Given:
Microsoft Outlook – created by Microsoft. Platform: Windows.
Microsoft Entourage – created by Microsoft. Platform: OS X.
Requirement:
Move emails from Microsoft Outlook to Microsoft Entourage.
Common sense suggests:
In Windows, launch Microsoft Outlook, export everything to a .pst file. Copy this file to a USB drive or burn it to a disc. Copy it to Mac OS X, launch Entourage in Mac OS X and import the .pst file.
Well, that’s what I thought.
The real solution:
It turns out Microsoft does NOT support email interchange between Outlook and Entourage. I was horrified shocked Not Surprised to learn about this lack of interoperability.
Entourage can only import from it’s own archive format .rge or mbox files (text format files). Unfortunately, Outlook can NOT export to either of the two.
After doing some research and reading about convoluted methods of exporting one folder at a time from Outlook, converting those to mbox format and importing it in Entourage, I stumbled upon this excellent utility.
It’s a Windows application and costs $10. You can download it and pay for it online.
Simply install it on your Windows OS and launch it. It will automatically read your Outlook files and convert them to Mbox format, and PRESERVE the attachments!!
Once the export is over, copy the newly created mbox files and port them to Mac OS X. Launch Entourage and import the files. You will lose Outlook Rules though. Also, the folders will be renamed per ASCII standards i.e. no blank spaces. Blank Spaces will be replaced with underscores.
It’s possible that Entourage may suddenly not recognize mbox files either but don’t worry – there’s a work around. Import the mbox files in iMail. Then, import iMail emails into Entourage.
Another Microsoft horror story? What’s your take.
Ehh, may I suggest you install Thunderbird (free) on the Windows computer, while setting it up you'll get the option to Import stuff (messages, accounts & contacts) from Outlook Express/Outlook. This results in Thunderbird being filled with your Outlook (express) stuff. Copy the resulting files (from the Thunderbird profile) (these are now MBOX FORMAT!) to the mac and start importing…
Just not sure what happens with tasks and/or calendar items. Maybe not be a complete migration as per the mentioned app, but it may get most info over to your mac without buying an util that should M$ should have made in the first place!
Thanks Belle! We love free options!
This will work if you have an older version of Thunderbird, but the newer version does not import the files as .MBOX files. You can change the extension of the file it does save it to, but that can be troublesome if you have many folders and subfolders in your .pst file. However, the utility you mentioned works great. I have been using it for a few years now.
What’s wrong with IMAP?