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How to Move SFB On-Premises Users to Online

Retired product. Microsoft retired Skype for Business Online on July 31, 2021, and support for Skype for Business Server 2015 and 2019 ended on October 14, 2025. Microsoft Teams replaces them. This article is kept for reference. Skype for Business Online retirement
Written May 2018. Microsoft changes these admin screens often, so the screenshots below may not match what you see today. The sequence of steps is usually still correct — if something looks wrong, tell us and we'll update it.

You can use GUI or SFB Server Management Shell to achieve this.. Here I'm going to write about the Power Shell procedure as it's more professional and customizable.

Moving users by using Skype for Business Server Management Shell

To move an on-premises user to your Skype for Business Online tenant, run the following cmdlets in the Skype for Business Server Management Shell, using the Administrator Credentials for your Microsoft Office 365 tenant. Replace "[email protected]" with the information for the user that you want to move.

<code>$creds=Get-Credential

<code>Move-CsUser -Identity [email protected] -Target sipfed.online.lync.com -Credential $creds -HostedMigrationOverrideUrl <URL>

The format of the URL specified for the HostedMigrationOverrideUrl parameter must be the URL to the pool where the Hosted Migration service is running, in the following format: 

Https://<Pool FQDN>/HostedMigration/hostedmigrationService.svc.

You can determine the URL to the Hosted Migration Service by viewing the URL for the Skype for Business Online Admin center for your Office 365 tenant account.

To determine the Hosted Migration Service URL for your Office 365 tenant

  1. Login to your Office 365 tenant as an Administrator.
  2. Open the Skype for Business Admin Center.
  3. With the Skype for Business admin center displayed, select and copy the URL in the address bar up to lync.com. An example URL looks similar to the following:

    https://webdir0a.online.lync.com/lscp/?language=en-US&amp;tenantID=

  4. Replace webdir in the URL with admin, resulting in the following:

    https://admin0a.online.lync.com

  5. Append the following string to the URL: /HostedMigration/hostedmigrationService.svc.

    The resulting URL, which is the value of the HostedMigrationOverrideUrl, should look like the following:

    https://admin0a.online.lync.com/HostedMigration/hostedmigrationService.svc

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