Use the Email Migration Tool with Outlook.com accounts

Microsoft has disabled basic authentication for IMAP, so username-and-password logins no longer work with our migration tool. To migrate mailboxes from Outlook.com to 20i, you’ll need to set up secure access using modern authentication, then complete the migration through My20i.

Step 1 – Prepare the Microsoft account

Outlook.com, Hotmail, Live and MSN accounts

These personal Microsoft accounts support IMAP access via App Passwords.

Important: App passwords only appear once two-step verification is turned on for your Microsoft account.

1. Sign in to your Microsoft account security settings at https://account.live.com/proofs/manage.
2. Under Additional security, select Turn on two-step verification and follow the setup process.
3. After enabling two-step verification, return to the same page. You’ll now see an App passwords section.
4. Select Create a new app password and copy the generated password.
5. This app password will be used instead of your normal account password during the migration.

Once this is done, your Outlook.com account is ready to connect to the migration tool.

Microsoft 365 business or work accounts

Not currently supported by the 20i Email Migration tool. Microsoft 365 requires OAuth 2.0 for IMAP. This needs an interactive sign-in to obtain a per-mailbox access/refresh token (delegated permission IMAP.AccessAsUser.All). Our migration tool does not yet handle this token flow, so username/password or app passwords will not work.

Unfortunately, a manual migration using a method such as a .PST backup will be required to migrate emails from Microsoft 365.

Step 2 - Start a migration in My20i

1. Log in to My20i and go to Manage Hosting 
2. Find your domain name, and then select Options > Manage
3. Select Email Migration under Email
4. Select Outlook as the migration type.

Step 3 - Enter source mailbox details

Use the details below for your Microsoft mailbox:

For Outlook.com users, enter:

• Username: Your full Outlook.com email address
• Password: The app password created earlier

Step 4 - Start the migration

1. Choose your Destination Mailbox from the drop-down menu, and click Sync.
2. The migration will run in the background and automatically copy your emails to the destination mailbox.
3. Large mailboxes can take longer depending on connection speed and size.

You can monitor progress at any time from the Email Migration page in My20i.

Step 5 - Verify and complete

Once complete:

• Check that all expected folders and messages appear in the 20i mailbox.
• Compare sent and draft folders to confirm mapping is correct.
• If any items are missing, you can run the migration again - only new or changed messages will be copied.

Summary

Microsoft’s security changes mean standard password logins no longer work for IMAP migrations. To complete a migration to 20i:

• Outlook.com accounts – turn on two-step verification, create an app password, and use that for the migration.

Once prepared, the 20i Email Migration Tool will handle the rest automatically.