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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 Roagui,

    Roagui Roagui Dec 31, 2011 3:17 AM in response to bigatom
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    Dec 31, 2011 3:17 AM in response to bigatom

    OMG.. i got a new mac for xmas and the whole migration was making me crazy.. i was looking everywhere to find a information to migrate my Outlook from pc to mac and once i did it and found out it wont synk with my iphone i was so mad so i started looking for a way to migrate (once again) to the famous "Mac Mail" and google doesnt help much.. most of the results were about paid software! Pfffff

     

    so i went simple and started to experiment with outlook

     

    AND.......I just got the solution to this problem..

     

    *******this is only for the storaged emails

     

    ....and is so simple that you're going to laugh about it (hope you didnt bought any software to do it for you)
    okay.. here we go

     

    step 1 / open your Outlook Mac 2011

    step 2 / on the desktop make a new folder and call it what ever you want.. (i called mine outlook backup)

    step3 / back in outlook ... just press and hold on any folder you have (inbox or else) and drag it to the folder on the desktop you just created! (is that it????... well, we're almost done).. this will create a mbox file with the name of your folder in outlook like inbox.mbox

    AMAZED YET?

    ( i have like 45 different folders inside outlook, so the drag and drop took quite a while for me to finish )

    by the end i had a backup full of .mbox files

     

    any folder inside outlook can be dragged into the desktop backup folder and will be transformed into MBOX

     

    now the fun part...

    step 4 / Open Mac Mail

    step 5 / go to File / Import Mailboxes and select the "Files in mbox format" and click "Continue"

    step 6 / select all the mbox files you just created from the desktop folder and Click "Choose"

     

    Wait a little till its done....

     

    AND VOILA!!!

     

    You will find a new folder called Import will all your Old and loved folder from Outlook containing all your precious emails!

     

    you can drag folder into place and restore the old order you had before, drag all the INBOX content into the actual mac mail Inbox and you're set, just set up your old email accounts back in mac mail and youre done!

     

    ENJOY!!!!!!!

     

    Very Important:

    * all folders must drag and drop separtly from outlook, if you have folders containing other folders you must drag them one by one!

    seems like theres a new update from microsoft that lets you synk all your contacts with the address book.. (not sure, but will keep looking)

    *All messages will appear as Unread on macmail!.. so just apply the "read" to all of them

     

    Well.. i hope this will help you!

     

    Greets

  • by 社長,

    社長 社長 Jan 3, 2012 4:53 AM in response to JChp53
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Jan 3, 2012 4:53 AM in response to JChp53

    This was indeed the right answer!  Thank you for the easy solution!   I had been googling for this and kept getting results about paid software.

  • by Csound1,

    Csound1 Csound1 Jan 3, 2012 5:14 AM in response to Roagui
    Level 9 (51,368 points)
    Desktops
    Jan 3, 2012 5:14 AM in response to Roagui

    Roagui wrote:

     

    AMAZED YET?

    Not significantly, but thanks for posting this again.

  • by TGDr-aka-RG,

    TGDr-aka-RG TGDr-aka-RG Jan 6, 2012 8:46 AM in response to bigatom
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 6, 2012 8:46 AM in response to bigatom

    Ah, Microsoft...  My Outlook database has corrupted 7 times in the last 2 months, the time before last it was unrepairable! Years of emails gone forever!  So I've moved (permanently!) back to Mail, it works fine, and it's also used by the App that I use for producing HTML emails (Mail Designer).  I just dragged each folder out of Outlook onto the desktop, then imported into Mail in mbox format (as mention earlier in the forum).

     

    The main reason I'm posting this is that I know at least 6 other Outlook users who've lost considerable amounts of data because of the unreliable nature of Outlook - I'd advise a sharpish sidestep back to Apple Mail...

     

    Be warned!

  • by TxGolfer,

    TxGolfer TxGolfer Jan 9, 2012 9:34 AM in response to TGDr-aka-RG
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 9, 2012 9:34 AM in response to TGDr-aka-RG

    While I prefer to use Mail, I was thinking about going back to Outlook.....

     

    I cannot seem to get iCal working with the exchange.  I can accept an invitation (in Mail) and it will show up in my iPhone and my iPad but it will not show up on my MBPro??  I have called in twice to apple to no avail.

     

    I read numberous articles about Lion and iCal issues but all say that 10.7.2 fixed it.  Mine is not fixed!!  Although I prefer Mail, if I can't get my calendars to sync, I will not be able to use it.

  • by claude51,

    claude51 claude51 Jan 11, 2012 1:15 PM in response to alisonfromnewmarket
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 11, 2012 1:15 PM in response to alisonfromnewmarket

    Excellent! This method worked like a charm even with very large mailboxes - but it takes some time to complete.

  • by Csound1,

    Csound1 Csound1 Jan 11, 2012 1:25 PM in response to TxGolfer
    Level 9 (51,368 points)
    Desktops
    Jan 11, 2012 1:25 PM in response to TxGolfer

    TxGolfer wrote:

     

    While I prefer to use Mail, I was thinking about going back to Outlook.....

     

    I cannot seem to get iCal working with the exchange.  I can accept an invitation (in Mail) and it will show up in my iPhone and my iPad but it will not show up on my MBPro??  I have called in twice to apple to no avail.

     

    I read numberous articles about Lion and iCal issues but all say that 10.7.2 fixed it.  Mine is not fixed!!  Although I prefer Mail, if I can't get my calendars to sync, I will not be able to use it.

    What version of Exchange?

  • by TxGolfer,

    TxGolfer TxGolfer Jan 12, 2012 8:15 AM in response to Csound1
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 12, 2012 8:15 AM in response to Csound1

    2011 for Mac

  • by Csound1,

    Csound1 Csound1 Jan 12, 2012 8:16 AM in response to TxGolfer
    Level 9 (51,368 points)
    Desktops
    Jan 12, 2012 8:16 AM in response to TxGolfer

    TxGolfer wrote:

     

    2011 for Mac

     

    That is the version of Outlook you are running, what version of exchange are you connecting to?

  • by claude51,

    claude51 claude51 Jan 12, 2012 9:19 AM in response to Csound1
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 12, 2012 9:19 AM in response to Csound1

    In regards to the migration of mailboxes from Outlook 2011 to Mail 5.1 (both programs being up to date Jan 2012) by dragging the mailboxes in Outlook to the desktop (which converts them into mbox files) then importing these mbox files into Mail using the "import mailbox" menu item under the File menu.

    Our institutional server uses Exchange 2010. So far, my transition from Outlook to Mail has been without any problems - nothing lost, dates in old e-mails has remained as they were on Outlook. Old attachments were also conserved (as long as they remained on my computer, of course). The only small problem is that exported e-mail are all marked as "unread". A couple of mailboxes had more than 7000 e-mails: those took a few minutes to convert into mbox files even in a 2011 MacBook Pro. I batch converted most of the smaller mailboxes by selecting them as a group. Mail did close once while importing the largest mbox file but completed it on a second try - not sure what happened; I may have switched programs while the operation was taking place and also having too many programs running at the same time I was doing the import. I'll update later if problems crop up.

  • by TxGolfer,

    TxGolfer TxGolfer Jan 12, 2012 7:19 PM in response to Csound1
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 12, 2012 7:19 PM in response to Csound1

    I have no idea.  I am located in Tx, they are in San Jose.

  • by TxGolfer,

    TxGolfer TxGolfer Jan 12, 2012 7:20 PM in response to claude51
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 12, 2012 7:20 PM in response to claude51

    Claude51,

     

    Its not Outlook to Mail that is the issue but Mail to Outlook.

  • by volkerfromerlinsbach,

    volkerfromerlinsbach volkerfromerlinsbach Jan 21, 2012 3:28 AM in response to JChp53
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 21, 2012 3:28 AM in response to JChp53

    Thank you for your describtion of a working process, I just went to try it, unfortunetely my Outlook 2011 do not let me drag any folders to the desktop or a folder on the desktop... Am I doing something wrong?

  • by claude51,

    claude51 claude51 Jan 21, 2012 12:09 PM in response to volkerfromerlinsbach
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 21, 2012 12:09 PM in response to volkerfromerlinsbach

    I don't know... Only thing I can think of is that I am running OSX 10.7.2 and the latest version of Outlook.

  • by jaymenigri,

    jaymenigri jaymenigri Jan 24, 2012 5:38 AM in response to JChp53
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 24, 2012 5:38 AM in response to JChp53

    Hey JChp53,

    It worked out perfectly!!!

    So easy. Less than 1 minute for each folder.

    Thanks a lot!

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