Help me move email?

April 30, 2006 2:55 PM

Need advice on moving email from one machine to another.

I just got a laptop and will be using Outlook on it for email. I previously used Outlook Express for email on my desktop. Both computers are Windows XP and networked wirelessly.

Here's the snag. I only want to move SOME of the files...not all of them.

i know that I can use the move "everything" with the files and transfer wizard, but I don't want to move everything...just certain files. I tried using the wizard with only some files, but it was huge. I stopped at that point, but I'm also thinking I would have run into a snag in going from OE to Outlook.

Suggestions?

TIA!

posted by Mrs. Smith to Technology (5 answers total)

I don't know Outlook, but if I were going to do this with an arbitrary email client I would use an IMAP server somewhere. Connect to the IMAP server from the old software, copy the messages to be moved to it, connect to the IMAP server from the new software, download the messages locally, then remove them from the old software. (Delete last in case something screws up.)

Alternatively, if the wizard can copy instead of moving, copy all, and then delete from both the ones you want to have only in the other.
posted by mendel at 4:17 PM on April 30, 2006

The mail should be stored somewhere under C:\Documents and Settings\[username]\Local Settings\Application Data\ - you can copy that folder to your new machine and use Outlook's import feature..

see also: How do I move my Outlook Express folders to my new machine? for a slightly different method (perhaps more straightforward).
posted by unmake at 4:21 PM on April 30, 2006

I only want to move SOME of the files...not all of them.

Can you be more specific? What files do you want to move? Email? Settings? Folders?

Email is stored by folder in OE, so you can move just the ones you want into their own folder, and copy that *.dbx file over to your new machine, and import it into Outlook.

I can provide more detailed instructions (I've done this many times), but I'm not clear on which files you want.
posted by SuperSquirrel at 6:08 PM on April 30, 2006

Outlook Express stores mail, by default, inside the "C:\Documents and Settings\username\Local Settings\Application Data\Identities\{random-numbers-and-dashes}\Microsoft\Outlook Express" folder.

The Local Settings and Application Data subfolders are hidden. To make them visible, open an Explorer window and choose Tools->Folder Options->View, and turn on "Show hidden files and folders" under Advanced Settings. Make a note to yourself to turn this setting back off when you've finished fiddling, because there is lots of hidden stuff in Windows that will cause you grief if you accidentally mess with it.

If you've ever run Outlook Express on your laptop, you will find that "C:\Documents and Settings\username\Local Settings\Application Data\Identities\{some-other-random-ID}" already exists. Assuming you haven't actually sent and received any mails on that machine with OE so you have nothing to keep there, just rename the Identities subfolder to "Identities.renamed" to get it out of the way.

Now copy "C:\Documents and Settings\%username%\Local Settings\Application Data\Identities" from your desktop to your laptop. You should then find, if you start OE on your laptop, that your old mails appear.

Having got that far, you can now import them into Outlook using Outlook's inbuilt import wizard.

Obligatory gratuitous advice: unless you're already well familiar with Outlook and truly like it and have some use for features beyond basic email, don't use the monstrous bloody thing. Use Mozilla Thunderbird instead.
posted by flabdablet at 6:32 PM on April 30, 2006

Take a look at Outback. Its made for backing up and moving Outlook stuff. You can select (to a degree) to move only certain things.
posted by HK10036 at 9:30 AM on May 1, 2006