Switching from Outlook to Missive doesn’t have to be complicated. This guide will help you through the essential steps to ensure a smooth transition, including terminology, transferring your emails, contacts, and calendar data. With some preparation, you can quickly settle into Missive and continue working without disruption.
Terminology
Here are some terms that differ between Outlook and Missive, along with their equivalents:
| Outlook | Missive |
| Folders / Categories | Labels |
| Flags | Not supported |
| Recall a message | Undo send |
| Favorites | Sidebar sections |
| Archive Folder | All mailbox |
| In-Place Archive | Not supported |
History
When you connect an Office 365 account to Missive, either as a private or shared account, you will have the option to select the amount of history you wish to import. This can be changed later in the settings.
If you’re on a paid plan, you can import all history without limits.
All emails will retain the same read/unread status in Missive, as well as their location (inbox, folders, etc).
Sync and Effects
| Actions in Missive | Sync | Effect in Office 365 |
| New email in Inbox | Yes | New email in Inbox |
| New email in Team Inbox | Yes | New email in Inbox |
| Email is sent | Yes | Email appears in Sent |
| Email is archived (personal account) and shown in All. | Yes | Email appears in Archive |
| Email is archived (shared account) and shown in All. | Yes | Email appears in Archive only when shared account owner archives |
| Email read | Yes | Email read |
| Email marked as unread | Yes | Email marked as unread |
| Apply email label (e.g. Receipts) | Yes | Email appears in folder (e.g. Receipts) |
| Apply organization label (e.g. Feedback) | No | Email will not show in folder (e.g. Feedback) |
| Email is deleted (personal account) | Yes | Email appears in Trash |
| Email is deleted (shared account) | Yes | Email appears in Trash only when shared account owner deletes |
| Email marked as spam | Yes | Email appears in Spam |
| Email is in drafts | No | Email will not appear in Drafts |
Connect an Office 365 account
Connecting an Office 365 / Outlook account is quite simple.
- Click on your name on the lower left corner of the app
- Click on Settings
- Go to Accounts
- Add account
- Select Office 365 or Outlook
- Follow the screen instructions and enter your account’s credentials
Contacts
By default Missive will start syncing your contacts automatically.
If auto-syncing was disabled, you can re-enable continuous 2-way contact syncing, here’s how:
- Click on your name on the lower left corner of the app
- Click on Settings
- Go to Accounts
- Select an Office 365 / Outlook account
- Click Contacts
- Click Sync contacts
Calendar
Connecting an Office 365 / Outlook calendar account is quite simple too.
- Click on your name on the lower left corner of the app
- Click on Settings
- Go to Calendars
- Add a calendar account
- Select Office 365 or Outlook
- Follow the screen instructions and enter your account’s credentials
Shared mailboxes
We support Office 365 / Outlook shared mailboxes.
On Missive's side, they act the same as if they were any type of email a user is sharing with an entire team. Here’s how you can add them to Missive.
- Click on your name on the lower left corner of the app
- Click on Settings
- Go to Accounts
- Add account
- Select Office 365 or Outlook
- In the Microsoft connection popup, select an Office 365 account that has access to that shared mailbox.
Groups
Office 365 groups (also known as “distribution lists”) are supported by Missive. These are just email addresses that forward copies of emails to the personal inbox of one or more users. So technically you cannot connect a group to third-party apps like Missive, but you can still easily make a group address work as a team inbox. This is what Shared addresses are made for in Missive.
We suggest you read this article, it’s written in the context of Google Groups, but Office 365 Groups work the exact same way.
Search Operators
Search operators are supported by Missive. You can find the complete list of operators here.
Also, below is a table of the top 10 search operators for Office 365 / Outlook that can help you refine and organize your searches:
| Search Operator | Description | Example |
| from: | Search emails from a specific sender | from:john@example.com |
| to: | Search emails sent to a specific recipient | to:sarah@example.com |
| subject: | Search by keywords in the subject line | subject:meeting |
| hasattachment: | Search for emails with attachments | hasattachment:true |
| cc: | Search for emails that were CC’d to someone | cc:mike@example.com |
| bcc: | Search for emails BCC’d to a recipient | bcc:jane@example.com |
| received: | Search for emails received on a specific date | received:today, received:12/09/2023 |
| size: | Search for emails based on size (in KB) | size:>500KB |
| folder: | Search within a specific folder (or label in Missive) | folder:inbox |
| isread: | Search for read/unread emails | isread:false (for unread emails) |
Microsoft Exchange Protocol
We do not support or plan on supporting the Exchange protocol directly. Exchange is a proprietary protocol; software applications that implement it must pay licenses to Microsoft, and we have no plans to do so in the near future.
However, many of our customers have successfully enabled the IMAP protocol on their Exchange server, allowing them to use Missive by adding their account as IMAP in our application.
