Other options for Office 365 Public Folders
I’ve been supporting an SBS2008 server with Exchange server 2007. It also had a very large Public Folder.
Almost 2 years ago, I transferred the all email to Microsoft’s Office 365 “Exchange Plan 1” and included migrating the Public Folders as well.
The Public folder is now 45GB’s. Microsoft supports 50 GB’s per mailbox. I believe there’s also the option to increase the Public folder to 99GB’s for an additional small fee. However, I don’t want to keep this Public Folder email on Office 365. It was very difficult and time-consuming migrating it to the current “so-called” Public folder.
Here are my thoughts
- The Public Folder is just a static holding tank of information to research projects. There are no real “rights” assigned. All users have full access
- Instead of keeping it on Office365, I would like to copy the entire Folder structure to a drive on our “Windows Server 2016” server (Basically, Microsoft is not really supporting Public Folders going forward)
- Are there any recommendations to save our Public Folder emails to a Windows File system, - or, any other recommended option?
Almost 2 years ago, I transferred the all email to Microsoft’s Office 365 “Exchange Plan 1” and included migrating the Public Folders as well.
The Public folder is now 45GB’s. Microsoft supports 50 GB’s per mailbox. I believe there’s also the option to increase the Public folder to 99GB’s for an additional small fee. However, I don’t want to keep this Public Folder email on Office 365. It was very difficult and time-consuming migrating it to the current “so-called” Public folder.
Here are my thoughts
- The Public Folder is just a static holding tank of information to research projects. There are no real “rights” assigned. All users have full access
- Instead of keeping it on Office365, I would like to copy the entire Folder structure to a drive on our “Windows Server 2016” server (Basically, Microsoft is not really supporting Public Folders going forward)
- Are there any recommendations to save our Public Folder emails to a Windows File system, - or, any other recommended option?
Just create an additional public folder mailbox. You can have up to 100 mailboxes assigned to Public Folder use. The public folder system in O365 will store data in the new mailbox but it will still be accessible in the same folders regardless of which mailbox the files/emails are stored in.
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/exchange/collaboration-exo/public-folders/public-folders gives more detailed information. Each additional public folder mailbox is considered a "Secondary Hierarchy Mailbox" for the purposes of back in processing and management, but you really don't need to worry about that much.
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/exchange/collaboration-exo/public-folders/public-folders gives more detailed information. Each additional public folder mailbox is considered a "Secondary Hierarchy Mailbox" for the purposes of back in processing and management, but you really don't need to worry about that much.
ASKER
SAIF, essentially, that's what I have right now. It is a shared mailbox.
Adam, I recall trying this with a lot of difficulties. I worked with Microsoft tech support for near 3 weeks to make this work. There were issues with the 45 GB's size. I also know that I never had a seasoned Exchange engineer on the phone from Microsoft. I can understand because there aren't too many companies supporting Public Folders any more
- Basically,I originally created a PST of the Public Folder and attempted to migrate it. From what ai recall. there were many folders missing. So we ended up created a shared mailbox as SAIF mentioned
Kind of the reason I was thinking of just copying the hierarchy to a dedicated Windows folder
Adam, I recall trying this with a lot of difficulties. I worked with Microsoft tech support for near 3 weeks to make this work. There were issues with the 45 GB's size. I also know that I never had a seasoned Exchange engineer on the phone from Microsoft. I can understand because there aren't too many companies supporting Public Folders any more
- Basically,I originally created a PST of the Public Folder and attempted to migrate it. From what ai recall. there were many folders missing. So we ended up created a shared mailbox as SAIF mentioned
Kind of the reason I was thinking of just copying the hierarchy to a dedicated Windows folder
Microsoft is or was trying to get rid of PF since ages. Best solution for you is to use SharePoint. Keeping data locally or in PST format is always risky, as corruption chances are high.
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ASKER
I apologize for not following back up.
My ultimate goal is to get away from public folders so I don't want to do anything related to creating new public folders.
I currently have it set up as a shared mailbox and perhaps that's the only way this will work out well.
I thought about creating a shared PST file located on the local server where all users have read access and only one person has the ability to create, write and delete
My ultimate goal is to get away from public folders so I don't want to do anything related to creating new public folders.
I currently have it set up as a shared mailbox and perhaps that's the only way this will work out well.
I thought about creating a shared PST file located on the local server where all users have read access and only one person has the ability to create, write and delete
Pst not a good idea. Public folder is way better then pst and shared mailbox. Or as i said use sharepoint.
Why don't you setup retention on the public folder I. E. Set retention of some days where this settings when ON on parent and sub public folder will remove any old items which are like example 5-10 yrs old. This will shrink the public folders size.
This settings is on all parent and child public folders.
You will have to do the change from ecp.
Also this setting once applied works with date modifications.
So any items whose dates have been modified will get deleted as per retention.
You can also download exfolders and run the modify items on all public folders so that all pfs gets today's date and they will purge accordingly.
This settings is on all parent and child public folders.
You will have to do the change from ecp.
Also this setting once applied works with date modifications.
So any items whose dates have been modified will get deleted as per retention.
You can also download exfolders and run the modify items on all public folders so that all pfs gets today's date and they will purge accordingly.
ASKER
I sincerely apologize for not getting back. Working major hours trying to complete projects before the Christmas holidays
Again, I appreciate everyone's input. The client is an engineering firm and they do not want any retention and place. They want the ability to go back 10 years to see the history of a project. However, I am working with the client to review all of their public folders to see what they can physically delete.
Again, I appreciate everyone's input. The client is an engineering firm and they do not want any retention and place. They want the ability to go back 10 years to see the history of a project. However, I am working with the client to review all of their public folders to see what they can physically delete.
ASKER
I am familiar with SharePoint but not familiar with how to use SharePoint to store shared mailbox folders such as the public folders. I may have not fully detailed above when I first opened the ticket. I did create the public folders in the exchange admin tool on the portal and they are working. But I feel Microsoft doesn't want to support is this way anymore. And the support I've received so far from Microsoft, was at a lower experience level than myself
Also shared mailbox does not require a license and can be easily assisble for all users using automapping after you give full access for all users in shared mailbox.
Reference Article-
1. https://www.exchangesavvy.com/migrate-public-folders-office-365-shared-mailbox/
2. https://www.codetwo.com/admins-blog/migrate-public-folders-to-shared-mailbox/
3. https://www.nucleustechnologies.com/how-to/migrate-public-folders-from-exchange-to-office-365-shared-mailboxes.html