Migrating a Calendar from Public Folders to Exchange Online

Owned by Jennifer Allan
Last updated: Jul 12, 2023 by Paul Hunt
5 min read

Introduction

Public Folders are not available on the University of Cambridge’s Exchange Online instance. Any calendars from medschl Exchange will need to be manually moved into a Shared Calendar in Exchange Online. This only needs to be done once, by one person who has access to the Public Folder Calendar.

While you are doing the import we suggest that your colleagues who access the calendar be advised that it is moving; and that they should not change any data in the calendar, until it has been moved.

Requirements

Instructions

Set up Outlook Profiles

Ensure you have 2 Outlook profiles - one for each email system.

Follow this guide https://cscs-itsupport.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/FAQ/pages/21365777. If at step 6 you already have an Exchange Online profile and one for medschl, click Prompt for a profile to be used and then click OK.

Each time you launch Outlook from now on you will be prompted to chose which mail system you are using. This can be changed later by choosing Always use this profile and choosing the mail system you always want to use.

Export Public Folder Calendar

Launch Outlook and choose the profile pointing at your medschl mailbox

Click on File, then Open & Export

Choose Import/Export

Click on Export to a File, then Next

Choose Outlook Data File (.pst), then click Next

Scroll down the list to find Public Folders - yourcrsid@medschl.cam.ac.uk and click on the arrow beside to expand it. Keep expanding down the list to find the folder/s that you want to move. If you want to select everything from a folder (for example Clinical School below) select the appropriate parent folder, ensure Include subfolders is ticked. Click Next once you have selected the folder or calendar you are backing up.

You will be prompted for a location to save and name your file. Choose an appropriate name and location. Leave the default option of Replace duplicates with items exported and click Finish.

 

Your calendar will now be backed up. Depending on how large it is this may take some time - up to an hour. Outlook will display a progress window to show you how long it will take. You will not be able to use Outlook during this time, so use webmail in the meanwhile.

Import Public Folder Calendar

Once your import is completed exit Outlook. Open it again and choose your Exchange Online profile

Click on File, then Open & Export

Choose Import/Export

Choose Import from another program or file and click Next

Choose Outlook Data File (.pst) and click Next

Navigate to the file you saved above. Leave the default selection of Replace duplicates with items imported and click Next

The next window shows you the calendars that you are importing. Ensure that you choose the bottom option of Import items into the same folder in yourcrsid@cam.ac.uk and click Finish

Your calendar will be imported. To see it go to the calendar section and under My Calendars on the left navigation bar you will see the calendar you imported. At this point it is only available to you so now you need to move the entries into your Shared Mailbox.

Move Calendar Entries

Open up the calendar you just created , you will find it is under My Calendars.

Navigate down in the list of calendars to your shared mailbox calendar that you want the calendar to be moved to, then right click on it and select Open in New Window. Another Outlook session will appear. Move it over to the left side of your monitor; Open in a New Window is NOT an option in Outlook 2021, so simply start another session of Outlook, navigate to the shared calendar and move it to the left of your current Outlook session.

On the right Outlook session window, click View in the toolbar then select the panel Change View and choose List. This will list all of the calendar entries. If you don’t want to import all items you could sort by date and only import some of them.

To Select all items use the Ctrl + A buttons on your keyboard then click and drag the items you selected from right session to left session and drop them into your new shared mailbox. Outlook will then copy all the items into the new shared calendar.

Almost Done

Once the calendar entries are all copied you should test to make sure it looks like you expect. Have a colleague look and see if they can see the calendar items or go to webmail (https://outlook.office.com) and check.

Once you are happy that you have moved all the items you can delete the temporary calendar that was created under My Calendars. Find the calendar and right click on it. Select Delete Calendar. You will be prompted to Move “calendar” to your Deleted Items Folder? click Yes

Lastly, send out an email to your colleagues who need to use the calendar advising them that the calendar has been moved

Need Help?

Contact our Exchange Migration support by going to https://exchangemigration.cscs.medschl.cam.ac.uk/. You can use chat or phone for assistance.