Importing OE6 e-mail to Outlook via Store Folder

[Tommy]

I have OE6 on PC-1 and want to import the e-mail to Outlook on PC-2. Unfortunately, PC-1 does not have Outlook on it and PC-2 does not have Outlook Express on it.

I did manage to locate the Store Folder { ... } for PC-1 and transferred this PC-2's C-drive.

I searched via Google and saw these 2 (different) MS articles:

Import your messages or account from Outlook Express to Outlook - Outlook - Office.com

Import your messages or account from Outlook Express to Outlook - Outlook - Office.com

Both of these articles basically suggest taking the O6 store folder from (in my case) PC-1 and transferring it to PC-2 (which I did).

Then they suggest launching OE6 on PC-2 and changing its store folder to the new one I just transferred. Launching Outlook and importing the OE6 e-mail (or even launching OE6 and exporting the e-mail to Outlook) would then be a no-brainer. But in my case, I don't have OE6 on the 2nd machine!

Is there any "workaround" to accomplishing this e-mail transfer to Outlook on PC-2?

 

[Diane Poremsky]

You either need to install Outlook on the old computer or Windows Live Mail on the new one - then import the Outlook Express message stores into Mail then Export to Outlook. The only other option is to use a utility.

I have utilities listed here - Moving from Outlook Express to Outlook - Slipstick Systems

 

[Tommy]

Thanks for the advice, Diane. Unfortunately, it sounded like a bit of a hassle to do it that way. I copied the store folder to yet another machine that has OE6 & Outlook on it. I created a dummy OE account, as well as a dummy Outlook account. I managed to get the Store Folder installed to the dummy OE account, though not at all in the usual way. When I did the change Store Folder thing, it began "looking " at the new Store Folder location but did NOT bring in the e-mail! I had to get out my sledge hammer and (1) empty out the new Store Folder for the dummy OE account and (2) go into the desired Store Folder and copy its contents over to the empty spot. Then voila - the e-mail appeared!

So then I did the Export from the dummy OE6 account and routed the e-mail to the dummy Outlook account. Success! And I located the new PST file.

Then I decided to bring over the address book. That's when things went South. I wish I could paste screen shots here!!

I did Export Address Book, then chose Microsoft Exchange Personal Address Book. When I clicked Export, it brought up a window that says "The WAB is currently unable to perform unable to this export. Make sure you have a Personal Address Book set up in Outlook and that it is set up as you current PAB." What?!? Of course, there is a Contacts section in the dummy Outlook account. So what gives? Is there anything I can try? Presuming the Addresses are successfully exported to Outlook, are they incorporated in the single PST file? Methinks yes.

 

[Diane Poremsky]

After all that, I think it would have been just as easy to set up live mail. <g> Except the new computer won't be polluted with the live software.

You'll need to export the address book to a CSV file and import it into Outlook. That error message is telling you it wants to export into the old Personal Address book, not Outlook contacts.

 

[Tommy]

Yeah, I was afraid you were gonna say that. I already tried that before (since it was the only other thing to try). I chose that, entered a file name (Save exported file as, and browsed to a destination. Then it presents a menu of choices for the format (Select the fields you wish to export. I went w/ the defaults and clicked Finish. The dialog closed. I went to the destination folder and nuttin' was there.

I remain underwhelmed.

 

[Diane Poremsky]

Open the text file in note pad. Does it have the contacts?

 

[Tommy]

No ma-am. There is NO (*.csv) file whatsoever. Nada.

Actually, I think the problem is easier to explain now that I've done more checking. In the original machine (PC-1), there are 30 items in the Address Book (Addresses on the toolbar). But in the dummy OE6 account on the machine I described (in which I created a dummy account for OE6 & Outlook and to which I transferred the Store Folder), all the e-mail is there but there are no items in the Address Book! So this probably explains why no addresses could be exported.

So the new question becomes: Where did the addresses go? Wouldn't they be included in the OE6 Store Folder? If so, would they be in some DBX file? I didn't see anything like that in the original Store Folder.

 

[Diane Poremsky]

Yeah, I thought of that after i posted - you were exporting a blank address book. Addresses are stored in a .wab file and are not in the store folder. You open the address book on the original computer and export to a CSV file. Import it into the new computer's Outlook's contact folder.

 

[Tommy]

OK, what I did now was locate the WAB file on PC-1. I copied that file to the PC that has both the OE6 & Outlook dummy accounts. I imported the WAB addresses into the OE6 account. Then I opened the Outlook account and imported the addresses, pointing to the dummy OE6 account. All 30 items came in and appear in Outlook's Contact section. WooHoo!

I now presume that all the Outlook stuff (e-mails & addresses) are contained in the PST fle for the dummy account. I therefore presume that I can simply take that PST file to PC-2, and replace its PST file. That is what I will try now.

 

[Tommy]

OK, all's well that ends well. The toughest part was finding the cussin' PST file in Win8. The awkward Search engine didn't even find it! The only way is via:

Tools|Options|Mail Setup|Data Files

This led me to the vestigial PST file for the newly-created Outlook account on PC-2. I pasted in the PST file I painstakingly created in this directory, renamed the original one (for reference), and renamed the one I created Outlook.pst. I launched Outlook and voila! All the OE6 e-mail and all the addresses were there.

Back to one of your earlier comments, Diane:

"Except the new computer won't be polluted with the live software."

This was in reference to installing Windows Live Mail, which I know little about. Your presumption was spot on. My basic attitude & philosophy is that I like to install as little of MS software as I can possibly get away with. Most folks either love MS or hate it; I'm in the 2nd camp, especially after WinXP. Call me old-fashioned is you like. Looking at my wife's Win8 on her new laptop (PC-2), I'm convinced that the MS "kids" up in Redmond sit around in their fantasy cubicles and dream up more and more fluff that gets in the way of a functional OS. With Win8, they're trying too hard to make it look like Gameboy or the front end of a PDA. Thank god for freeware like ClassicShell! OK, I digress but you get my point.

I close by expressing my appreciation to you, Diane, for your able assistance. As I said before, when it comes to Outlook, you really are smarter than the average bear.