Transferring files between 365 accounts.

Question

What is the process of transferring the files of an individual 365 account to a family 365 account?

Answer 1

If you currently have a Microsoft 365 Personal or Basic subscription and you will be switching to a Microsoft 365 Family subscription, then provided you use the exact same Microsoft account for the Microsoft 365 Family subscription, you will not loose access to your files and will still have access to the exact same 1TB of OneDrive storage.

Answer 2

Transferring files between an existing Microsoft 365 account and a new Microsoft 365 Family account is a manual, copy‑and‑move process. There is no automatic migration between consumer accounts.

A practical approach is:

1. Set up the Microsoft 365 Family subscription
   • Purchase/activate Microsoft 365 Family.
   • Share it with the person whose files need to move (if that’s a different person) by sending an invitation from the subscription owner’s account:
     • Go to the subscription owner’s Microsoft account, Sharing page.
     • Select Start sharing and invite via email or link.
     • The invitee must accept the invitation to become part of the Family subscription.
2. Sign in to both accounts
   To make copying easier, sign in to both the old 365 account and the new Family‑backed account at the same time, for example using:
   • Two different browsers, or
   • Two different profiles in the same browser, or
   • A normal and a private/InPrivate window.
3. Transfer OneDrive files
   From the old account to the new Family account, use one of these patterns:
   • Sync the old account’s OneDrive to a computer, copy the files locally, then sign in with the new Family account’s OneDrive and sync/upload the files there.
   • Or open both OneDrive web sites (old and new) and download from one, then upload to the other.
4. Transfer email, contacts, calendar (if needed)
   If the individual account uses Outlook with Microsoft 365:
   • Export Outlook data (email, contacts, calendar, tasks) from the old account to a local data file, then import it into Outlook configured with the new Family account.
   • See: Find and transfer Outlook data files from one computer to another.
5. Transfer OneNote notebooks (if used)
   • Back up notebooks from the old account.
   • Restore them to the new Family account.
   • See: Back up OneNote and Restore notes from a backup.
6. Verify and clean up
   • Confirm all needed files and data are present in the Family account (OneDrive, Outlook, OneNote, etc.).
   • Once satisfied, the old account’s subscription can be allowed to expire or be cancelled, depending on the scenario.

Note: Storage and app benefits in Microsoft 365 Family are shared with up to five other people, but certain AI benefits are only available to the subscription owner and do not transfer.

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References:

• Transfer data manually between Microsoft 365 accounts
• How to share your Microsoft 365 Family subscription
• Manually transfer users' data between subscriptions
• Share your Microsoft 365 Family or Premium subscription