Planning a Microsoft 365 tenant-to-tenant migration? This FAQ covers the most common questions about migrating mailboxes, OneDrive, Teams, and other Microsoft 365 workloads between tenants.
Mailbox Migration FAQs
Are mailbox settings retained after migration?
Yes, most settings are retained including mailbox rules, folder structure, and permissions. However, email signatures are NOT migrated and must be recreated manually in the target tenant.
What happens to Teams meeting invites in calendars?
Teams meeting invites are migrated as calendar events, but the Teams meeting links pointing to the source tenant cannot be automatically regenerated with new target tenant links. Organizers should reschedule recurring meetings after migration.
Are calendar changes synchronized after migration?
No. Post-migration calendar updates are not synchronized between source and target tenants. The migration captures a point-in-time snapshot of the calendar.
Are mailbox delegations and permissions preserved?
Yes. Mailbox delegations, full access permissions, and send-as permissions are preserved during migration, provided the target users exist in the target tenant.
Is email content modified during migration?
No. Email content, including attachments, formatting, and headers, remains unchanged during the transfer. Messages are migrated exactly as they exist in the source.
OneDrive Migration FAQs
Are file versions migrated?
Only the latest version is migrated by default. Version history from the source is not transferred. This is a Microsoft platform limitation for cross-tenant scenarios.
What happens to deleted items?
Deleted items are excluded from migration. Only active files and folders in the user's OneDrive are transferred to the target.
Are file sharing permissions preserved?
Internal permissions transfer when target users are properly mapped. However, external sharing links do not regenerate automatically. External sharing must be reconfigured manually in the target tenant.
What about cross-tenant shares?
Cross-tenant shares (files shared with users outside your organization) require manual re-establishment after migration. The migration does not transfer external collaboration links.
Teams Migration FAQs
What Teams content is migrated?
Teams are recreated with:
- Team owners and members
- Standard and private channels
- Files in channel document libraries
- Default wiki content
- Channel tabs (configuration may need adjustment)
Can archived Teams be migrated?
No. Archived Teams must be restored before migration. Unarchive the Team in the source tenant, migrate it, then archive it again in the target tenant if needed.
Are 1:1 chat messages included in Teams migration?
1:1 chats are migrated separately from Teams. They require a dedicated migration pass using the User migration feature. See our 1:1 chat migration guide for details.
How are channel messages handled?
Channel posts can be migrated in two ways:
- Direct injection - Messages appear as native Teams posts
- HTML export - Older messages converted to HTML files
The method is configurable in project settings.
What happens to external sharing in Teams?
Internal permissions are retained. However, external sharing and guest access do not migrate. Guest users must be re-invited to the target tenant Teams.
General Questions
Can I migrate during business hours?
Yes. Cloudiway supports coexistence scenarios allowing migration during normal business operations. Use delta passes to capture changes incrementally while users continue working.
What licenses are required?
Users need valid Microsoft 365 licenses in both source and target tenants. Admin accounts used in connectors also need licenses with appropriate services enabled (Exchange, Teams, SharePoint).
Where can I find detailed limitations?
For a comprehensive list of all migration limitations, see our Microsoft 365 Migration Limitations article.