Mail migration advice

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Level 2

321 points

Mail migration advice

Several months ago I migrated from my old iBook (10.4) to a Windows machine (XP). I recently bought a Macbook (10.5.8) and desperately want to migrate back from Windows.

I'm using Outlook 2007 on Windows and need to decide to migrate that to either Mail or Entourage 2008. I'm happy with either one and looking for a migration that is both easy and will leave my email intact (including folder structures).

Any advice is welcome on the recommended approach.

- marc

MacBook, Mac OS X (10.5.8)

Posted on Jul 4, 2012 4:42 AM

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Answer 1

Jul 4, 2012 4:45 AM in response to Marc D

POP or IMAP?

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Answer 2

Marc D Author

Level 2

321 points

Jul 4, 2012 4:48 AM in response to Neville Hillyer

Sorry, POP.

- marc

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Answer 3

Jul 4, 2012 5:16 AM in response to Marc D

Several years ago I investigated POP mail clients which I could use on any platform in future. Until then I had used the old Eudora which used semi mbox storage (normal mbox but with attachments in a separate file).

I opted for Thunderbird which uses a normal mbox for each folder. I still use it and am happy with it.

The mbox files are text with a simple one line delimiter between each mail. Reasonably fast and compact. Can be edted with a text editor. I can simply move the mbox files to whichever platform I wish.

I use the inbuilt archive feature which uses one folder per year. I keep mail on the server for 122 days (4 months) and access it from several computers. I bcc all outgoing mail to myself. In this was all computers stay in step and each acts as a backup for the others.

I have a web page about Thunderbird: http://links.zero.eu.org/thunderbird/

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Answer 4

Marc D Author

Level 2

321 points

Jul 4, 2012 11:26 AM in response to Neville Hillyer

I used to use Thunderbird on my iBook, but in later versions it made the machine very slow. If I migrate from Outlook for Windows to Thunderbird for Mac, should I expect a smooth transition and the ability to maintain file structures?

- marc

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Answer 5

Jul 4, 2012 12:06 PM in response to Marc D

Since you are moving both platforms and mail clients at the same time it may be best to:

export to a particular file type
move the files to Mac
convert file types
import mail

2 and 3 can be reversed if necessary

3 may not be required.

Here is a Mozilla page which probably answers most questions:

http://kb.mozillazine.org/Import_from_Outlook_Express

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Answer 6

Jul 5, 2012 2:59 PM in response to Marc D

one thing microsoft does well is mail. Have had almost no problems with either entourage or outlook. the mail.app is seldom functional, regardless of the OS you use.

outlook mac 2011 works well if you meet the specs, but i prefer to use entourage mac 2008 for daily work. I think its cleaner, faster, and better organized.

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Answer 7

Marc D Author

Level 2

321 points

Jul 6, 2012 5:22 AM in response to Sam Beaver

Sam, good comments. I have used both and much prefer Entourage. My real concern getting a clean migration from my current set-up (Outlook 2007 on Windows XP) to "something" on my Macbook (10.5..8). The "something" can be Entourage, Mail, Thunderbird, Outlook. I just want to be able to carry over my mail folders structure. I migrated before and it took me several days to get things re-organized.

Its puzzling that there isn't more consistency in the file systems. Neville made the point above that Thunderbird uses the most standardized approach (mbox), but I'm not sure how to get there with the pst files on my Windows machine.

I'm looking at some tools like Aid4Mail to see what they can do.

- marc

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Answer 8

Jul 6, 2012 6:16 AM in response to Marc D

Neville made the point above that Thunderbird uses the most standardized approach (mbox), but I'm not sure how to get there with the pst files on my Windows machine.

Does this Mozilla page help?

http://kb.mozillazine.org/Import_.pst_files

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