Switching from another signature service

Moving from another signature product is mostly a question of order. If the old product is switched off before Footer365 is ready, people send mail with no signature. If both run at once for everyone, recipients see two. This article walks through a switch that avoids both, and links to the detailed article for each step.

1. Connect Footer365 alongside the old product

Sign up and connect Microsoft 365 as normal. Connecting changes nothing for your users on its own: Footer365 only adds a signature when one of your signature rules matches the sender, and you have none yet. Leave the old product running for now. See Connecting Microsoft 365.

In the setup wizard you choose how Footer365 adds signatures: with the Outlook add-in and mail flow, or with the Outlook add-in only, which changes nothing in Exchange but signs only mail written in Outlook with the add-in. Most of the steps below are the same either way. Using the Outlook add-in only

In the first 14 days of your free trial, you can claim the switching offer under Billing > Invoices: up to 4 months free in total, including the trial, on a 12, 24 or 36-month term, with the old supplier's latest invoice or renewal notice as proof. The closer your old contract is to its renewal, the more months are free. See The switching offer.

2. Bring your signature across

You do not have to rebuild your signature. Export it from the old product as HTML, or take the HTML from an email it has signed if it cannot export it, then go to Signatures and Templates, select More and then Import and backup, and use Bring a signature from another supplier. Footer365 copies its images into your own storage, converts the merge fields Exclaimer, CodeTwo, Xink and Symprex use, and turns the signature into a design you can edit in the signature editor. Read the notes it shows, fix anything it lists, then select Activate on the template. See Import a signature from another provider.

Do this before your contract with the old product ends. Images the old signature links to may stop working once it does, and Footer365 can only copy an image it can still fetch.

If you would rather start again, pick a design from the template library instead.

3. Try it with a small group

Add a rule for a small group with New rule and Group members, or A group where your organisation has the rule wizard, and no All users rule yet, so only that group gets the Footer365 signature. Check with Test a rule. See Pilot with a small group first.

4. Switch everyone over

When you are happy with the pilot, add a fallback rule for All users at the bottom of your list, so everyone gets a Footer365 signature. See Add a fallback rule so nobody goes without.

Then, straight away, stop the old product adding its signature. Doing the two together keeps the time anyone sends two signatures, or none, to a few minutes.

5. Remove what the old product left in Microsoft 365

Most signature products leave several things in your tenant. Remove each one, following the old product's own instructions where it has them:

• Mail flow rules. In the Exchange admin centre, go to Mail flow, then Rules, and remove the rule that sent mail to the old product or added its signature.
• Connectors. Under Mail flow, then Connectors, remove the connectors the old product created.
• Its Outlook add-in. In the Microsoft 365 admin centre, go to Settings, then Integrated apps, and remove the old add-in, so it does not put its own signature in while people write.
• Its enterprise application. In the Microsoft Entra admin centre, go to Enterprise applications, open the old product, and delete it from its Properties page. This withdraws the access you granted it.

Never change or remove a rule or connector whose name starts with Footer365. See What Footer365 creates in Exchange Online.

If you use a mail security gateway as well, check the old product was not part of its routing before you remove its connectors. See Using Footer365 alongside another email gateway.

6. Clear out signatures saved in Outlook

Some products work by saving a signature into each person's Outlook, and some people will have kept their own from before. Either way, Outlook adds it while they write, and Footer365 adds its own as well, so recipients see two.

On Getting started, under Everyone's own Outlook signatures, you can select Turn their own signatures off. Read what that changes first, because it clears the signatures people have saved in Outlook. With the Outlook add-in only, Footer365 cannot do this for you, and the step's Show the PowerShell steps button leads to the commands to run yourself. See Keeping or turning off people's own Outlook signatures.

7. Tidy up

• SPF record. With mail flow, add the entry Footer365 needs, as described in Updating your SPF record. With the Outlook add-in only, Footer365 needs none. If the old product asked you to add an entry of its own, ask its supplier whether it can come out once it no longer handles your mail.
• Outlook add-in. With mail flow, deploy the Footer365 add-in if you want people to see the signature while they write. With the Outlook add-in only, it has to be deployed to everyone who should get a signature. See Deploying the Outlook add-in.
• The old contract. Cancel it last, once mail has been going out with only the Footer365 signature for a few days.

If something goes wrong

• Two signatures on a message: The signature appears twice, or signatures stack up in a thread.
• The old design still turns up: I changed the signature but people still send the old one.
• No signature at all: The signature was not added.