Groups are also the new and improved experience for those tasks that were previously handled by distribution lists and shared mailboxes.įor the full Groups story, see Learn about Microsoft 365 Groups. You don't have to worry about manually assigning permissions to those resources, because adding members to your group automatically gives the members the permissions they need to access the tools and resources your group provides. Microsoft 365 groups let you choose a set of people who you wish to collaborate with, and then easily set up a collection of resources for those people to share. Public folders don't provide document management features, such as versioning, controlled check-in and check-out functionality, and automatic notifications of content changes. This practice isn't recommended because it affects storage in public folders and undermines the goal of mailbox limits.ĭocument sharing and collaboration. Users with mailbox limits sometimes use public folders instead of mailboxes to archive data. Public folders are not recommended for the following situations:Īrchiving data.

Public Folders contain different kinds of data and are organized in a hierarchical structure. If you want to migrate some or all of your public folders to Groups, this article describes how the process works, and provides links to the articles that walk you through the process, step by step.

Public folders have been around as long as Exchange, whereas Groups were introduced more recently. This article provides a comparison of public folders and Microsoft 365 Groups, and how one or the other might be the best solution for your organization. Summary: Why you should or shouldn't migrate your public folders to Microsoft 365 Groups.

Exchange public folder migration