Microsoft Office Live Small Business

I'm glad YOU'RE "excited."  But, it's a mess over there (Office 365).  They're saying we need to cancel our website, lose everything and start again from scratch.  We lose our email addresses, too.  Does MS now stand for MisrepreSentation?

Dear Steve,

You mean well, but it is absolutely HORRIFC!

This is the second time within 2 years that because of an end of service of or within OLSB I loose all that is tied together with the Windows Live Unique ID. No matter migrating to Office 365 or Hotmail/Live Admin Center.

Because of loosing the Windows Live Unique ID's associated with the Windows Live ID's of the user accounts I will loose all of the following for each user, which may not be a complete list.

Connection within the Microsoft Partner Network, Live Calendar data, Live Mesh synchronisation, Skydrive Data (photos and so on), connections with all Live Messenger Contacts, Bing Favorite Places, Bing Photosynths (if you would only know how much effort goes in building good Photosynths)

It is clear to me that you and your support organization have absolutely no clue to the scope and impact of disruption you are causing.

I can only beg you to please realise an alternative migration path for the custom domain with all the user accounts to Live Admin Center, retaining the Windows Live ID of each user account. This is the only solution I can think of.

Joscelin

P.S.

I have noted this months ago on this blog. Why is no action taken?

Over the last years I am getting the impression that Microsoft has become divided internally into competing kingdoms with Chinese Walls between them. Support people do not understand one bit of the network of your related services that I am using. Product Managers do not work together to provide alternative migration paths and avoid disruption for customers.

As I said before, the result is HORRIFIC!

For us OLSB website owners,I think this says it all:

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Posted by Lester Zhang Support Moderator on 2011-Jul-10 4:17 AM at the Office 365 Blog

Hello Conor,

Since you have 15 users, so I assume you have small business subscription.

For small business subscription,

1). Office 365 does not provide website hosting service. You can still host your website on your provider, and set the proper DNS record to achieve the “coexistence”, the following article provide the detailed steps, Host your website with another provider at community.office365.com/.../host-your-website-with-another-provider.aspx

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You really don't know what you are doing over there do you. You just want us to go away. Well I am.

Once again Microsoft is migrating to a more complex and less user-friendly system and of course, what was meant to be free and support small businesses has now gone down the drain.

It's a huge disappointment and I, for one, am glad I am now going to say goodbye to this Microsoft mess....I think MS should have kept in mind their original Office Live clients and as Jocelyn said 'created a separate platform'

So good for SUPPORTING small businesses!

Thank you Microsoft for contributing to the failure of many small businesses out there. This is the most inappropriate and anti-commercial move ever...

at present i use office live as the hosting is free and i can incorprate my hotmail emails .. will the new service be stil lfree for website hosting?

Hi Steve,

I appreciate that you respond at all. May I point out the following. The beauty of Windows Live is that it is a globally open, interconnected, true Cloud Services system. Office 365 is only traditional Office Servers as a SAAS offering. What is the purpose of a closed Office 365 in a global interconnected world with Linkedin, Facebook, Google+ and many more? I fail to understand that your customer surveys have pointed out that OLSB customers want Office with its traditional paradigms. A true small business with a max of a few hands full of people would not at all care for that, I believe. They would want an open environment without any borders to easily collaborate with other real small businesses. That is what Windows Live provides. In most economies it is these real small businesses that account for the flexibility and innovation within the national economy. It is these real small businesses that you are putting a knife on the throat with your Office 365 move. It is for all of those loyal users of yours that you should provide a proper alternative and supported migration, e.g. to Live Admin. I feel that Microsoft as a global company has a serious responsibility here to all the communities it serves.

tbc

I feel Microsoft should go back to USA court to have them withdraw the old ruling to separate Windows and Office in divisions with a Berlin Wall between them. It is no more about separated gadgets and productivity tools. It is about cloud centric ecosystems. If Microsoft would be wise it would accept Live as its preferred product brandname and drop Windows and Office as such with their legacy product associations. Do not have a Windows 8 or something, have Live OS. You guys and girls from Office better not remain stuck in your legacy Office track, but create a freshly designed Live Office as a family member in the Live Cloud services offering. Live Cloud, Live OS, Live Phone, Live Xbox, Live Mesh, Live Hotmail, Live Skydrive, Live Zune, Live Bing, Live Messenger, Live ...

Now about your suggestions, Steve. You suggest to back up. Live Calendar data can neither be backed up, nor be moved from one account to another using LIve Mail desktop. Mail can be moved from one account to another using Live Mail desktop. Contacts can only be backed up using a CSV file; how old fashioned. What is worse is that I have the impression that after reloading the data, email addresses are not always loaded in exactly the same field. Another issue is that Live Mail desktop has contact fields that do not exist in the online interface. I have not yet checked if the contents of those fields are moved at all. It is impossible to backup or move Microsoft Bing Photosynths in any way. Imagine having a business of 20 people and then having to move emails, contacts and Skydrive content for each, be it to Office 365 or somewhere else, do they have the skill and time to do that? Going from the presumption that I would want to continue having email with my domain and with the email adresses I am using, then yes I could move out my current email addresses to Hotmail (not available when I tried last weekend), cancel OLSB, create a Live Admin account, move my domain and re-create the email addresses. Nevertheles, the neat web of Windows Live services would have been broken, my content and services split over 2 accounts. Going from the presumption that I would be willing to do without my own domain and move forward with a Hotmail account, then yes I can rename my Windows Live ID and keep my Windows Live Unique ID with all the connected data and services. In this case I would of course want the email address to be the same except for the domain name (e.g. Joscelin,Trouwborst@OmniSynTHesis.com to Joscelin.Trouwborst@Hotmail.com). Now, I happen to own the latter too, it already exists. So, I cannot rename the first to become the latter.

My conclusion for myself is that I have been naive in trusting Microsoft that they care for continuity and that discontinuity would not happen again. I was wrong, It happens again within a timeframe of 2 years.

Just met with another hurdle. One has got OneNote notebooks synchronizing to Skydrive on ones OLSB email accout. The OneNote help does not tell how to migrate these from one account to another within Windows Live. An OLSB user collaborates on a OneNote notebook with people outside the business. How is this to be continued after transition to Office 365?

Why God Why!? Some of us have many web pages that were carefully created.  Now we get to do it again....SteveB are you going to remake these for me?  C'mon now, that would be good customer service.

www.valleyserviceshvac.com

Why is there silence when questions are asked in relation to users having their sites shut down , very poor serv

This is grossly disappointing. I've spent many many hours creating a website using OLSB, and now I'm supposed to recreate my entire site manually so I can migrate to a new tool? The beauty of OLSB is that it's easy to use and provided at no cost. If you are going to force us to migrate to MO 365, then the decent thing to do is to build in an automated process for the upgrade. As a consultant, I would be embarrassed to admit to my client that I trusted MS to do the right thing, and would feel like a thief if I were to charge them for recreating a web site that they already paid me to build on their behalf.

Steve, can you please offer some relief? Please ask your developers to come up with a REAL migration path that doesn't require reinventing the wheel.

While I had my doubts about whether it would be worth my while to transition to Office 365 (among other reasons, I'm a sole propietor with no other employees, so I won't need many of the higher-end functions), I still decided to try it out. So I signed up for the 30-day trial, got my Office 365 account, connected it to Outlook, and was generally impressed with what I saw at first. Buth then I ran into a serious issue when trying to connect my OLSB email accounts (one through my custom domain, one at ***@officeliveusers.com). Outlook Connector would not work, although it did successfully connect two other accounts (one ***@hotmail.com and one ***@live.com). (Windows Live Mail recognizes all four accounts as Windows Live accounts, and all are linked in Windows Live.) Support staff have tried to be helpful, but generally have poked at the issue with solutions I had already tried. (In addition, they have informed me that the ***@officeliveusers.com address will no longer work after OLSB ceases to function--not what I would have hoped. OLSB Support also suggested contacting Outlook Support directly, but all avenues lead to a $259 subscription standing between me and any help from a real person.)  I'm still game to try Office 365, but this roadblock I've run into with Outlook leads me to distrust the technology (and available support) and, even if there is a solution, makes me wonder if the transition is worth all the effort. That said, I would appreciate any advice or direction you can give.

Update: Overnight a member of the support team did some troubleshooting behind the scenes and I am relieved to report that I am now able to add my OLSB email accounts to Outlook. While I will now press on with trying Office 365, I am more relieved than confident at this point. I am also not happy that I spent 12 hours on my end trying suggestions before the issue was properly understood and the troubleshooting provided. I understand there are reasons for employing email support, yet I imagine that a brief telephone conversation could have better accomplished what it took days to achieve through exchange of email communications. (Even chat wouldn't have been as efficient as a real conversation.) Still, I appreciate that the support was there at all, as OLSB has been free. I do hope, however, that the clearly better tools in Office 365 come with somewhat more accessible suport.

Oh this does not sound good at all/ I am currently trying to perfect my website which involves hundreds of hours worth of designing, adding product now to be told its all gona go in a flash. Question is do I move now or wait till then.

For me what helps with having a free site is that as I have very little to no customers there is no pressure to look for the money each month. I knew it was too good to be true. There I was promoting the hell out of  this site encouraginf people to use it. Thats gonna stop now. I probably tell tem to just go to Mr site or something. that has really made my day worse.

i am at this moment working on my site is it worth me carrying on or spend the time looking else where?

Ok I just signed up for a free trial to see my options whether to stay or start looking at other packages out there. So I guess i'm over it. Yeah looks like ill be spending most of my trial workng out how to use it. Within the first few minutes it is not so clear to see where you can start designing your site. As I want to see features. Gonna pop back over there again and work things out. So instead on concentrating on designing I now have to spend my time researching.

Well I finally found where to start designing the site cant remember how I got there though. Features are the same just hope don't those irritating situations where you sometimes have to delete all work beacuse the comands seem to lock itself. Gonna keep this in mind and look at other sites. More work on my very very full ones.

I along with quite a few other people who have set up a website not to make a profit but more as a public service feelso dissapointed with microsoft, I'm sure all the new features are great for the computer Nerds out there, (no offence intended.0 But for the likes of me and I should imagine thousands of others out there who needs all of these features. I run a ballroom dancing website, my mate runs a Church website and so on, all a public service, why the heck would anyone want all the new features? come on microsoft dont you make enough money why not think of the ordinary person for a change.

The question is. Will there be added features, More intergration features like other sites? Now I have to pay although 365 is more affordable than most sites, I am drawn to the ones that have more intergration without the use of searching and working out how to incorporate diffrent features!!!! This will be another time consuming decision.

As I mentioned before, they don't wanna be bothered by us.  They just wish we would go away and leave them alone!  Notice how they are not responding to any of the comments or questions to his post. Even though they said: in the article above;  

...  

If you have a question that is not covered, please post a comment to this blog post and we will try to answer your questions ...  

There are places on the Office 365 Blog where they mention "Office 365 is not a web hosting" solution".  It is not a replacement for OLSB.  The public web site that they offer is far inferior to OLSB's website..  

All they have offered us is a lot of empty promises that we haven't seen any action on.   And many have complained about how Office 365 is so very complicated. It seems to be designed for computer geeks and IT specialist but not business owners.  

We are a pack of troublemakers, who like to whine about why we can't have free hosting. They see no profit in us.  We are making a lot of trouble and giving them nothing but lot of bad publicity that the search engines are picking up on.  

They've already labeled me and my website as  troublemakers and gave me a warning but I don't care, I created a new one again.

They would like us to go somewhere else.  Just take our domain names and leave.  

I'm confused, in June I paid for a year of hosting and now your sayig it will end in Feb.

this is what I recieved:

This mail is confirmation that you have successfully renewed your subscription to Microsoft Office Live Small Business - Domain Addon. This renewal goes into effect on Friday, June 17, 2011. Please retain a copy of this for your records. Here is a description of the service:

Please explain what is going on.

STEVE B,

Your comment about Live ids isn't the whole story. If your id was based on your domain which many were, it gets deleted and is unusable when you move your domain.

Likewise its grossly inaccurate to say custom email addresses can still be used. Custom OL addresses only exist as long as your domain is associated with an OL account. If you want to move your domain (even to O365!!), those addresses get deleted.

"Please note that you will not lose the Live IDs when you cancel your Office Live Small Business account.  The custom email addresses that you created through OLSB (and used as Live IDs) will still allow you to log into other non-Hotmail services; your data and service connections will be preserved. "

I disagree with those who've said you don't care about OLSB users. You do care but there's noone there who understands how OLSB works or what it really offered!

I'd like to once again thank Microsoft for removing one of their few services I actually use.  It started with Popfly last year and now is happening to my entire website.  I wouldn't even care if I had to start paying $6/month to keep it but to rebuild the entire thing? Are you freaking kidding me? I've spent two years of weekly updates on it for my students.

Someone asked above and I'll ask too, Steve, you wanna rebuild that for me?

I don't even want to think about the people who use this as a primary business tool... At least for me I just use it for the education of American children. I can see where MS wouldn't care about that but come on for some people this is their livelihood.

How could anyone at MS have thought "Oh ya, don't worry, people won't care about losing their sites."?

What about the 30 to 32 websites I currently manage with Microsoft Office Live what's going to happen to them. Will I lose the sites already created? How much it will be to keep my account while managing this others sites for the clients? Please Explain. Truly Yours: Johann Rodriguez Pal rodriguezjohann.web.officelive.com

You could make this process seamless for current users, meaning you do the work since I was lured in under false pretenses and forced to switch to a new fee for service plan after I upload all my data and developed my website over years of effort. I don’t know who these small business owners are that you refer to as needing these seemingly useless (for me) services that are offered. I definitely wasn’t asked an opinion on this issue and even if you did some research which I doubt I’m sure you left out the fact that the user would be ultimately left responsible to rebuild the entire thing themselves with an inferior website builder and charge us for it. The six dollars a month is reasonable but the deleting of my site is unforgiveable and will be unnecessarily burdensome. Oh since you are answering questions what is the server address incoming and outgoing for configuring windows life mail so I can backup my email before its purged? My email is ahmadmines@timmed.com

So the website isn't going to just "transition" over with a fee?  We have to completely rebuild the site?  Is there a way to save the site I have to my computer?  Why would I stay with Microsoft if I have to totally rebuild it??

I have a question.  I don't mind paying the $6. because I already pay $5.39 for extra storage space but I want to know is OLSB going to transition our websites that we have created with you all to Office 365 like one of your customer service reps told me a few weeks ago or do we have to do it ourselves?  Also will we lose our email addresses we created through OLSB?  I really need to know so I can decide if I want to stay or use another company.

explain to me why whenever I want to sign in using SAFARI i get redirectied to either firefox or internet expolrer. is this some sort of censorship as i encountered lately on facebook.                                                   ADRIANA REMES at ZEN SERENITY OASIS feet first-reflexology

Everything you have uploaded onto OLSB to include your website is ERASED your email too. The only way to salvage your past emails is to back it up using windows live mail or outlook. As far as I understand it the website tool that they created is inferior, eliminating many features such as blog and registration. No support is available to answer any basic questions.

Will the new Office365 have real people to talk to about billing issues, site functionality, web site integration, or other issues that I have not been able to find assistance on in current offering?

Hi TheOtherMrsPerry,

You might want to take a look at the How-To-Articles which detail a lot of the steps you may need to take for a smooth transition to O365 -- ask.officelive.com/.../default.aspx

In addition, you can also ask questions in the O365 community itself http://community.office365.com

The problem with office 365 is the change up of our basic stable project in officelive.

the 365 makes us change our email and other changes that puts the new build so complicated that who can figure out what user name and password to use in what part of the site build.

Who needs the colabration of sevral different builders or partners except microsoft, most of us only have on site and no partners or friends to meet in the central office page of 365Small Business program cannot be put on one page can it???????????

The first thing that happened was the two hours downloading a server: what is a server and how do I use one. My email address was not good enough so I had to start or sign up for a new run of the mill microsoft email name and server. By the time I got the second download I forgot which user name and password to use to get the first download going to connect it some way to the second download. Well all complications of headacke took over and the total confusion was there while I was trying to figure out what microsoft wanted me to do next. There are no graph or set of simple instructions to put this process together. So the smart thing to do was to contact them> wow >> they charge somewhere in the area of $200.00 per conversation.

Wow give me a braak and the fact they want me to pay them, 6 dollars a month for the total package. What is the total package. Must be a cloud or a small storm. I think most of the comments are so real and true that I get some smiles at the poor soles trying to think they are going to make a dime with a website. I certainly have notice if I hit the search button, none of your small business websites pop up or come into view on the search page. It only shows the main players that advertise and pay them per click or monthly service fee.

Sometimes if I ask for a promenent restraunt in a certain city, They give me Ebay or Quack Duck Insurance hot links or something in Pittsburg or somewhere but where I noted. By the way microsoft is wanting to charge for the website and have promised to not charge, and promised to pay for the personel domain name addition. Well that only lasted one year.

The first year of the add a domain name to your officelive website. Remember sounded so good I built 5 websites and now they want me to delete them and try to use the 365 program. We got news for them, its too complicated and going to be able to use the other connections to other partners, U don't have any other partners to collaborate with. I will miss the office live simple site and the good days of a working email address. You are right with the new mail client in office , I cannot get my szzzz###@msn.com email to load or work in the mail client. So recon thats why they want me to create new mail address for 365 small business account.+ can't remember how to log in to my new downloads to make them work at all and now I am totally lost in the middle of trying to put this program in action: Now I could continue at a faster pace if microsoft would send me about $2999,88 upfront and $6.00 per month would deffently be okay. Any comments for this poor boy, sent me cash, please I need to purchase 365 small business so I can continue to get junk mail from all the scammers. Ha

It’s been a month Steve, this is a PR nightmare the only way I see this getting any better is for Microsoft to transition OLSB websites and offer live or at least chat support. OLSB functionality was seamlessly perfect for my small business this new 364 I don’t see any services that will benefit me or most small business owners. There is nothing wrong with charging people just don’t hang your users out to dry. How many OLSB users are there, how many do you think are going to transition versus going to a competitor? What is the real hurdle in transitioning our websites on your end?

Im still so confused. I can honestly say these new features are well and great but i don't really use the features they already have. I have been burying my head in the sand but i really have to take time out and get on with a decsion. So i now have to spend time website hunting and redesigning my whole website again, since i'm no professional. Oh boy.

I just signed up for the 365 trial. HATE IT!  At first I thought it was cool and would be worth having to rebuild my website from bottom up...

Outlook does not sync - waste... period - I have too many things I am already have to to load and dowload - next thing I know I missed appointments because one doesnt load correctly...

Secondly - website templates/creation is non existant and I am too busy to figure it out...

I am looking for another site since I know have to pay, I will find one that supports my needs... 365 is useless.

I wish Microsoft would seriously consider keeping small office and maybe just updating...

Dissappointed.

Hi gang,

I thought I'd pop in and let you know that there is a really good FAQ you might want to look over now and then for answers to some of your questions.

ask.officelive.com/.../common-questions-about-microsoft-office-365-and-office-live-small-business.aspx

Really helpful stuff to check out!

OL-Sam

marketing consultant is right.  I am to call my clients and say sorry have to redo these sites again for you? do not think SO.

Where is an easy transition for MS to add for us to migrate already created work into new format?

Hello,

I am very happy with the current officelive setup. I don't need any extras. I joined up with this service because it was FREE.

I have established a successful website now. (after a lot of work and time)

I think it grossly unfair to lure people such as I in with a free package, only to change the rules, and start charging for an upgrade I dont want.

Six dollars a month is $72 a year. I signed up here because it was free. I could go to hundreds of other web hostings - and either pay for the privilage, or get it free

Why do this?

I feel it is very unfair, and am wondering is there a package whereby people such as I may continue with this level of service without having to pay and have our accounts shut down?

I for one will not be paying. I would move to another free service.

Respectfully,

Wedding Bagpipes.

NOTE FOR ShelbyMarlow:

I'm sorry, Shelby, I have deleted your comment (no edit) as you posted your telephone numbers.  This is a public/open site and, for your security, it is inadvisable to post personal details such as these.  There is no direct telephone support available so the inclusion of personal information is unproductive.  The current information we have is that the service will continue through February 2012, at the earliest.  A more definitive timeline will be posted in the community when it becomes available. If you have had information about transition and are experiencing problems you can email support (link on the community 'HOME' page). GOOD LUCK.

For month during the beta years I would answer the MSN surveys honestly suggesting that although there were certain limitations with the software and when asked would I recommend it to anyone else I would respond, yes.  The mistake I made was I actually did recommend the service to a lot of my colleagues and friends who also built websites, imagine my relationship with those people now.  

Their MSN where are they going to go?  I can't even describe how disappointed I am for fear that if I do need any assistance during the process I will be blacklisted.

I have two serious issues.  On my business site that I have paid for years I have almost 300 pages which now have to be MANUALLY recreated in the 365 environment not to mention a number of my up to 50 emails addresses used for info@ newoffer@   rates@ etc. etc. for all those I am going to have to pay for.

The other on my non-profit charity site I have uploaded almost 1500 pictures which I now have to download back to my computer to upload right back to 365 not to mention again hundreds of pages to recreate.

Prefect timing for Google to promote their small business initiate to a number of country's including Canada, UK etc.

Question is if you are not going to recreate all your hard work from OLSB to 365 where are you going.  Any suggestions from other users what sites they are considering moving to?

(will be interesting how long this post will last.  MSN are very slow to respond to any number of the above noted concerns but I note they are quick to edit)

Where are you moving too?  Your input would be appreciated: yeoman@ontariomortgageteam.com

My small business utilizes Live Mesh. I know that Live Mesh is connected with the Sky Drive, which is part of OLSB. In Feb 2012, will the current Live Mesh be obsolete? If so, is there an Office 365 service that is comparable to Live Mesh?

Dear Steve B.

Would you please tell me how I can obtain the registry key for my custom domain without cancelling it? I need that key for Melbourne IT, but I cannot have a laspe in the email hosting.

Thank you.

Hi Margo,

You may find help in the FAQ section of this page here ( ask.officelive.com/.../common-questions-about-microsoft-office-365-and-office-live-small-business.aspx) but I think your question, because it is quite specific, would probably best be handled by posting it over in the actual O365 site at http://community.office365.com.   It's best to post questions in a Q&A area.

Good luck,

OL-Sam

Is it true we will have to manually re-create all the we pages???

How to transfer site to a new host not Office 365. This is only for the BIG BOYS. We small business folks are left out. I looks and feels like the office 365 is about making money for Microsoft.

How to we save are site data????????????????  

How to move OL site too iPage? (example)

DCody, correct.  You do have to manually re-create your website when transitioning to Office 365.  Visit the Transition Center for guidance on this ask.officelive.com/.../transition.aspx - specifically Step 4: Move your website to Office 365, ask.officelive.com/.../step-4-move-your-website-to-office-365.aspx for instructions on how to achieve this. GOOD LUCK!

JackieBryant1, to benefit from the experience and advice of other users, we suggest you use the "ASK IT" tab at the top of the page to post your question.  There are very experienced users within this community who will be more likely to see your question and suggest options. Good luck!

I have built an entirely new site with Google Sites.  I am now ready to transition over, but don't know how.  Apparently I need an AuthInfo (Client Transfer) account, and don't know what that is.

Google Sites works better for me than OLSB, as I was frustrated with the photo uplod and management.

I will be happy to see Microsoft in my rear view mirror if I could figure out how to repoint my URL, and how to KEEP my olympiafurnishedhomes.com email addresses.

Any suggestions?

we are not sure what to do, rebuilding this website with hundred of pages, ggggrrrrr. maybe like the other comment said just run away, at least they should have a migration. We will work with yahoo hosting first if they have a migration, we like them because they offer unlimited storage if this is the second time they do this, they will do it again. We loved Microsoft but doing this... sorry.

I would be happy if they allowed you to start your transition now but still benefit for 3 until you have to start paying. I have finally decided on the design on my website i have over 300 pages. It is killing me to finish my website on;y to have to do it all again in a few months. I wish there was this option.

Steve,

I dont have an issue with paying a monthly fee, but to tell us all that what we've created over the years has to all be re-done is just insane. What about our search engine ranking? I have a lot of time, effort and money involved in creating a high search engine ranking for my website? Will it all be lost with the move to 365? Keep what we have and charge us for it. Anyone else that wants 365, give it to them at a price too, but dont have total disregard for the years of work and effort that we've put into our current sites. Some of us are too busy running our business to have to do all the additional work to make this happen. Please answer my question about my search engine ranking and all that I have into it.

Thanks you,

I also have paid advertising banners on different sites that link to my current OL website. This is one of the many things I've done to increase my search engine ranking, will thoses also be gone? I'm posting these questions here and the one above in my previous post because I was directed here to do so. Why is the questions here not being answered? Where are you MS? Answers please.  

Hi Zebraranger,

There are some answers to your questions here but for full answers to all of your O365 questions, you should really head over to the O365 community at community.office365.com/.../default.aspx. This isn't really a Q&A area for your questions.  You'll need to register at the O365 community but you will have full answers and a chance to dialogue about your concerns.

Good luck,

OL-Sam

Thanks Sam,

When I try to register at 365 it ask me for my new domain name, I dont have a new domain name. Do I use my current OLSB web site domain name?

Thanks,

Hi Zebraranger,

Were you able to register? Try using your existing domain name.

No thanks - I run a small HOA website and the residents just love it.  Because of the new cost for 365 ($6/month) we won't use it.  Further, like many others with a non-business website we won't or every will use most of the features you get (and I am sure pay for) in 365.

Any body out there know of a web hosting service at a reasonable price - because we will be switching if things go through at MS says.

Serious?  You are telling me, after many hours and frustrations of creating a website that I was lead to believe would be free, indefinately, I might add, is now going to cost me?  Who do I send my bill to for the falsification of information over the internet.  I see class action written all over this one?  I personally believe that there needs to be compensation here.  Grandfather all of us in that have already created one and allow all of the features that we will need to continue maintenance of the site....Forever Free, until we cancel it without hitches.

Just saying....

Microsoft - charge me the $6./month and leave 'Live' alone! Or transition our sites for us please. 2 reasons for using the current setup....1) it was free so I could take my time learning how to get things going for a SMALL business without throwing away money. I am just starting and needed a web presence without spending money I wasn't earning. & 2) It was simple to use. I'm not an experienced web designer so this was great! NOW you impose all these complex steps to transfer what I finally produced!.

Why dump the current setup? Why not just add 365 for those businesses that need more options? As I said - I would rather start paying $6./month on the current site than to have to try to figure out the transfer to something I will never use fully. "If it ain't broke- don't fix it" and offer the upgrade as an option!

This was the best FREE small business website by miles in terms of usibility, ability to use own domain, no advertising etc. I have invested hours into my website and am so disapointed. Google sites is not even a close second best. It will take me hours to copy all my pages over. I have already done this with one website, I have a second which is a lot larger.

If you really wanted to support small business, you would keep it free. If you had more competitvly priced domains (mine was £7 inc VAT for 2 years) then I would have at least purchased that from you, so you could have made some money from me.

Also, what a major marketing fail. The microsoft branding was always there when I logged in etc, keeping me aware of microsoft. I now use an Ipad so dont manually login to hotmail. The only other time I would encounter microsoft would be through officelive, which I am not going to be using as I cant afford it. I dont have any other contact with microsoft (I use openoffice, google search etc).

Just wanted to get that off my chest....

We using Office Live to manage a charity's 20 email addresses, will this still be free on the new 365?

Hi Gavin,

I see you posted this question in the community as well. Here is the answer to your question - ask.officelive.com/.../56850.aspx

Good luck,

OL-Sam

How will the transition affect mail, calendar, task synchronization for Windows Phone 7 users?

Currently we are using Windows Phone 7 which requires a live ID. The live ID used on Windows Phone 7 is identical to the live ID used for OLSB. We sync all aour mail currently with live mail (used by OLSB).. After the transition, the Office 365 account has the same mail address. Will my live ID still be the same? And if how can Windows Phone 7 have at the same time an identical mail address for Office 365 and for the Windows live ID.

If we need a new live ID for our phones how can we be sure to still access the purchased software from Windows phone market place (purchased software is linked to the Windows live ID).

Can I take my domain name and go somewhere else?

I have just read the guidelines for transitioning over to 365, and am very disappointed.  We are a primary school and only use OSLB for our website.  We have no problem with having to pay a small fee for this, but have a huge problem with the work it will entail to cut and paste the website over!! In this day and age there must be another solution (other than taking our custom elsewhere). It sounds as if transition will be just as much work as setting up a new website!  

New technology sure has simplified my business. Now all I have time for is working with the new technology for the business, "365" days a year.

Your services going to cost us each Month, fine. Your services going to cost us time? How much is your time worth to you MS 365?

Good evening,

I have just tried to log into my website www.ianbradleymarshall.com through my usual microsoft connection.

I obtain a grossly disfigured screen and am unable to access my website to make very urgent changes.

This is having a direct impact on the publication this week of the book "Meanderings", and I will hold Microsoft Office to account and make a full claim for compensation if I have to.

I am really disappointed at the way in which Microsoft has ridden completely roughshod. I am not interested at this stage on Microsoft thinking that it is delighting its customers and business users with updated versions. It is wrong for Microsoft to just assume that every customer or business user will be doing cartwheels of joy!

We are in the very cold business of making business work and work profitably.

Microsoft should not assume that customers and business users will automatically read jazzy publicity emails. If Microsoft has made a very serious and fundamental change to the domains that require reconfiguration by the customer/user, then the email title should state bluntly that it is imperative that this email be read as otherwise the customer/user will no longer be able to access their websites notwithstanding having paid in advance the annual subscription.

Microsoft Office has confirmed that my subscription is fully up to date in a letter sent to me this week to my home address.

Please reply within 24 hours.

This email has been saved as a word document with a view to sending to my solicitors if the matter is not resolved and my website accessibility restored immediately.

Yours faithfully

Kenneth T Webb

110 Waterloo Warehouse

Liverpool L3 0BQ

You cannot be serious? Are you saying that Microsoft is not able to start charging for an existing service, but is kicking its customers out and demand we sign up for a new service and recreate thousands of hours of online work from scratch?? I have 7 web sites on OLSB, for corporations, non-profit organisations and governmental agencies, with all together hundreds of pages and thousands of photos and documents which all reside on YOUR servers, and you tell me you will not, can not save them?? What about my domain names, e-mail addresses, contacts, calenders, blogs...? I have spent years and a lot of money making my brands and structures known; I have trusted you with my image, my business and that of my custmers. How can you care so little for my work, my livelihood and my customers? Tell me again why I would trust you with my IT needs again?

I have come here when trying to find out why I can no longer access and update any of my company's web sites and web services (for which I pay!), and I cannot believe what I am reading! Add a fee for the existing services if you want, or for the access to additional ones, we can all accept that, but how can you just close down a service which we have trusted in without giving us any option of saving the thousands of hours of work and dollars we have invested in it, our image, our business, our customers, our brands...? How can we ever trust Microsoft with our business needs again when clearly our survival mean nothing to you??

Microsoft is showing an utter disregard for the major inconvenience that transitioning to Office 365 will cause many OLSB users who rely on its website builder.  After spending years working with the software, I'm completely shocked that Microsoft has simply decided to drop support for OLSB, without regard to the impact it will have on many small businesses across the nation.

I would gladly have paid a small fee to continue to use OLSB, and would have welcomed more enhancements to the existing web builder.  But, apparently, Microsoft isn't interested in my business, because it's doing everything it can to turn me away.

Shame on you Microsoft.

So... given the utter disregard that Microsoft has shown for the small business community, here's what I am working on: an article that I plan to submit the NY Times.  The headline is: "Microsoft Screws Small Business."  I think that gets the point across in as few words as possible.

Where is Steve, why is there no response. I agree with everyone here, years to create a website, countless hours. Charge a fee but keep our work. If I wouldn'y be reading this with my own eyes, I would say this can't possibly be true.

They don't care about us, they don't respond. We are a problem that they don't want to deal with.  They just wish we would go away,

So sorry you feel neglected, it can be so difficult through times of change and I have empathy with your frustrations, sadly I am not enabled to bring about any magic solutions.. Steve is currently unable to respond personally as he is not currently active in this area and, as such, not deliberately ignoring your direct comments. The moderators will pass your comments along to the team to ensure they are aware of them.

Oh come on.  He is unable to answer  for 4 months.  Someone representing MS could answer in his place.  What about his blog post asking for feedback?  What about Annie Akin?  If anyone wants to know where the planners of O365 are and how to get answers then they should go over to the O365 blog (community.office365.com/.../default.aspx).  Be forewarned however, they will ignore you over there also. Sugar coat it all you like Shewuk, but this community of users is being ignored.  If you look back through all of the comments you will see that Ken originally seemed to be in favor of the change.  If becoming educated about the upcoming service turns a seemingly optimistic and undoubtedly helpful active individual into someone who would leave the above comment and urge users to now move away from MS, then his level of dissatisfaction is obvious.  MS does very little to make sure that their customers are informed and therefore are being dishonest (once again) as to their intentions.  I have said it before and now I will again.  MS should send out e-mails informing their current customers of the impending change.  There should be a place where they can go to ask about the issues that they do have or will have with the change.  It is obvious that this forum has practically no information about the coming of 365, and the 365 community has no idea what OL is or who used it.  To leave everything as it is for over a year now and no information going out to the hundreds of thousands of users who don't know that this community exists or just don't access it is despicable.  One can only assume that MS will leave it as it is until it is time for the change and then in desperation they will get all of their current customers to sign up only to find out that all of their work is gone.  Sounds like a lot of disgruntled customers to me.

I only stumbled across this information by accident, no email from microsoft, nothing on the wesite configurator. There must be hundreds of thousands of OLSB customers in blissfull ignorance that their websites will disappear in a few months.

I can't believe how incompetant and unprofessional a company like Microsoft have been with this transition. I can only hope Steve Brown has been sacked and someone with a braincell will take over and cancel this appalling project and leave OLSB alone.

It would be impossible for me to understate how BAD BAD BAD Office 365 is when compared OLSB.  Just coming to the end of a trial period where I set up a new website.  Not one business enquiry, slow to load on screen, virtually no hits, slow support provided and the very important site report analytics are DREADFUL, meaningless and litterd with irrelevant garbage!  Office 365 is more likely to destroy my business than help,it!  NO WAY WILL I PAY FOR THIS!  Long live OLSB - if only Microsoft had the intellect to realise that!

I for one am not happy about this having to move my site to O365

I have spent the last several years developing my site and advertising my email address on business cards, invoices,autos etc. also getting top search engine rankings for my sites search terms.

When I first started with OLSB the domain and hosting were both free for the first couple years which was really great then they decided to start charging domain registration fees I thought ok no big deal still a great value and I continued to use OLSB  as it's served me well enough I put up with the site builder glitches etc.

So a few days ago i was looking for some info on adding something to my site when I cam across the info that OLSB was ending and O365 was taking it's place I thought what I have not heard anything about this no official notification from MS on the subject here it is end of Nov. and I only have till Feb to sort it all out and when i looked into all the details at all the steps involved i thought to myself wow this can't be happening!

I went ahead and signed up for the 30 day trial of O365 to check it out and I can't believe what a mess it is I don't need or want any of this over complicated stuff they are cramming in here but I forged on  recreating my website I was able to do that pretty easy with duals screens on my computer a lot of copy paste the one thing I notice is all the freezing of the site builder I have been having a lot of issues with that on OLSB and it seems to carry over into O365 even worse I think and the pages of the new site load much slower which i am not happy about.

As for the new features of the site builder itself there are some welcome additions but i find they are hindered by having to toggle back in fourth in tabs to get to the different features which creates a lot of extra work  and time I think most people will abandon MS all together over this there is no way i am going to pay for this service it does not work well enough it barley works at all.

The biggest failures here are no advance notification by MS I only found out by accident thank god I found out and have time to decide what to do also the thought of losing  my Email address that I have advertised everywhere really ticks me off I think we need to start a petition to stop the forced migration and losses we all will incur here it's not fair that we will all suffer from this move with no real benefit only extra expense!              

Willie B, thank you for your carefully thought out and well worded response.  Ken is indeed a most valuable member of this community and I will pass your thoughts along to TPTB. Again, I really do empathize but am unable to craft a solution as I am not part of the O365 process.

Keep heart, the service will continue through at least Feb 2012 (I know, that is rapidly nearing).  I can only reiterate the links to the transition center ask.officelive.com/.../transition.aspx and the O365 community community.office365.com/.../default.aspx .  There are members here who are active within O365 and you may find more help that way. Any problems of a technical or billing nature need to be directed to support, using the email link on the HOME page. Sadly, Annie and Steve are no longer active or available within this community. -- best regards, Shewuk

I do understand corporations must always make updates to their products and services in order to be in the forefront of being competitive. However, by doing so, customers are the number one factor and reasons corporations stays a float.

Customers always welcome better services and products but not if corporations are advertising an exibiting their new products and services at the cost of customers time and dollars. Microsoft 365 is an update for more revenue increase for Microsoft at the cost of customers time and money.

If Microsoft made a decision to update it's product and services including elimination of older products, there should be a smooth transition for each and ever customer at the cost of Microsoft and not the customers. Customers should not be required to manually make this tansition themselves. Microsoft should create the possibility, the availability and the procedures that will allow each customer to make this transition much easier.

Technology has progressed in today's age where issues of this nature should be done by a click of a button including a support staff available on hand immediately to resolve existing customers issues during the transitioning of their Microsoft Small Business websites to Micorsoft 365 website account.

Mr. Microsoft, your customers are the one's who allow you to be in the arena, please reconsider and come up with something better than just a free trial of 365. Your customers will accept your free trial but will also move and discontinue their business to another service provider in order to prove their point for 50 bucks instead of accepting this kind of treatment for $6.00 per user per month.

**Existing customers should be and must be grand-fathered in and not be required to close their existing accounts and start an new ones**

Thank you,

JC1

Please dont close Office Live!! You will definitly end up loosing your valuable customers !!!!!!!!

I have not been impressed with the loading time of my site using the O365 trial there is no way i will pay for it I will just move my site to a new host all together for anyone interested I have done a lot of research and have also designed my site with several free hosting services to get a feel for whats out there I found a company with a great reputation I checked reviews and their prices compared to other hots  have a look at these guys this is where i am going www.scalahosting.com/top-web-hosting no more MS bull I'm done !!!!!

I am lost for words,  I have proudly built up a business, which is not easy in these economic times, and I am about to lose the lot.  It feels as if somebody has closed my shop.  I am absolutely disgusted with the way the whole thing has been handled. I don't need the use of most of the things 365 is offering and would be happy to carry on as I am if I had the chance.  Reading all the comments I am not alone.

It's telling that over a year after 365 was announced, so many people are still expressing surprise at the impending change. Clearly posting information in the OLSB community hasn't been effective. It's also obvious to me that the one place an active OLSB user is going to visit is their account. Yet all they see there on the log in page is a big Sky Drive promo and this vague statement buried at the bottom:

Announcing Microsoft Office 365 Coming soon is an easy-to-use set of web-enabled tools designed specifically for smaller businesses and professionals who want cloud-based productivity tools without the IT hassles.

Learn More »

That tells them nothing about what's going on and has obviously been ignored by many OLSB'ers. If MSFT was able to add that snippet, why not make it clearer right there that the service they're logging into will soon end??

Launching a new service and then Ignoring a pool of up to a million captive customers who might subscribe to it just seems like an odd way of doing business to me.

We have posted an update on the future of Office Live Small Business on the blog that you can read here: ask.officelive.com/.../update-on-the-future-of-office-live-small-business.aspx.

I hope that this blog post answers many of your questions. If you still have additional questions, you can read our updated FAQ (ask.officelive.com/.../common-questions-about-microsoft-office-365-and-office-live-small-business.aspx) where many other questions are answered.

Why not offer the new O365 for the people who may want it and leave the current service alone but charge a small hosting fee to stay on OLSB.... are you guys not listening to what your core customers want or need? this is all so crazy! in this bad economy why would you pull something do you think MS is so big that it can not fail or go under look around at all the other companies that have went belly up you better take notice MS people are tired of having to change everything that revolves around MS be it websites or OS's you better take notice more and more people are moving to Macs and Linux.....    

How do I obtain an EPP code in order to transfer my domain people better get this info if you are planning to leave as I am

Ok it appears that in order to leave OLSB with your domain name you must first cancel your service with MS thats right cancel!!! your site will be taken down then you will receive your EPP code you need in order to transfer your domain away from MS and Melbourne IT to another host...... what a mess one way or the other your gonna lose your site for a period of time while you figure this out way to go MS!!!!!!!!!    

I'm a long term OLSB user but  ibn the UK have had NOT ONE WORD of contact from MS on this... I'm not normally a forum user and only found this site when I was looking to upgrade my storage.  So, I've now something like 2 months of notice that I'm loosing my website. So common MS, when were you going to write to me to tell me that this was happening? How much notice will you actually give me to port across content, pages, pictures? When WILL I hear something from MS officially, rather than just stumbling on the news whilst surfing during the xmas break! Shocking service... really everything people have said about MS being the big uncaring corporation sadly appears true.

See community.office365.com/.../18503.aspx

It is a similar matter, but more contractual since services have already been rendered and Microsoft profited from some OfficeLive users work which has services already rendered.

I am still battling with MS and Melbourne to get my DRK/EPP they will not give it to me they keep saying i must cancel first but let me tell you I own other domains and manage sites for other clients and I have contacted every host and asked for the cods and they gave them to me in a matter of minutes I have all of my codes except for OLSB/Melbourne  what a joke!!!!!!  

Here is what i recieved from MS Support:

This is Kamal Dixit from Microsoft Office Live Support. I have updated the Service Request which was created to track your concern wherein you are concerned about retrieving the Authorization code associated with your domain to transfer it to new host. I realize the importance of addressing your concern and I will provide you with the relevant information in this regard.

To begin with, Microsoft Office Live is the reseller and Melbourne IT is the registrar of all the domain names registered through Microsoft Office Live. as your domain is currently registered with us, we will take care of all your concerns and queries with your domain.

As we informed you earlier that in order to retrieve the Authorization code associated with your domain the domain name should be cancelled from your Microsoft Office Live account. Once the domain name is cancelled, you will be provided with the Domain Registration Key (DRK) using which you will be able to unlock it from us and transfer the domain management to Melbourne IT (domain registrar). Once the domain management will be transferred to Melbourne IT, you will retrieve the Authorization code from them to transfer the domain name further.

HOT NEWS...have ms relented: Follow my latest on line conversation with the Office 365 team:

"You are now chatting with 'Alison G'.

Alison G: Hello, my name is Ali and I work on the Office 365 team.  My role here is to point you in the right direction to get you the help you need.  To do that I just need to ask you a few quick questions.

Alison G: Please could you tell me whether this is for business or personal use, and are you a Microsoft Partner?

You: Alison: go ahead

You: Business use

Alison G: Have you already purchased the product?

You: No - My website is still functional on the OLSB platform

Alison G: How many users would you be looking to have?

You: I'm a single user so would be plan P

Alison G: Thank you for answering my questions.  What is your enquiry today?

You: How we I highlight that by not making the Office 365 'Offer' live until Feb 1st that (even if you DO meet the feb 1st deadline) that leaves precious little time to migrate over to 365> I'm happy to do the work but why can't we start now - who do i speak to too get started on this?

You: Sorry - that should read "by highlighting that the 365 Office is not active until Feb 1st"

Alison G: I will just have to see what I can find out for you.

You: I know that there has been a LOT of negative comment - I can see the route MS are taking and will migrate over, even though it's a big task. BUT - I could have spent the last quiet 2 weeks or so doing this but only at the expense of loosing a place on the offer. That cannot be right!

You: So - make the offer and I can get started, better then for MS and for me!

Alison G: Unfortunately I'm not from that team and don't have the answers that you are looking for.

You: No - but you are on the 365 team and can therefore tell me what the **** is going on: make the offer to us and let's get working, rather than this crazy situation - NO ONE at MS will answer any questions! It's always 'someone else'. So, will the 365 team be making an offer to transition and when?

Alison G: I am being told that you will receive an email telling when your Office 365 account will be activated and everything will get transferred automatically.

You: REALLY????????? that is new and red hot news? wow... so we do not have to do a manual transition? I'll pay my £4 now....

Alison G: You don't have to pay £4 now, you get 6 months free

You: That's wonderful news Alison, I can relax back a bit now that I do not have to worry about this. Well, see you guys over in 365-land sometime in the spring: Fingers crossed! Thank you

Alison G: Thank you for your time today, I hope that I have been able to help.  Have a good day.

Alison G: Good Bye

You: Bye and thanks, David

Will we definately get an email in plenty of time before the transition period to warn us when  the OLSB will be stopped. ????

Every time my site goes down (LIKE NOW) I die of fright incae it has been ersased without my knowledge. My domain name is  active(paid til April).

I don't want to lose this name as it represents the famous person of which my site is named after.

No other name will do.

The instructions for moving the domain name looks impossible for anyone other than a computer whiz to understand ,can we have it in simple plain english.

or even better an automatic transfer .

Having to search through various forums for information is time consuming and in the end impossible to find out anything relevant ,most of the questions I have read have had no replies SO WHERE IS THE HELP.?

I live in Scotland UK and so far after going through all the forums and the youtube tutorials can find nothing that represents Office Live Small Business in the UK. no prices for the new 365 and no help.

I already have a domain name which I want to keep & it is paid for until July, but the instructions printed online for the transition are to technical to follow (same with youtube)

I moved to microsoft 2 years ago with the promise of an easy to use web site builder and it suited my purpose(I was with ORANGE before and they did exactly the same thing that is happening now, threatening to pull the plug with little warning) I managed to move my whole site with only hours to spare, now the same thing is happening all over again so who can be trusted?

I don't need cloud & all the apps. just a basic web site ,at the moment mine has 40 pages with many pictures and much text as it is a  very busy fan site for a famous singer.

If I move my site I will lose the  position I have on google search etc.

So can anyone at microsooft advise me on how to move to office 365 without losing my domain name, my website , my visitors , and my position on google etc.?

I know how to run a web site,have done for 6 years but am not technically informed enough to understand all the jargon on the domain transition instruction pages (far too many for a start).

Sandra

Othe forum readers might be interested in the conversation I have just had with a 'person' on Office 365 Help today,as per usual he passed the buck and said it was NOT an office 365 issue.......

You are now chatting with 'Daniel B'.

You: Sandra hi

Daniel B: Hello, my name is Dan and I work on the Office 365 team.  My role here is to point you in the right direction to get you the help you need.  To do that I just need to ask you a few quick questions.

Daniel B: Please could you tell me whether this is for business or personal use, and are you a Microsoft Partner?

You: ok

You: personal,i already have a OLSB

Daniel B: Do you have a trial?

You: not yet,idid not know til recently that OLSB was being discontinued,now I am in a panic incase I lose my existing site

Daniel B: You will get 6 months free on office 365 and an e-mail from Microsoft letting you know that you are being moved over to O365, so don't worry.

You: I live in UK and after reading the forums for help see nothing thereof any use,only complaints from other users, my problem is not the building again of my web site, I hope to manage that but the instructions for transition of my domain name are to technical for me to follow, also the youtube .

Daniel B: Thank you for waiting. I'll be with you in just a moment.

Daniel B: Hi, sorry

Daniel B: Hi, sorry

You: My domain name is very important and is listed on google,if I have to change the name it will lose me the places I have on search engines which I have worked had to get,my site is a fan site for a very famous singer which incorporates his name so I need the same domain name.

Daniel B: When you purchased OLSB did you purchase through a partner?

You: I still have my domain name purchased from microsoft paid up to july 2012

Daniel B: When Microsoft e-mail you about the transition you will be able to contact them through that. Don't worry, you won't lose your domain name.

You: If OLSB ceases in April does that not mean a breach of contract if my domain is paid til July

Daniel B: You can keep your domain name and will be moved over to Office 365 so you will still keep your domain name.

You: Will there be an easier way to transfer my domain name? all I have read about getting a registry key etc sounds a very unpredictable confusing exercise

Daniel B: As this issue is with OLSB and I am on the Office 365 team I would suggest you call the customer support number on 0800 032 6417

You: You say I will be moved, does that mean someone will do it for me then?

Daniel B: I hope they can help you further.

Daniel B: You will be guided through the process.

You: No this is an issue with both, you are passing the buck, there is nobody answering questions on OLSB i have tried

You: Who will guide me

Daniel B: All the information for the transition will be in the e-mail

You: so I have to sit and wait for an email that might not arrive in time to give ME time to do the transition

Daniel B: If you call the customer support number they will help you further. As this is not an Office 365 issue I'm really not the best person to help, sorry.

You: Do you realise how long it takes to build a website with over 40 pages.

You: Why did you not say you could not help in the first place, I can not afford to sit on hold on phone for hours

You: It IS an office 365 issue,it is an issue with the transition from one to the other

Daniel B: Sorry I have tried to help as best I could. Please call the number I provided.

You: In other words there is nobody who can help, I have tried OLSB help, the forums etc and nobody knows anything and we get directed to Office 365,so why is there nobody at Office 365 with enough knowledge there to help

You: I have copied this down and will let others on the forums know the outcome of my questions,I am guessing there will be an unhappy response

Thank you for chatting with us. Please click the "Close" button on the top right of the chat window to tell us how we did today.

To be frankly honest, I think Microsoft is PATHETIC to fordce this upon people whohave qworked so hard to build thier sites only to be forced in to losing everythng OR to have to pay money to gethepl thorugh this "CLOUD" crap!  Ithink it's a CONSPIRACY FOR THEM TO GET PEOPLE'S MONEY!

To be frankly honest, I think Microsoft is PATHETIC to fordce this upon people whohave qworked so hard to build thier sites only to be forced in to losing everythng OR to have to pay money to gethepl thorugh this "CLOUD" crap!  Ithink it's a CONSPIRACY FOR THEM TO GET PEOPLE'S MONEY!

my main concern is protecting the emails from the last few years associated with the OLSB account. I have had enough of Microsoft through this and just want to be able to migrate my email that is currently a Hotmail hosted (*@gmcelectrical,net) to my new webhosting site without disrupting the flow of the email. I want to recreate the folder structure and contents of each folder as well as contacts, not just archive the info. I want the emails intact and accessible now how do I do that:? I want to mirror exactly what has been on OLSB through Hotmail but I want to move all of it, so I have control of my email hosting in the future not microsoft,

Hello everybody,

Disclaimer here, I am a Microsoft employee. Not working for the division involved but I manage a non profit through Office Live and I am going through the transition. These are a few things I learned through the process.

I will not comment on any comments above and will just ackwledge that it is more work than I would like. I just intend to provide a few help pointers if it can be useful to some.

1. Recreating the web site is a bit labor intensive but there is a big helper: you can copy/paste from one window to another and it will re-create the almost exact layout for each new page. You have to do a few things to sometimes fix things. But nothing impossible. One thing important to notice is that all pictures keep the links, there are not magically added to your site. So you will need to manually download each picture and re-upload to new site.

In my case, it took me two evenings to get to nearly identical web sites (18 pages with a few controls such as paypal, contacts and sites)

2. Creation of new accounts: I decided to keep it manual as I had less than 10 account but you can bulk generate accounts in Office365. This is the least time consuming part. You send email to each person with their temporary password.

3. Backup emails: I had Mac and PC users and could them to backup all their emails (either using Office 2011 or Mail). For some it is a bit odd as they used to only use the online solution. Now they have a mix of emails on PC and online. Most important for me was the backup of the emails. Key server information to know is the following

pop3.live.com

smtp.live.com

both need to use SSL

4. Backup of contacts: you can export all the contacts into a CSV. Main data lost are groups of contacts if you created some.

5. Calendar: well it really hurts on this one. I don't think there is any good solution. If you have a Windows Phone, you might be able to use it as a proxy (first sync you Windows Live Calendar and then register the Office 365 account)

6. Domain name transition: I did not do it yet as I have yet some users that need to finish their backup. I read the instructions in the PDF. Pretty standards and fairly easy (but I am a tech guy so I ackowledge it might be more tricky for less experienced users)

7. Skydrive: I still have to finish that. I am currently performing a massive backup of all our SkyDrive content (about 1GB). Seems like it will take 30 min to download.

Then I should be able to bulk upload a lot of the content to Sharepoint. I am unsure of what I will be doing with the pictures. They might simply stay in Skydrive. I have yet to see how our login to Skydrive will work once the transition will be completed.