How to copy emails from Outlook97 to Outlook Express
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I set up my father-in-law's new PC a week ago (Windows XP Home, etc) and showed him how to use email and internet. This weekend, I took my memory stick along (with Win98 driver CD) and copied across his old documents, email stuff, etc. About there I got stuck - I can't find how to transfer his old Outlook 97 Inbox and Sent items to Outlook Express 6! After 2 hours of Googling, I still can't find a zero-cost but easy way. Is there a reasonable way of transferring the old emails, or should I install Office 97 (because he has a legal copy of that), just to get Outlook 97? As far as I can see, the only part of Office 97 that he has used in the last 8 years is Outlook!
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I set up my father-in-law's new PC a week ago (Windows XP Home, etc) and showed him how to use email and internet. This weekend, I took my memory stick along (with Win98 driver CD) and copied across his old documents, email stuff, etc. About there I got stuck - I can't find how to transfer his old Outlook 97 Inbox and Sent items to Outlook Express 6! After 2 hours of Googling, I still can't find a zero-cost but easy way. Is there a reasonable way of transferring the old emails, or should I install Office 97 (because he has a legal copy of that), just to get Outlook 97? As far as I can see, the only part of Office 97 that he has used in the last 8 years is Outlook!
Did you check the "File->Import/Export" option?
Marquee is no more :( [My Current Status] Link2006 wrote:Let's take it outside of CP Jeremy : Please don't.I would love to see this.I'm making the popcorn already.
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Did you check the "File->Import/Export" option?
Marquee is no more :( [My Current Status] Link2006 wrote:Let's take it outside of CP Jeremy : Please don't.I would love to see this.I'm making the popcorn already.
VuNic wrote:
Did you check the "File->Import/Export" option?
That's about the same as asking me "are you a total idiot?", isn't it?:^) Yes - the problem is that Outlook Express has some import options, but as far as I can tell they only work when you have Outlook and Outlook Express (or maybe Exchange and Outlook Express) on the same PC. On my father-in-law's PC, all the import options gave error messages (MAPI-related, I think). You can probably migrate the other way (Outlook Express to Outlook) but that does not help.
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VuNic wrote:
Did you check the "File->Import/Export" option?
That's about the same as asking me "are you a total idiot?", isn't it?:^) Yes - the problem is that Outlook Express has some import options, but as far as I can tell they only work when you have Outlook and Outlook Express (or maybe Exchange and Outlook Express) on the same PC. On my father-in-law's PC, all the import options gave error messages (MAPI-related, I think). You can probably migrate the other way (Outlook Express to Outlook) but that does not help.
My 2 cents use the MSDN forum for this one, or even better use the CP Questions section.
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VuNic wrote:
Did you check the "File->Import/Export" option?
That's about the same as asking me "are you a total idiot?", isn't it?:^) Yes - the problem is that Outlook Express has some import options, but as far as I can tell they only work when you have Outlook and Outlook Express (or maybe Exchange and Outlook Express) on the same PC. On my father-in-law's PC, all the import options gave error messages (MAPI-related, I think). You can probably migrate the other way (Outlook Express to Outlook) but that does not help.
normanS wrote:
but as far as I can tell they only work when you have Outlook and Outlook Express (or maybe Exchange and Outlook Express) on the same PC.
Yup. While I don't know for certain, I'm willing to bet that import option for OE uses CDO, which means you'll need Outlook installed on that machine or at least a postbox that accesses an exchange server to get your mail from Outlook. I'm pretty sure you can export from Outlook though to an OE format no? It's been a while since I used Outlook fortunately :), so I can't double check it.
Jeremy Falcon A multithreaded, OpenGL-enabled application.[^]
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normanS wrote:
but as far as I can tell they only work when you have Outlook and Outlook Express (or maybe Exchange and Outlook Express) on the same PC.
Yup. While I don't know for certain, I'm willing to bet that import option for OE uses CDO, which means you'll need Outlook installed on that machine or at least a postbox that accesses an exchange server to get your mail from Outlook. I'm pretty sure you can export from Outlook though to an OE format no? It's been a while since I used Outlook fortunately :), so I can't double check it.
Jeremy Falcon A multithreaded, OpenGL-enabled application.[^]
Jeremy Falcon wrote:
which means you'll need Outlook installed on that machine
Thanks - that would explain the error messages! So nice when a guess is confirmed.
Jeremy Falcon wrote:
export from Outlook though to an OE format
Nope. No "Export to Outlook Express" option. (I have Outlook 2000 here at work, but it looks similar to Outlook 97.) Outlook exports to 4 or 5 formats but all except for "export as personal folder (.pst)" are text-only formats. About a quarter of the old emails which my father-in-law wants to keep have attachments. I think that OE will import CSV files but nothing else. I guess I'll try to install Office97, and deselect everything except Outlook!
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My 2 cents use the MSDN forum for this one, or even better use the CP Questions section.
I tried MS Knowledge Base (that was my first source), but I could not find anything useful there.
Jeremy L-T wrote:
the CP Questions section
Do you mean CP General Discussions forum? I had a look there before I decided on the Lounge, but my question did not seem to fit. Was I wrong? Who knows? DILLIGAF!
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VuNic wrote:
Did you check the "File->Import/Export" option?
That's about the same as asking me "are you a total idiot?", isn't it?:^) Yes - the problem is that Outlook Express has some import options, but as far as I can tell they only work when you have Outlook and Outlook Express (or maybe Exchange and Outlook Express) on the same PC. On my father-in-law's PC, all the import options gave error messages (MAPI-related, I think). You can probably migrate the other way (Outlook Express to Outlook) but that does not help.
normanS wrote:
That's about the same as asking me "are you a total idiot?", isn't it
:doh:. Certainly not.
Marquee is no more :( [My Current Status] Link2006 wrote:Let's take it outside of CP Jeremy : Please don't.I would love to see this.I'm making the popcorn already.
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I set up my father-in-law's new PC a week ago (Windows XP Home, etc) and showed him how to use email and internet. This weekend, I took my memory stick along (with Win98 driver CD) and copied across his old documents, email stuff, etc. About there I got stuck - I can't find how to transfer his old Outlook 97 Inbox and Sent items to Outlook Express 6! After 2 hours of Googling, I still can't find a zero-cost but easy way. Is there a reasonable way of transferring the old emails, or should I install Office 97 (because he has a legal copy of that), just to get Outlook 97? As far as I can see, the only part of Office 97 that he has used in the last 8 years is Outlook!
After rebuilding my computer a few months ago I was struggling to find a way to transfer my e-mails (from Outlook Express on my old hard drive to Outlook Express in my shiny new hard drive). I struggled for a few hours trying to find a way to do it until I realized that you can just drag your e-mails out of OE into a folder in Windows Explorer and then drag them back again on the new install :doh: Don't know if the same trick would work with Outlook '97? The OE import/export options are a bit of a nightmare.
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After rebuilding my computer a few months ago I was struggling to find a way to transfer my e-mails (from Outlook Express on my old hard drive to Outlook Express in my shiny new hard drive). I struggled for a few hours trying to find a way to do it until I realized that you can just drag your e-mails out of OE into a folder in Windows Explorer and then drag them back again on the new install :doh: Don't know if the same trick would work with Outlook '97? The OE import/export options are a bit of a nightmare.
Well that is absolutely fascinating!!! I just tried (from Outlook 2000 on my work PC) and exactly the same thing works. I didn't know you could do that. It's a good day when you learn something interesting. Thank you. It doesn't help me with the current problem though. I saved an email as a MSG file in Outlook 97, copied it to the new machine, and double-clicked on it - Outlook Express doesn't understand .MSG files! When you save a message from OE, it saves it as a .EML file, not as a .MSG file. But that gives me another possible approach. I'll look for a "MSG to EML" converter program.
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VuNic wrote:
Did you check the "File->Import/Export" option?
That's about the same as asking me "are you a total idiot?", isn't it?:^) Yes - the problem is that Outlook Express has some import options, but as far as I can tell they only work when you have Outlook and Outlook Express (or maybe Exchange and Outlook Express) on the same PC. On my father-in-law's PC, all the import options gave error messages (MAPI-related, I think). You can probably migrate the other way (Outlook Express to Outlook) but that does not help.
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You must export your emails in coma separated values,, and after that you will be able to import your email in outlook express 6 :-D
Thanks, but that will not solve the whole problem (although that is what I used for the contacts / address book.) When you export to CSV, attachments are discarded. About a quarter of the old emails which my father-in-law wants to keep have attachments. As far as I can see, the only format which retains attachments is exporting to personal folder (.PST format) or saving individual messages (.MSG format) but Outlook Express will not read those.
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I set up my father-in-law's new PC a week ago (Windows XP Home, etc) and showed him how to use email and internet. This weekend, I took my memory stick along (with Win98 driver CD) and copied across his old documents, email stuff, etc. About there I got stuck - I can't find how to transfer his old Outlook 97 Inbox and Sent items to Outlook Express 6! After 2 hours of Googling, I still can't find a zero-cost but easy way. Is there a reasonable way of transferring the old emails, or should I install Office 97 (because he has a legal copy of that), just to get Outlook 97? As far as I can see, the only part of Office 97 that he has used in the last 8 years is Outlook!
Assuming Outlook Express is installed on the old PC, just import the Outlook messages to Outlook Express on the old PC, copy the OE message directory to your flash, and then import on the new PC using import OE6 messages and select "from OE6 store directory" on the Flash drive. I do this all the time when we upgrade / replace computers at work. Steve
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Assuming Outlook Express is installed on the old PC, just import the Outlook messages to Outlook Express on the old PC, copy the OE message directory to your flash, and then import on the new PC using import OE6 messages and select "from OE6 store directory" on the Flash drive. I do this all the time when we upgrade / replace computers at work. Steve
Thanks Steve - I thought about that approach after I asked the question.:-O I would guess that my father-in-law's old Win98SE PC has Outlook Express, in which case your suggestion should work. But we might have removed OE to save space on the hard disk, or it might be a previous OE version, or . . . (The old PC only ever had a SLOW dial-up connection, and "Windows Update" was never run!) I will probably attack it as you have suggested next weekend, with plan B being to install Outlook 97 on the new PC.
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Thanks, but that will not solve the whole problem (although that is what I used for the contacts / address book.) When you export to CSV, attachments are discarded. About a quarter of the old emails which my father-in-law wants to keep have attachments. As far as I can see, the only format which retains attachments is exporting to personal folder (.PST format) or saving individual messages (.MSG format) but Outlook Express will not read those.
normanS wrote:
As far as I can see, the only format which retains attachments is exporting to personal folder (.PST format) or saving individual messages (.MSG format) but Outlook Express will not read those.
There isn't an option to import the *.PST file? I have used this feature, okay it was OE 5 as memory serves but it did work. There isnt a need to export from Outlook, just find the PST file, it houses everything.
I'd love to help, but unfortunatley I have prior commitments monitoring the length of my grass. :Andrew Bleakley:
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normanS wrote:
As far as I can see, the only format which retains attachments is exporting to personal folder (.PST format) or saving individual messages (.MSG format) but Outlook Express will not read those.
There isn't an option to import the *.PST file? I have used this feature, okay it was OE 5 as memory serves but it did work. There isnt a need to export from Outlook, just find the PST file, it houses everything.
I'd love to help, but unfortunatley I have prior commitments monitoring the length of my grass. :Andrew Bleakley:
I tried copying the PST file across first, which was when I discovered there's no Import PST option in OE6. Really, I did look for that first. Trust me. I did a manual PST export of just the Inbox and the Sent Items because somehow there were 3 copies of each folder in Outlook on the old PC. The current plan is to see if I can Import to Outlook Express on the old PC, then copy the OE .dbx files across to the new PC. That's if the old Win98 PC has OE, of course. Plan B is to install Outlook on the new PC (actually that might become plan A - I think my father-in-law would prefer Outlook to OE, because he is at least minimally familiar with it.)
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I tried copying the PST file across first, which was when I discovered there's no Import PST option in OE6. Really, I did look for that first. Trust me. I did a manual PST export of just the Inbox and the Sent Items because somehow there were 3 copies of each folder in Outlook on the old PC. The current plan is to see if I can Import to Outlook Express on the old PC, then copy the OE .dbx files across to the new PC. That's if the old Win98 PC has OE, of course. Plan B is to install Outlook on the new PC (actually that might become plan A - I think my father-in-law would prefer Outlook to OE, because he is at least minimally familiar with it.)
normanS wrote:
Really, I did look for that first. Trust me.
I apologize if I made it seem like you hadn't tried. I remember why it was so easy when I did it, OE treats Outlook as an exchange client and doesn’t worry about the PST file per say, as long as Outlook is installed. With Outlook installed (I know a real pain) File -> Import -> Message -> Microsoft Exchange (in a few seconds it pulled about 100 messages, with attachments). Of coarse File -> Import -> Microsoft Outlook Also worked importing the mail.
normanS wrote:
somehow there were 3 copies of each folder in Outlook on the old PC.
Thats Auto backup at work.
I'd love to help, but unfortunatley I have prior commitments monitoring the length of my grass. :Andrew Bleakley:
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normanS wrote:
Really, I did look for that first. Trust me.
I apologize if I made it seem like you hadn't tried. I remember why it was so easy when I did it, OE treats Outlook as an exchange client and doesn’t worry about the PST file per say, as long as Outlook is installed. With Outlook installed (I know a real pain) File -> Import -> Message -> Microsoft Exchange (in a few seconds it pulled about 100 messages, with attachments). Of coarse File -> Import -> Microsoft Outlook Also worked importing the mail.
normanS wrote:
somehow there were 3 copies of each folder in Outlook on the old PC.
Thats Auto backup at work.
I'd love to help, but unfortunatley I have prior commitments monitoring the length of my grass. :Andrew Bleakley:
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Hopefully the old machine has both Outlook and OE installed - then it should be "simple" (hah hah.) If not, installing Outlook on the new PC is probably easiest. I'll find out at the weekend.
normanS wrote:
If not, installing Outlook on the new PC is probably easiest.
Yea sounds like it, rather boggles the mind why OE can’t import a PST and just drop the features it doesn’t support. What’s even more astonishing is that ADO can't connect to a PST file. :~
I'd love to help, but unfortunatley I have prior commitments monitoring the length of my grass. :Andrew Bleakley: