mailboxes (primary and/or archive) and public folders

from the source server.

Our licensing model also lets you use the remaining seats for a different migration project, e.g. migrate another source server.

For more on licensing, consult this article.

Yes. You can do this by selecting the Additional licenses option in the first step of the online order form.

If you need to purchase additional licenses for your current 2.x or 1.x version of the program, we recommend purchasing a 3.x license key for as many additional mailboxes as you need. Upgrade your program to version 3.x (the upgrade is free of charge for version 2.x and version 1.x users) and migrate the remaining mailboxes.

Find out how to perform an upgrade

To learn more on what type of data is supported for migration, see this section of the user's manual.

When migrating from an on-premises Exchange server, you can install CodeTwo Exchange Migration anywhere in your source server domain – even on a workstation.

If you are migrating from Office 365 (Microsoft 365), hosted Exchange or an IMAP server, install the program on your target Exchange server.

An average migration speed is between 500 MB and 2 GB per hour. However, the duration of the entire migration process depends on various factors.

CodeTwo Exchange Migration does not impose any limits on the size of migrated mailboxes and mailbox items nor on the migration speed. However, it might be possible that your Exchange Server imposes its own limits, which our program will not be able to override.

You also need to consider other environment-specific factors that can limit or increase the migration speed, including the quality of your internet connection (in the case of a migration to a different network), your local router throttling, source and target server throttling, performance of the computers involved, etc. Learn more...

Refer to the articles linked below to find out how to check and modify the native Exchange Server migration size and speed limits:

• Mailbox or item size limits
• Migration speed limits

Exchange Server 2019 does not support coexistence with Exchange Server 2010. This is Microsoft’s limitation (see this article for more). Therefore, only cross-forest migrations from Exchange 2010 (or other legacy Exchange servers) to Exchange 2019 are possible.

Using only the tools provided by Microsoft, to go from Exchange 2010 to Exchange 2019, you would have to perform a double hop migration (i.e. update Exchange to 2013 or 2016, and then migrate to Exchange 2019). With CodeTwo Exchange Migration, this is not necessary, as the program can move mailboxes directly between any two Exchange Server editions. See this page to find out more.

Learn more about migrating from Exchange 2010 to Exchange 2019

The requirements vary depending on the server which will be acting as the source in your migration. In this user’s manual article you will find links to information about preparing for all available migration scenarios.

Yes, it does. You can use your MFA enabled admin account when setting up a connection to the source Office 365 (Microsoft 365) server.

Yes. CodeTwo Exchange Migration can match source and target mailboxes based on various predefined and custom attribute patterns. The default pattern will connect mailboxes based on users' names and display names. The program also allows you to match mailboxes manually. Learn more...

If during the auto-matching process the program detects that any of the source mailboxes do not have their counterparts on the target server, it will propose creating these mailboxes based on a set of source mailbox data. You can modify this set using a range of mailbox properties. Learn more...

CodeTwo Exchange Migration can only create primary mailboxes. If you are migrating archive mailboxes and you need to create (enable) then on your target Exchange server, you need to do that manually, as described here.

Yes, it does. Public folders can be migrated from an on-premises Exchange server or Office 365 (Microsoft 365). They are included in a migration job by default.

To migrate public folders, you need to create (or enable) them first on the target Exchange server. In addition, the admin account used in the program to connect to the target Exchange server needs to be granted the Owner rights to all folders to which the data will be migrated (including the root public folder).

Bear in mind that migrating public folders reduces your CodeTwo Exchange Migration license by 100 users.

No, you cannot. Exchange Server does not let you create the second public folder infrastructure in the same AD forest. Because of that, CodeTwo Exchange Migration lets you migrate public folders in a cross-forest migration scenario only.

It is possible to migrate public folders in a hybrid environment, from on-premises Exchange to Office 365 (Microsoft 365), by using CodeTwo Office 365 Migration. However, some additional configuration is required (as described in this article), because you cannot have public folders in both on-premises Exchange and Office 365 (Microsoft 365) at the same time.

Free/busy statuses are generated ad hoc by the Exchange Server Availability Service, based on the content of users' calendars.

CodeTwo Exchange Migration migrates users' mailboxes, including their calendars. This means that, provided you have created users' accounts in AD and did not limit free/busy permissions in any way, the Availability Service will automatically update the free/busy statuses.

No. CodeTwo Exchange Migration replicates source mailboxes on your target server by copying their contents and folder structure. No 2-way syncing takes place in this case, as the program has no permissions to modify the data in your environment (other than creating new items on the target Exchange server).

However, you can use the delta migration option to perform continuous 1-way delta sync, from the source server to the target one. In other words, when you run delta migration, the program scans your source mailboxes for new items. If found, they are migrated to your target server. Learn more about delta migration

See also the next FAQ.

No, it doesn't. CodeTwo Exchange Migration accesses the source server data passively, which means that no data is deleted or modified on your source server.

Yes, they can. The data on the source server is not modified in any way, so you can keep using the source mailboxes without any limitations. If you do so, and later on want to migrate the new items that have been created in the process, simply click the Run delta migration button and the program will update the mailboxes on the target server by copying these items.

In some migration scenarios, such as a cross-domain migration, the target server email addresses may not resolve or be listed. In these cases, target mailboxes have to be selected manually by providing their addresses.

Yes, provided that the User Principal Names (UPN) of the source and target mailboxes are not the same. 

For example, it is not possible to migrate from server A to server B within the same domain, e.g. example.com, if both the source and target mailboxes are named [email protected]. In order to successfully carry out such a migration, you have to create a different mailbox for this user in the target location and name it differently, e.g. [email protected].

Please note that other limitations still apply. Coexistence of Exchange 2010 and 2019 is not possible. Therefore, in this case, a direct migration is only possible in a cross-forest scenario, which is fully supported by CodeTwo Exchange Migration. 

Yes, CodeTwo Exchange Migration lets you use Microsoft 365 from GoDaddy (also known as Office 365 from GoDaddy) as a source of your migration. You just need to have global admin rights to your Microsoft 365 tenant.

You can also migrate from GoDaddy’s hosted Exchange and IMAP email services.

If you have encountered any problems with the application, follow the steps from Knowledge Base article about troubleshooting CodeTwo Exchange Migration.

If none of the suggestions from the article help, contact our Technical Support team.

We have also made all technical documentation for CodeTwo Exchange Migration available online for users. Use the below links to get to:

• User’s manual
• Knowledge Base

In order to upgrade CodeTwo Exchange Migration to version 3.0, you need to follow the steps from this article.