Site Mailbox is removed from SharePoint Online

I tried to create a Site Mailbox this morning, in SharePoint Online and came to know this feature is no longer supported in SharePoint Online.

 

Tried to understand it in detail and following are the updates:

1. Microsoft is notifying Office 365 customers that access to Site Mailboxes is being removed from SharePoint Online, and no more Site Mailboxes can be created from March 2017 onward.
2. Site Mailboxes originally appeared as a feature of Exchange Server 2013. Site Mailboxes appended together an Exchange mailbox with a SharePoint site to allow users to collect email conversations in a single location, as well as access shared documents from both Outlook and SharePoint.
3. If you are using Site Mailboxes, then you have got some migration work to look forward to. Otherwise, if you are looking for “email-centric collaboration”, Office 365 Groups are the way to go (Reference: Microsoft Community Groups).

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Slide Library in SharePoint Online

When you try to migrate from SharePoint 2010 to SharePoint Online (Office 365), Slide Library template is not listed as app in the Create App section.
You can still get it with a direct URL. I would not depend on it being there forever as the Slide Library is officially not in SharePoint 2013, but for now you can create one.
The direct URL to create the old Slide Library:
http://yourserver/sites/yoursite/_layouts/15/slnew.aspx?FeatureId={0be49fe9-9bc9-409d-abf9-702753bd878d}&ListTemplate=2100

Update 22/05/2017:
Even though above solution works as expected in SharePoint 2013 & SP Online it is advisable not to use since Microsoft may remove this feature in future.

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Challenges to be considered before migrating from SharePoint 2010 to 2016

1. Identifying the business owners for each site / site collection
2. Data Cleansing - identifying the old contents/obsolete data for archiving
3. Identifying the intranet links embedded inside the documents (while migrating to SharePoint Online) 
4. Optimize and define databases - Perform re-organization of content. For example, as you determine what will be brought over to the new environment, you may end up archiving some ‘less-used’ content to a ‘read-only’ or ‘slower’ server.Consider moving read only data to a separate SQL instance or even separate SQL farm where the data is read-only. You may also want to consider moving less frequently used content to SQL servers that have less resources and keep the higher performing SQL servers for the frequently used/collaborative content, perhaps your ‘old’ SQL server.
5. Size of data to be migrated – this will affect the migration time
6. Any good migration should involve a content audit. Data security (legal & audit implications should be considered) –confidential documents which are restricted for internal use cannot be migrated to SharePoint Online. Key ‘things’ like ‘Highly Visible or Critical Areas’, ‘Executive Users Permissions’, ‘Large AD Group Users’ assignments, ‘Highly Used’ Features, ‘Heavy Customizations’, Integration with other systems, etc. must be identified, and documented in order to identify where the critical data and functionality exists. Depending on the access to the content, an appropriate ‘services’ and ‘security’ model can be included in the SharePoint migration planning (and later validation).
7. SharePoint 2010 cannot be directly migrated to 2016 and it needs to be migrated to 2013 and then to 2016 version (when Database upgrade approach is opted as an option for migration)
8. If tool based migration (like Sharegate, Metalogix) approach is used, then direct migration from 2010 to 2016 is possible
9. 10 GB is the new soft limit for file sizes in SharePoint 2016
10. If custom master page is used, then the existing master page needs to be upgraded /recreated from 2010 -2013 –then 2016 version for using it in SharePoint 2016
11. While using database upgrade (2010 to 2013 and then to 2016) approach, SharePoint 2010 sites will be made read only during migration process
12. Any custom farm solutions should be upgraded to SharePoint 2016 before use
13. The same connectivity/integrations to external systems in SharePoint on-premises environment may not be achieved in SharePoint Online
14. New user ID’s needs to be created in SharePoint Online. New/ existing permission levels needs to be created in SharePoint Online
15. End users needs to be trained for new UI/navigation, etc.

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Enable "Open with Explorer" Option In SharePoint Online Document Libraries In Microsoft Edge Browser

Happy New Year 2017 to all readers and wish you all success in this year 😃😃😃

I was asked by my colleague who is from different Technology stream about “Open with Explorer” option disabled in SharePoint Online document libraries in Microsoft Edge browser.
Microsoft Edge browser has a new look and feel than other IE versions and obviously it is going to take a while for all end users to get used to / to know the various options in it.I tried checking the permissions of the user and he has admin permissions but still the user couldn’t open the library with explorer option as shown below:

As usual searched for various articles and understood about the features of Microsoft Edge browser.Read this KB article about Microsoft Edge and SharePoint behavior:

https://support.office.com/en-us/article/Using-SharePoint-in-Windows-10-a16bdaa4-73d6-45f8-897f-0a3cb8131763

Solution:
Navigate to the edge browser -> click on Open with Internet Explorer as shown below:

Now, the SharePoint site should open in the IE 11 (latest version before Microsoft Edge is released).As expected, in IE 11, Open with Explorer option is enabled and everything works perfectly as shown below:

If you want to sync, click on Sync and it will open the One Drive -> Sign in -> Sync the data.

Hope this helps you!
Please share your valuable comments which will help me write more and share this post using the social buttons below.

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