Migrating Intune and Entra ID Devices Between Microsoft 365 Tenants

Tenant-to-tenant migrations are among the most complex projects in the Microsoft 365 world. They arise during mergers and acquisitions, when a business is divested, when a company moves from a partner-managed tenant to their own, or when IT environments are consolidated. Device migration is one of the most operationally sensitive parts of this process because it directly affects end users and their ability to work.

The good news: devices do not need to be wiped or reset. Using a seamless migration tool, enrolled Intune and Entra ID devices can be moved from one tenant to another without any disruption to the end user. There is no factory reset, no loss of local data, and no lengthy reprovisioning process. Users can continue working through the migration with minimal interruption.

How seamless device migration works. A seamless migration tool handles the heavy lifting of re-enrolling devices into the destination tenant in the background. The device is silently unenrolled from the source tenant's Intune management, its Entra ID join is updated to point to the destination tenant, and it is re-enrolled into the destination tenant's Intune environment, all without requiring a device reset or user intervention. Policies, compliance settings, and app assignments from the destination tenant are applied automatically once re-enrolment completes.

Step 1: Prepare the destination tenant. Before any devices are migrated, the destination tenant must be fully configured. Intune policies, compliance policies, configuration profiles, app assignments, and conditional access policies should all be in place and validated on a test device. Building the destination environment mid-migration causes gaps and user-facing access issues.

Step 2: Provision user accounts in the destination tenant. User accounts, licences, and group memberships must exist in the destination tenant before devices are migrated. If a device is re-enrolled before the user's account is ready, sign-in and policy application will fail. Synchronise identities first, validate access, then proceed with devices.

Step 3: Run the seamless migration. Once the destination tenant is ready and users are provisioned, the migration tool processes devices in batches. Each device is quietly moved across, with the migration typically completing in the background within a short window. Users may be prompted to sign in with their new tenant credentials once the switch is made, but they do not lose their local data, applications, or settings.

Step 4: Validate and clean up. After migration, confirm each device appears in the destination tenant's Intune admin centre, is marked compliant, and has received the correct policies and app assignments. Remove any residual device objects from the source tenant's Entra ID and Intune to keep both environments clean.

What to prepare before the migration. Ensure OneDrive Known Folder Move is active so user documents are cloud-backed regardless. Verify that all required apps are configured as assignments in the destination tenant. Confirm conditional access policies in the destination tenant will not block devices immediately after enrolment before compliance has been evaluated. Communicate the migration window to users so they know what to expect.

Cloud Centrify manages tenant-to-tenant migrations end to end, from destination tenant buildout and policy configuration through to seamless device migration and user continuity. If you are planning a tenant migration, get in touch early. The earlier we are involved, the smoother the outcome.