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Q: Import mail from Outlook for Mac to Mail

I switched from a PC and bought a copy of the new Office for Mac 2011. This has Outlook for Mac. I was able to import my pst file from my PC into Outlook for Mac without any problem. But I prefer to use Mail. Is there a way to export Outlook for Mac mail into a format which can be imported into Mail? Already tried converting mail from pst file to mbox using O2M software. It transfers less than 20% of mail folders no matter what I try. Since Outlook for Mac is operating on a Mac OS X, I would think there must be an easy way to export mail into a mbox format but I don't see it anywhere.

Mac Book Pro 13 inch, Mac OS X (10.6.5)

Posted on Nov 27, 2010 5:00 PM

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Q: Import mail from Outlook for Mac to Mail

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  • by Frank Deleu,

    Frank Deleu Frank Deleu May 23, 2012 2:08 PM in response to JChp53
    Level 1 (0 points)
    May 23, 2012 2:08 PM in response to JChp53

    It worked half/half:

    some mails without attachments, some mails are difficult to read: the original text is kept somewhere after scrolling pages of impossible amount of signs, symbols and unreadable text...

    Not perfect But, how te resolve ???

    >>> Outlook for Mac 2011 > Mail (for Mac)

  • by CDMo,

    CDMo CDMo Jun 19, 2012 3:06 PM in response to koofoo
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jun 19, 2012 3:06 PM in response to koofoo

    This technique worked perfectly. Thanks for posting!

  • by BartG_Adelaide,

    BartG_Adelaide BartG_Adelaide Jul 3, 2012 6:23 AM in response to bigatom
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jul 3, 2012 6:23 AM in response to bigatom

    Hi all,

     

    I'm not sure if it was just due to the smaller size of my mailbox (only around 500 messages), but I found a really quick and easy solution... and it's free!

     

    In Outlook, simply click on the mailbox an drag it onto the desktop; it becomes an mbox file. Then, import the mbox file into Mail, it should be on the right side listed as "Import", with all the mail items listed as unread. Click on the first message, then select all, then drag them into your Inbox, and right-click to mark all as read... all done!

     

    If this has already been suggested here and I missed it, I humbly apologise... otherwise, it's a typically 'Apple' way of dealing with the problem; no mess, no fuss!

     

    Cheers,

     

    B.

  • by Toysforgirls,

    Toysforgirls Toysforgirls Jul 12, 2012 2:03 AM in response to DemetersRest
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jul 12, 2012 2:03 AM in response to DemetersRest

    Hi!

     

    Thanks for the drag and import tip for Outlook 2011 to Mac Mail.

     

    I seem to be having a problem with this........ I have the latest updates for OL and Mac Mail, running on 10.7.4 on an imac and I can drag the foler to my desktop and then import it into Mac mail as an mbox, but then when I look at the mails, they are just showing loads of text with reference within the mails to MIME format and none of the look of the original mail with the images etc.

     

    It seems to work for loads of other people, but I have tried this on both of my Macs (imac and Macbook Pro) running the same updates and have exactly the same problems.

     

    Any tips, please?

     

    Thanks and Kind Regards

    Andy

  • by walt_scrivens,

    walt_scrivens walt_scrivens Jul 13, 2012 11:34 AM in response to Toysforgirls
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Mac OS X
    Jul 13, 2012 11:34 AM in response to Toysforgirls

    We're having the same problem - it seems to be related to images in the e-mail.  Our solution for now is to take what we can get, and leave the Outlook folders intact in case we need to go back to them.

     

    I'd really be grateful if anyone has a suggestion :-)

     

    Walt

  • by Csound1,

    Csound1 Csound1 Jul 13, 2012 11:38 AM in response to walt_scrivens
    Level 9 (51,368 points)
    Desktops
    Jul 13, 2012 11:38 AM in response to walt_scrivens

    Purchase eMailchemy, it will move all of your mail, folder structure, dates and attachments intact from Outlook to anything you like (including Mac Mail)

  • by windermerelodge,

    windermerelodge windermerelodge Sep 12, 2012 10:13 AM in response to Csound1
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Sep 12, 2012 10:13 AM in response to Csound1

    AAGHH! - Having resisted Mac Mail because I wanted to keep with Outlook I got Office 2011 and used Outlook for Mac for a year. I finally got fed up with using Outlook for Windows idiot cousin so when upgraded to Mountain Lion I decided to go Mac Mail, and I can' believe that I put myself up such a dead end.

     

    The simple workaround mentioned above does not work for me - I suspect that either Mountain Lion or an Office Upgrade (or both) must have changed something because while I CAN export a folder to the desktop and reimport to Mac Mail as described, all the emails have "NO SENDER" and "NO SUBJECT" where the Sender and Subject should be.

     

    Also a number of emails I tested said they could not be displayed correctly as they were mime formatted, whereas  an almost identical email fom the same sender (Amex) displays perfectly when downloaded normally.

     

    Obviously a years' worth of emails with no subject or sender info is pretty useless so i am now stuck with keeping OL 2010 limping along in case I need to refer to an old email.

     

    I realise that Apple and Microsoft probably don't wnat to help each other much but I am pretty unhappy about being their collateral damage.

     

    If I'd realised there was a risk that by moving to Outlook for Mac I was locking my data up I would NEVER have gone there!

     

    Has anyone else experienced the same problem with the copy and reimport solution?

     

    Any ideas?

  • by Csound1,

    Csound1 Csound1 Sep 12, 2012 10:45 AM in response to windermerelodge
    Level 9 (51,368 points)
    Desktops
    Sep 12, 2012 10:45 AM in response to windermerelodge

    windermerelodge wrote:

     

    AAGHH! - Having resisted Mac Mail because I wanted to keep with Outlook I got Office 2011 and used Outlook for Mac for a year. I finally got fed up with using Outlook for Windows idiot cousin so when upgraded to Mountain Lion I decided to go Mac Mail, and I can' believe that I put myself up such a dead end.

     

    The simple workaround mentioned above does not work for me - I suspect that either Mountain Lion or an Office Upgrade (or both) must have changed something because while I CAN export a folder to the desktop and reimport to Mac Mail as described, all the emails have "NO SENDER" and "NO SUBJECT" where the Sender and Subject should be.

     

    Also a number of emails I tested said they could not be displayed correctly as they were mime formatted, whereas  an almost identical email fom the same sender (Amex) displays perfectly when downloaded normally.

     

    Obviously a years' worth of emails with no subject or sender info is pretty useless so i am now stuck with keeping OL 2010 limping along in case I need to refer to an old email.

     

    I realise that Apple and Microsoft probably don't wnat to help each other much but I am pretty unhappy about being their collateral damage.

     

    If I'd realised there was a risk that by moving to Outlook for Mac I was locking my data up I would NEVER have gone there!

     

    Has anyone else experienced the same problem with the copy and reimport solution?

     

    Any ideas?

    Yes, purchase and use Emailchemy for this job, it will simply and quickly do exactly what you want, no editing needed afterward, all folders / send and received dates preserved. It's crazy to try it manually, takes for ever to sort the mess out.

     

    I used it to transfer a client's email store fom Outlook to Mail, 12 years and many hundreds of thousands of mails, thousands of nested folders. It transferred perfectly on the first attempt.

  • by windermerelodge,

    windermerelodge windermerelodge Sep 12, 2012 10:56 AM in response to Csound1
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Sep 12, 2012 10:56 AM in response to Csound1

    Hmm -  I can't test whether that would work as the trial version will mask precisely the two field where there is a problem. Has anyone else had a smila issue and solved it since Mountain Lion with Emailchemy?

  • by Csound1,

    Csound1 Csound1 Sep 12, 2012 11:00 AM in response to windermerelodge
    Level 9 (51,368 points)
    Desktops
    Sep 12, 2012 11:00 AM in response to windermerelodge

    The trial version will tell you everything you need to know, the contents of some fields are replaced with reminders that you haven't paid for it but this software is in a class by itself. I have used for years because it can convert most email formats to most others. See the list below.

    Screen Shot 2012-09-12 at 12.58.44 PM.png

     

    I convert from Entourage, Outlook for Windows and Outlook for Mac regularly, Emailchemy paid for itself the first time I used it (unless you assume that time has no value)

  • by windermerelodge,

    windermerelodge windermerelodge Sep 13, 2012 5:24 AM in response to Csound1
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Sep 13, 2012 5:24 AM in response to Csound1

    Well thanks Csound1!

     

    Having wasted a day on other (free) ways of doing this I shelled out my £20 and bought Emailchemy and now have my old OL2011 data sitting in folders on my Mac Mail.

     

    It wasn't totally plain sailing. There are a couple of bugs that mean that if you convert to Apple .mbox format you get the emails in a folder (eg xfolder) and then again in a folder below it (called xfolder.messages) but I found that by using the non Apple mbox format this didn't happen. According to the Emailchemy forum this is an Apple bug as it happens even when exporting and importing directly from and to Mail in the current version.

     

    Testing of a random sample indicates that all has imported with the right formatting and attachments

     

    Anyway I am now free of Outlook. I'm FREEEE !!!!

     

    Thank you. That was the best £20 I've spent this year.

  • by Csound1,

    Csound1 Csound1 Sep 13, 2012 11:57 AM in response to windermerelodge
    Level 9 (51,368 points)
    Desktops
    Sep 13, 2012 11:57 AM in response to windermerelodge


    windermerelodge wrote:

     

    Well thanks Csound1!

     

    Having wasted a day on other (free) ways of doing this I shelled out my £20 and bought Emailchemy and now have my old OL2011 data sitting in folders on my Mac Mail.

     

    It wasn't totally plain sailing. There are a couple of bugs that mean that if you convert to Apple .mbox format you get the emails in a folder (eg xfolder) and then again in a folder below it (called xfolder.messages) but I found that by using the non Apple mbox format this didn't happen. According to the Emailchemy forum this is an Apple bug as it happens even when exporting and importing directly from and to Mail in the current version.

     

    Testing of a random sample indicates that all has imported with the right formatting and attachments

     

    Anyway I am now free of Outlook. I'm FREEEE !!!!

     

    Thank you. That was the best £20 I've spent this year.

    I know, I didn't want to pay either but it works so well (I just used the standard .mbox so didn't have any glitches). Even if you never use it again it's worth the $20.

  • by dffoster19,

    dffoster19 dffoster19 Oct 16, 2012 1:24 PM in response to Csound1
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 16, 2012 1:24 PM in response to Csound1

    I have a slightly different issue (I think, since I didn't scour all 86 prior posts on this thread).  I'm trying to move my "on my computer" folders in Outlook 2011 to OSX Mail (I am on Mountain Lion 10.8).  I can drag a relatively small mbox file (only 63 messages) to my desktop. 

     

    After shifting to Mail, I go to File>Import Mailboxes... and select "Files in mbox format" and then ContinueAt that point, I get a short message that says "preparing to import from mbox...".  After about 10 seconds, I get a pop up window that says "You need to select at least one item in the list before proceeding."

     

    The same thing happens if I select Eurdora, Apple Mail, or any of the other choices to import data from.  I've rebooted the computer and there was no change. 


    What gives?

  • by dffoster19,

    dffoster19 dffoster19 Oct 17, 2012 2:36 AM in response to dffoster19
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 17, 2012 2:36 AM in response to dffoster19

    If it helps, here is a screen shot.  As you can see, I've selected the radio button for importing mbox, but still get this odd message indicating I've not selected anything from the list.  Please help me get off of Outlook 2011 -- if I can't move my archive emails to be able to search them along with what's on the server, I'll need to keep using it.  Thanks!

     

  • by Csound1,

    Csound1 Csound1 Oct 17, 2012 7:45 AM in response to dffoster19
    Level 9 (51,368 points)
    Desktops
    Oct 17, 2012 7:45 AM in response to dffoster19

    dffoster19 wrote:

     

    If it helps, here is a screen shot.  As you can see, I've selected the radio button for importing mbox, but still get this odd message indicating I've not selected anything from the list.  Please help me get off of Outlook 2011 -- if I can't move my archive emails to be able to search them along with what's on the server, I'll need to keep using it.  Thanks!

     

    There is no screenshot but ..... Buy Emailchemy and read the rest of this thread.

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