Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Import & Export Mail from Outlook express/Microsoft outlook to Thunderbord

Microsoft Outlook Express

These instructions are intended for users of Microsoft Outlook Express 6. If you are a user of a different version ofOutlook Express

Exporting the address book

  1. Open Outlook Express and press File → Export → Address Book...

  2. The Address Book Export Tool will start. Select the option Text File (Comma Separated Values) and then pressExport.

  3. Save the file in a memorable location. Give the file a descriptive name, such as mail_address_book.csv, and pressNext.

  4. Select the details from the address book which you would like to export. If you are unsure, tick all of the options. Then, press Finish.

  5. You should receive a message stating that the Address book export process has completed. Press OK and thenClose. Your address book should now have been exported successfully.

Exporting mail messages from Outlook Express

Because Microsoft Outlook Express is unable to export its mail messages to an intermediate format, you must install another piece of software in order to export your email.

Microsoft Office Outlook

These instructions are intended for users of Microsoft Office Outlook 2003. If you are a user of a different version ofOutlook, you may find instructions specific to that version on the wiki.

Exporting all Outlook data

[Caution]

This method may be unreliable and should be used for backup purposes only.

  1. Open Outlook and press Tools → Options...

  2. Select the Mail Setup tab and press Data Files...

  3. A screen called Outlook Data Files will be displayed. Select the first file in the list, make a note of its name, and pressOpen Folder...

  4. A folder will open. Find the file you just selected. If you have difficultly finding the file, it should be of type Office Data File or have the file extension .pst.

  5. Copy the file into the location you are using to store your exported settings.

  6. Repeat this process for all of the files which were listed on the Outlook Data Files screen.

Exporting your contacts

  1. Open Outlook and press File → Import and Export...

  2. The Import and Export Wizard will start. Select the option Export to a file and then press Next.

  3. Select Comma Separated Values (DOS) and press Next

  4. Select the Contacts folder and press Next. Then, choose where to save the file and press Next.

  5. A screen listing Actions to be performed will be shown. Press Finish to export your contacts to the location you selected in the previous step.

Exporting mail messages

Because Microsoft Outlook is unable to fully export its mail messages to a usable intermediate format, you must install another piece of software in order to export your email.

Preparing email for export using Mozilla Thunderbird

Because some mail clients (such as Microsoft Outlook and Microsoft Outlook Express) do not store their mail messages in a standard format, an additional piece of software must be used to convert the mail before export. Mozilla Thunderbird is a free, open-source application which is able to do this.

The following instructions explain how to obtain Thunderbird and then use it to prepare mail messages for export:

  1. Open a web browser and navigate to the Mozilla Thunderbird website. Follow the link to download Mozilla Thunderbird.

  2. Once the download has completed, run the installer package. Follow the instructions to install Thunderbird.

  3. Once the installer has completed, start Mozilla Thunderbird. You should be greeted with the Import Wizard. Follow the instructions to import all settings - this should import your mail and some other data.

  4. If the Import Wizard does not appear, press Tools → Import... and choose the Mail option. Follow the instructions to import your mail.

Exporting email messages from Mozilla Thunderbird

These instructions are intended for users of Mozilla Thunderbird and users of Outlook and Outlook Express who imported their mail into Thunderbird (see the section called “Preparing email for export using Mozilla Thunderbird”).

  1. Press Start → Run, type %AppData%\Thunderbird\Profiles\ into the box provided, and then press OK. A folder will open.

  2. In the newly-opened folder, you should find another folder with a name made up mostly of random characters, for example fyhsxlr3.default. Open this folder.

  3. In this folder, locate a folder named Mail or ImapMail. Select this folder and copy it to a safe location.

  4. When you switch to Ubuntu, make a back-up copy of the folder you just made a copy of. This folder contains all of your mail folders from Thunderbird, in the mbox format.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

nice articale