Office 365 history import and sync [legacy]
Edited

⚠️ This legacy behavior applies to Front companies with a start date before Aug 16, 2023. See this article for the latest sync behavior.

Overview

When you connect an Office 365 individual inbox or shared inbox to Front, you will have the option to import your history and Front will maintain a two-way sync of statuses with Office 365 whenever possible. The cases where status syncing will stop are explained here, which is to be expected since Front and Office 365 have different features, and thus why you are using Front. Continue reading to understand the details of how history import and syncing work between Front and Office 365.

For the same information on Gmail channels, see here. Note that SMTP forwarding channels will not have history import and syncing.


Office 365 history import

History import

Shared inbox

Individual inbox

 

Optionally import 50K most recent messages upon adding inbox

Optionally import 50K most recent messages upon adding inbox

 

Conversations archived by default and found in the Archived tab of shared inbox.

Conversation read/unread and open/archived status mirrored in Front.

Individual inboxes

Status in Office 365

Status in Front

 

Read in Inbox

Read in Inbox

 

Unread in Inbox

Unread in Inbox

 

Open in Inbox

Open in Inbox

 

Archived in Inbox

Archived in Inbox

 

Flagged in Inbox

N/A

Folders 

Location in Office 365

Location in Front

 

Inbox

Inbox

 

Drafts

Does not sync

 

Deleted folder

Not imported initially, but will sync post-connection

 

Junk folder

Not imported initially, but will sync post-connection

 

Outlook folders

Imported as private or shared tags


Office 365 sync

Action in Front

Sync

Effect in Office 365

Email is read or unread

Email is read or unread*

New message received in Inbox

New message received in Inbox

Email is sent

Email appears in Sent

New draft is started

Does not sync

Email is trashed

Email moves to Trash

Email is permanently deleted

Does not sync

Email is archived

Email moves to Archive

Email is unarchived

Email moves to Inbox

Email is marked as spam

Email moves to Spam

Email is snoozed

Email moves to Archive

Snooze expires

Email moves to Inbox

Tag is added or removed

Does not sync

Tag is created or deleted

Does not sync

Move conversation

Move will break status sync

Assign and comment

Does not sync

Delete inbox

Does not sync

Mass archive inbox

Emails move to Archive

*See the FAQ Why isn't the read status syncing? for exceptions.


FAQ

How do Office 365 folders sync to Front exactly?

  • When you connect an Office 365 channel, Front will try to fetch as many folders as we can from Office 365.

  • Front will add up to 500 tags to your sidebar, retaining the original nesting structure. If you already have other tags added, then Front will add as many more as possible up to 500.

  • Front will add tags to your sidebar regardless of whether there is content in the tag.

  • Tags that are created but not added to your sidebar are accessible through the tag menu.

  • Folders that couldn't be translated into tags will fall into the normal workflow in which a Front tag is created when a message belonging to the Office 365 folder comes into Front.

Why isn't the read status syncing?

Read status will only sync for individual (personal) Office 365 channels, and for shared conversations when marked as read by the assignee. We use this behavior for shared inbox conversations since many teammates may read a conversation before the assignee, and we wait to sync read status until the teammate handling the conversation reads it.

How long does it take for an import to complete?

Import times vary based on the inbox’s number of messages, message contents, and attachments. It may take up to 72 hours to finish an import.

What order is my history imported?

Messages are imported from newest to oldest.

Anything else I should know?

See this FAQ section for common questions that apply to both the Gmail and Office 365 import and sync.