How to Migrate Office 365 Mailbox to IMAP Easily

Written By Loic Traves
Approved By Mithilesh Tata
Updated on September 17th, 2025
Reading Time: 4 minutes

User Query: “Can anyone tell me about a quick method to migrate my Office 365 mailbox to an IMAP server? As I want to export all my emails to Office 365, I am looking for a secure as well as trustworthy method so that I don’t lose any of my attachments.”

Overview: Do you also want to migrate Office 365 Mailbox to IMAP using a genuine method? If yes, then you are not alone; even G Suite users recently asked for the same. This write-up explores both a manual and an automated ConverterTools Office 365 Converter. You can check out the step-by-step tutorial for both methods for successful migration, making the migration process secure as well as quick.

Download Now Purchase Now

Key Reasons to Migrate Office 365 Mailbox to IMAP

There are a huge variety of reasons why you must perform an Office 365 to IMAP migration. Some of them are given below:

Cross-Platform Accessibility offered – You can access your desired mailbox from multiple devices and clients without any synchronization loss.
Compatibility with Email Clients– Once you migrate to IMAP, you can access multiple email clients like Thunderbird, Apple Mail, or other third-party apps that rely on IMAP.
Effortless Migration– Switching to IMAP ensures a simpler transfer of emails while keeping the directory structure intact.
Offline Accessibility – With IMAP, messages can be cached locally, giving you offline access to important emails when internet connectivity is weak.
Simplified Account Management– Using IMAP, you can manage multiple email accounts from a single interface, improving productivity.

Proven Methods to Migrate Office 365 Mailbox to IMAP

Although there exist multiple ways to export Office 365 Mail to IMAP, here we will discuss only the two practical methods available. First is the manual approach, whereas the other one is an automated solution. The user can proceed with any of the two methods as per their requirement.

Manual Method to Transfer O365 Emails to IMAP Server

There is no direct manual option from Microsoft, but you can try a workaround using Outlook. However, the process is slow, repetitive, and depends heavily on mailbox size and internet speed. Here are the steps to follow for manual migration :

Firstly, add your Office 365 account to Outlook
Now, allow complete synchronization to take place.
Then, configure the IMAP account in the same Outlook profile.
Select emails or folders from Office 365 and drag them into IMAP folders.
Repeat this process for Inbox, Sent Items, Drafts, and custom folders.
Now you have to wait until Outlook uploads all messages to the IMAP server, which may take hours or days.
Log in to the IMAP account via browser or email client to verify the transfer.
In case of any data loss, you need to repeat the entire procedure.

Optimal Solution to Migrate Office 365 Mailbox to IMAP

Converter Tools Office 365 Converter is a quick and trustworthy solution to export Office 365 emails into IMAP format without any loss of data and attachments. Not just the migration, using this software, you can also export Outlook 365 to HTML, MSG, EML, PDF, and many more formats, offering flexibility for different requirements. Also, you can utilize the built-in features of this software to increase your work efficiency.

Simplified Guide to perform migration through automation is as follows:

Firstly, run ConverterTools Office 365 Converter & pick Backup, and click Continue to proceed.

Click on Continue to proceed.

Then, input your Office 365 login credentials and press Sign in.

Select your desired folder to migrate.

Now, simply select the files you want to migrate and click the Next button.

After that, under the Save/Backup/Migrate option, pick IMAP as the output format.

Apply filters if you want, and finally hit the Backup button to begin the process.

Conclusion

In the above write-up, we discussed two effective and fast approaches to migrate Office 365 Mailbox to IMAP. The manual method will take you long hours to complete and still have certain errors, whereas the ConverterTools Office 365 Converter is error-free and will take just a few seconds to perform the migration. That too, while keeping the directory structure intact. You can proceed with either of the two methods according to your preference.

Frequently Asked Questions:

Q.1 What are the prerequisites for migrating from Office 365 to IMAP?

Ans. You need admin access to Office 365, IMAP enabled on the target server, correct server details, enough mailbox space, stable internet, and a backup of your data.

Q.2 Do email folder structures remain intact after migration?

Ans. Yes, your email folder structure will remain intact after migration if you are using ConverterTools Office 365 Converter to perform the migration. Even the attachments, fonts, and formatting remain intact.

Q.3 What challenges can occur during Office 365 to IMAP migration?

Ans. During Office 365 to IMAP migration, users may face issues such as slow data transfer, incomplete email synchronization, loss of folder hierarchy, large mailbox size restrictions, or interruptions due to poor internet connectivity.

5/5 - (2 votes)

About The Author:

Loic Traves

Loic Traves is a seasoned technical expert who has helped thousands of clients with Microsoft Outlook and various cloud-based email platforms. He enjoys writing about email client backups and migration processes. Passionate about supporting users in need, he strives to provide the latest insights, clear explanations, and practical, user-friendly solutions.