# Importing into Outlook 2003



## jaytechman (Sep 15, 2004)

I have installed a new XP machine in my office with Office 2003 on it, and I want to move over the data from Outlook 2000 that's on my old W98 machine.

I've been told that the only way to move the Internet Mail Accounts over from Outlook 2000 on the W98 machine (other than manually re-entering each one) is to import each into Outlook Express on the W98 machine one by one, Export each to file from OE one by one, move those files to the XP machine, and Import them into Outlook 2003 on by one. (I have about a dozen mail accounts. Manual seems faster, but is still a lot of work.)

I was told that for moving over the email folders and messages, as well as the Address Book, I should go to Outlook 2000 on the W98 machine and do Export to file of all folders (including Contacts), and then in Outlook 2003 on the XP machine do Import of that file.

Is there not a more elegant way to handle any of this, especially the mail Accounts? (I notice 2003 enables import of a .pst file, which is what 2000 uses.)

Thanks!

Jay


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## yustr (Sep 27, 2004)

Jay,

I can't respond to the question on moving your accounts but your on track regarding moving your folders. The "Export to a file" then "Import from a file" will do the trick. The ease depends on how you structure your folders. I keep all of my email in "Personal Folders" so I only need to make one .pst and I have all of my mail, including the subfolder structure as well as my contacts and calendar. 

Re: the accounts, how many do you have that it would be a problem to just type them new?


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## jaytechman (Sep 15, 2004)

Okay, this just got really crazy...

I have about a hundred Folders set up under my Personal Folders main folder in Outlook, which I use for keeping emails to and from various people separate.

It seems that to go into the old Outlook 2000 on the W98 machine and Export to File and then go to Outlook 2003 on my new XP machine and do Import from File it will only let you export one folder to a file one at time, meaning _* I WOULD HAVE TO DO EACH OF MY 100 FOLDERS ONE BY ONE!!!*_

I'm not prepared to do that!

There HAS to be a better way!!!

Why can't I go into Outlook 2003 on the new XP machine and select Import from File and choose PST file and point it to my old PST file that Outlook 2000 has been using on my W98 machine? (I keep all folders under the main Personal Folders folder, so there's only one PST file.)

What about making an Archive of everything and importing that, instead?

And what happens to all of the many attachments to received and sent mail?


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## epos159 (Dec 1, 2004)

jaytechman said:


> Okay, this just got really crazy...
> 
> I have about a hundred Folders set up under my Personal Folders main folder in Outlook, which I use for keeping emails to and from various people separate.
> 
> ...


Have you tried to export the whole personal folder? I know with Outlook XP you can do the whole folder instead of doing all the individual subfolders.



> What about making an Archive of everything and importing that, instead?


Why would you archive it first? Is the file too big to put on a disk or something?



> And what happens to all of the many attachments to received and sent mail?


I would think they would export as well.

What have you tried so far?


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## jaytechman (Sep 15, 2004)

I appreciate the help very much.

I found a thread on another forum that was starting to address this issue and I seem to have someone there who may have experience with this kind of thing...

You can see that thread here  if you're curious (and you're invited to sign up to chime in).

THANKS AGAIN!


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## yustr (Sep 27, 2004)

jay,

Thanks for the new site. I can use all of the help I can get. 

One thing I saw on there was the limitation on the OL file size of 2GB for 2000 and 33TB  for 2003. Those may well be the design limits but I can tell you we've run into numerous issues in OL2003 when folder size approaches 1GB. So we advise our users to limit folders to well below this level.

As far as having to load each folder individually, make sure you check the "Include Subfolders" box during the process. That should take care of all of your 100 folders. I keep my email by subject and have about 25 subfolders in my personal folder. The .pst method works fine.

Sorry I couldn't be more help with the 2000 ---> 2003 issue.
good luck.


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## jaytechman (Sep 15, 2004)

yustr,

I think I'm going to take your advice about the file size... but now I have to decide between first migrating over and then archiving older stuff, or first archiving older stuff (something I've never done to date) and then doing the migration... and finding out how to migrate archived stuff and whether it will transfer over okay or needs the same special handling that I've been learning.

Maybe I should deliberately move half the current .pst contents first, through an Export to a new .pst file, then archive a lot of that after it's been moved over... and then do the same with the other half.

Haven't seen any other warnings about a 1GB .pst file in OL 2003. But if it's been that bad in your experience...

Thanks again, and good luck!


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## jaytechman (Sep 15, 2004)

Well, got it all done and all figured out. For the benefit of others, here's the proven plan.

The following worked like a charm for moving the contents of an Outlook 2000 installation over from one computer (in my case a W98 machine) to Outlook 2003 (on an XP machine). The reason it's necessary to do it this way is to get all contents of the older-format .pst file into the newer-format .pst file used by Outlook 2003.

The first step was to rename the old .pst file, move it over to the XP machine in the same folder as the XP machine's .pst file, open Outlook 2003 on the XP machine and do File - Open - Outlook Data File keeping track of which new Personal Folders folder that opened, then, in Outlook 2003, manually move or copy each folder (in the case of custom created folders) or each folder's contents (in the case of the main default folders) from the old version's Personal Folders folder to the main Personal Folders folder that already existed in Outlook 2003. Then, I right-clicked on the old version's Personal Folders folder and Deleted it. Then I deleted the old version’s .pst file.

The Accounts and Rules were done separately.

For the accounts, I had to first go to the W98 computer's Outlook 2000 and do Tools - Accounts - Mail and then Export each account to file one by one. Then, on the new XP machine, open _Outlook Express_ and Import them, and then open Outlook 2003 and Import them from Outlook Express. This resulted in a minor adjustment needing to be made manually in each account after I was done: I have some accounts set for "My outgoing server (SMTP) requires authentication" and in Outlook 2000 I had had them all set to "Log on using" with the appropriate User Name and Password for each one, but after Import they all reverted to "Use same settings as my incoming mail server." I had to reset them to "Log on using" and re-enter the passwords (it remembered the account names).

The Rules were done by going into Outlook 2000 on the W98 machine, going into the Rules, choosing Options and Export. Then I went to Outlook 2003, Rules, Options, and Import. This also resulted in a minor adjustment needing to be made: all rules that said to move the message to a "specified folder" had lost the name of the folder (even though it did exist in both versions of Outlook) and instead reverted back to the prompt that says "specified folder." So, I had to redirect each of those to the appropriate folder.

That took care of the Outlook migration entirely.


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