How to Migrate Outlook to Zoho Mail? Shift all Emails

Switching email services is not fun. However, people still have to when their existing service is not up to the mark, or they find another provider more capable of fulfilling their requirements. Something similar is happening to people who search for how to migrate Outlook to Zoho Mail.

They wish to change their email handler and are looking for some guidance regarding the matter. Don’t worry, all of your questions and queries will be answered here by me. I have personally tested out all possible paths that users have access to for migrating from Outlook to Zoho. Read this tutorial to find which path you should choose and which you should avoid.

Let us first see what exactly Zoho does differently from Microsoft that has convinced many users to flock from Outlook to Zoho.

Why Do People Want to Migrate Outlook to Zoho Mail All of a Sudden?

There are many factors for this recent exodus. I have covered the most important ones below.

The vast majority of users who are switching are personal users or small businesses with fewer than 5 members. This is because in that particular category, Zoho outshines Outlook by a lot.

• First of all, Zoho is ad-free through and through; even in its free tier, you won’t see any ads inside your inbox. The same can’t be said for Outlook, which is infamous for its ad-supported free tier. Forcing users to install ad blockers.
• Other than ads, Zoho users can create a free account with a custom domain. Microsoft reserves this feature for only its premium business and enterprise users. Even if you have a paid personal account, you can only ever use @outlook.com as your email’s TLD.
• For small businesses, the advantage is even more apparent, as they can enjoy a mini-managed business suite for free. Even when their team expands and they have to subscribe to a paid plan, Zoho is way more affordable than an equivalent Outlook plan.

With this, now you know that you aren’t the only one who is changing their Outlook account to Zoho. Let us now see the most casual transfer option.

Migrate Outlook to Zoho Mail by Forwarding Email Messages

To forward Outlook mail data to your Zoho account, follow these steps.

• Step 1. Log in to your Outlook webmail account. (You may use a desktop client or mobile app if you want.)
• Step 2. Select an Email (You may have to open the mail).
• Step 3. Hit the forward icon.
• Step 4. In the new email draft, put the Zoho in the To field and hit Send.
• Step 5. Log in to the Zoho account to verify if the email has been received or not. Check the spam folder. It is also possible that your email is stuck in the Outlook Outbox. So perform the necessary troubleshooting.
• Step 6. Replicate the process for every email one by one.

This process of migrating Outlook to Zoho is pretty slow. There is a way to perform multi-mail migration by just using Outlook and Zoho’s internal features. Let’s see how.

Outlook Attachment Forward (Import Email in Zoho)

• Step 1. Log in to Outlook Web (you may use an Outlook email client but note the mobile app won’t work in this case).
• Step 2. Select a bunch of emails (make sure you dont select too many; try to keep it under 25 MB)
• Step 3. Click on new mail to start an empty draft.
• Step 4. Drag and drop your mail selection into the draft. They would add it as an individual EML attachment.
• Step 5. Hit Send.
• Step 6. Log in to Zoho.
• Step 7. Check the mail with EML attachments; use the Download as Zip feature.
• Step 8. Save the Zip on your PC.
• Step 9. Open Zoho Settings > Import/Export Emails > Browse for the Zip or drag and drop it in the intended space.
• Step 10. Decide whether you want to add the emails to a specific folder or directly into your Zoho account.
• Step 11. Press Import. Let the import finish; you can keep tabs on the progress by checking it via the Import history section.

Check Out: My Yahoo Mail to Zoho Mail Migration Guide

Both of the methods to migrate Outlook to Zoho Mail we discussed until now only work for existing mail; you need to redo the entire process again every time new emails arrive in your Outlook account. However, it doesn’t have to be that way. Let’s see the process to automatically move all new emails from Outlook to Zoho.

Use Outlook Rules to Auto Forward Mails to Zoho

Here, we will set up rules that work automatically even when you are logged off from Outlook.

• Step 1. Open Outlook Settings > Mail > Rules > + Add new rule.
• Step 2. Name the rule appropriately (e.g., Zoho Forwarder)
• Step 3. Choose the widest net as your condition (i.e, Apply to all messages)
• Step 4. Under Action, choose Redirect to (this is important as it will make it seem that the email is directly addressed to your Zoho account)
• Step 5. Add the Zoho mail address to the field.
• Step 6. You may want to check the “Stop processing more rules” option to avoid conflicts
• Step 7. Press Save.
• Step 8. Try to send one email addressed to your Outlook account from a third email to see if the rule is working as intended.

Also Read: How to Forward Mediacom Email to Gmail?

Note: Rules only work on upcoming emails. You can’t apply this rule to your existing emails and migrate Outlook to Zoho Mail. If you want to migrate those, then there is another option for you.

Use Email Client to Drag and Drop Messages Between Accounts

• Step 1. Set up both your @outlook.com email ID and the new @zoho.in ID inside the Classic Outlook email client.
• Step 2. Open two instances of Outlook client side by side, scroll, and adjust the two accounts right beside each other. (Place the Outlook account towards the left-hand screen and Zoho towards the right for the best results.)
• Step 3. Select a bunch of emails inside the Outlook account, hold your cursor, and then drag and drop those emails into a folder inside Zoho Mail.
• Step 4. Repeat till you successfully migrate all Outlook.com emails to the Zoho account.

Best Method to Migrate Outlook to Zoho Mail

The SysTools IMAP Migrator stands leagues above the competition. With a super intuitive UI and multi-account migration, you get the perfect combination of power and precision.

Select the exact time span from where you want to conduct the migration, and only transfer those emails. Not only that, but you can also see in real time how far the migration has progressed. At the end, generate summarized and detailed reports to get a complete idea of the migration.

To use the tool, you just have to do this:

Step 1. Launch it and apply the date filter (every other setting is preset.)

Step 2. Select Others for the Outlook account, add its IMAP server details, and validate.

Step 3. Repeat the same step, but with Zoho Server details.

Step 4. Download the CSV templates, add the Outlook email user data, and upload it back.

Step 5. Select the users, validate, and start migration.

Conclusion

Here, I taught you multiple means to migrate Outlook to Zoho Mail. You can choose any of the methods; they would work. However, beware that if you choose the manual methods, you may face many problems, like missing data. That’s where an advanced automated solution like the one described in the text above is super helpful to get its demo and transfer Outlook to Zoho without fail.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q. I selected all my Outlook emails, and when I try to add them to an email draft, I am unable to do so. Why?

It happens because you try to add more than the allowed capacity. The maximum size of an email in Outlook is 25 MB.

Q. Which email client should I use to drag and drop emails?

There is no fixed option; you can use either the classic Outlook or even third-party clients like Thunderbird, and there is no harm in doing so.

Q. I am unable to drag and drop Outlook emails into my Zoho inbox while using the new email client method. What to do?

This is a built-in limitation; you can only drag and drop between the same folders of an Outlook custom folder. To bypass this limitation, use the classic Outlook client.