Importing mail from Outlook to Windows Live Mail

I should tell you that transferring email from one program to another is often problematic. The import/export capabilities haven't really improved much over the years.

Try to import as few folders as possible. Be prepared to have to re-do your address book manually.

The import function in Thunderbird is on the Tools menu.

I imported from Windows Live rather than OE, so all I can tell you is to give it a try.

Be further prepared to have to make some email folders to your own liking after you install Thunderbird.

Mozilla has a Thunderbird help forum that is quite good.


Here is a pic of my Thunderbird screen to give you an idea:

ms8miranda said:

My situation is a little different....is there help for me?

I put Windows7, Home Premium, 64bit on a new hard drive. I.installed Windows Live.

My old hard drive with Outlook Express is still connected to computer. I can access it by clicking "Computer" and selecting that hard drive. However, I can't run the programs, including Outlook Express. How do I import messages and addresses from Outlook Express to Windows Live?

I managed to find an Import button on Windows Live (although I can't even find that button now), & clicked "Import from Outlook Express." It asked me where to find it. I directed it to my old hard drive but it wouldn't accept that. I also tried old hard drive/documents & settings/my profile name/desktop....nothing worked.

Does anyone know what I should do? Is there any hope for me? I would deeply appreciate your help?

Hi Miranda
Hopefully we can help you here.
Your old hard disk included Windows (XP?) and all the programmes you'd installed. When you turned on your old PC Windows XP and all those programmes could run.
Now - with your Windows 7 PC your old hard disk is just a load of 'stuff'.
I think there's hope for you.
I'm running on Windows 7 PC at the moment. I'll fire up an XP machine later and get some screen grabs of file locations etc. on XP.
IMPORTANT note - do not install any programmes on to the old hard disk, don't delete any files and don't run any disk cleaning software through it - you may loose the files you have.

ms8miranda said:

My situation is a little different....is there help for me?

I put Windows7, Home Premium, 64bit on a new hard drive. I.installed Windows Live.

My old hard drive with Outlook Express is still connected to computer. I can access it by clicking "Computer" and selecting that hard drive. However, I can't run the programs, including Outlook Express. How do I import messages and addresses from Outlook Express to Windows Live?

I managed to find an Import button on Windows Live (although I can't even find that button now), & clicked "Import from Outlook Express." It asked me where to find it. I directed it to my old hard drive but it wouldn't accept that. I also tried old hard drive/documents & settings/my profile name/desktop....nothing worked.

Does anyone know what I should do? Is there any hope for me? I would deeply appreciate your help?

Hi Miranda
I've run through settings etc on a Windows XP machine and have added a load of info to the end of the web page I recently made. Have a look and see if it helps you
Outlook to live mail _ outlook to Windows 7 _ get pst file into windows live mail

DGuy777 rocks. It not all quite listed, but a little fiddlin and walla. Outlook to EML to WLM and :)

Hi,

I know this thread is OLD, but I hope somebody answers.

I followed the advice of installing MailStore and exporting and/or archiving the information. However I never got the option to save it as a EML ... only pst. I tried both, archiving and exporting, and none of them worked when I tried to import from Windows Live Mail.

Any suggestions? I do not want to keep an old computer for my old emails. Outlook had my work account where I do not work anymore, so before I left I made a pst file. Now, in my old computer at home I was able to open that pst file and I can see my old emails. But I would like to have them in my current computer, which does not have outlook anymore, but only Windows Live Mail.


Thanks,

Veronica.

Hi,

Thanks for the quick reply.

After some hours of trying... I realised I was doing something wrong. But basically, the answer from David worked perfectly!

Here is what he said...

Download & install Mailstore Home from Mailstore.com (it is free and no problem whatsoever to installed)


1) Use Mailstore to read all of my Outlook email.
2) Export to "File System" using the eml format
... here is where I got lost, but then I saw that actually you have to select the folder, and then right click and then select export and you will find the description of FILE SYSTEM... and that was it
3) Export to a directory such as C:\temp\email
4) In Live Mail use the Import Function
5) Select "Windows Mail" format
6) Select the directory such as C:\temp\email

David


The rest of the steps were great. I have my old email now in windows live mail.

THANKS!!!

I understand (now) that MailStore Home does exactly what it's name claims to do: work with your e-mail accounts to transfer them from Outlook (2010) to Windows Live Mail (2012). I figured out how to do that. However, what I actually wanted/needed was a way to get everything in Outlook transferred to WLM2012. In other words: my e-mails, my contacts, and my calendar(s).

Any words of wisdom on how to accomplish that?

David