How do I move my Outlook Express folders to my new machine?

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I looked for the STORE folder as directed. the problem I have is that the long sub-directory list ended with ....\Local Settings\Application Data\Ic .

I fired up my CD writer and looked through the directories listed there. The directory list shows Appication Settings first and then lists Local Settings. I still did not see the Store Folder listed unless it is burried further down the list.

Since the "Store Folder" button on the Maintenance tab is not getting me to my goal, what do I do next?

Thanks

An absolute nightmare. Have spent three days, off and on, trying to get Outlook Express files from my old XP computer to my new Vista computer. The file transfers rarely complete-usually drop out half way through with pop up windows saying "this is a known Vista problem- click here for a solution." This takes you to a useless microsoft help page that doesn't address the issues. I've even tried copying the entire folder via the network to the new computer, but Mail doesn't recognize it as a valid format. If we delivered software even 1/4th this buggy, we'd be out of business in a month. If I could do it over, I'd say run, don't walk, away from this mess.

Hi,

My motherboard on my emachines finally went and the hard drive is still good. I bought an External Enclosure and so hooked up the hard drive with my Outlook Express info on it to transfer to my laptop, which i have done. I have OE on the laptop, so i just want to update/import all of the OE info from the old computer. It will not allow me to import, cannot locate the folder. OE from the old computer is in DBX format, so cannot even open anything to look at. It's all there but i am a road block now.

Thanks

Leo, I followed your instructions for moving my Outlook express to my new laptop. Easy to do (thanks to you!) I used my flash drive. Got a question though. All the emails moved over from 2001 to 2005. However, no emails (in any file) from 2006 and 2007 transferred over. What did I do wrong? June

Hi Leo. An important addition to simplify the works; on the old PC start outlook expres, goto extra > accounts > tab e-mail. Here you can export ( and later import on the newpc ) all e-mail account settings and passwords. This saves a lot of hassle with the accounts.
suc6.
Hans.

I will say these steps were very helpful. I didn't need to import files, as I had a HD that works, but had corrupted Windows OS. Plugged into another PC and was able to move the files to the new OE. I just needed to know where to begin looking for the directory... Thanks a ton!

Hi Leo,

I followed your instructions for outlook express from an old machine to a new one using windows vista, via an external hardrive (copied over). When I go to import from into the new "microsoft mail" following the exact directions and pointint it to the directory I moved the old files into it doesn't recognize the old express .dbx files when I click next and gives me an error message. Is there something I'm doing wrong? I don't think the new windows and microsoft mail (which has the import from outlook express 6 option) recognizes the old files. Are my files from an even older version of express that's not recognized??
any help would be appreciated.

thank you,

Anthony

I'm with Anthony above ("Posted by: Anthony at December 15, 2007 05:15 PM"). I've put my dbx files (in the /UserName/Documents/{xxxx.../Microsoft/Outlook Express folder, as on the old machine) on my new Vista machine and tried File | Import | Messages. I get a "No messages can be found in this folder or another application is running that has the required files open" error message. The files I have in this folder are all the dbx files (including Folder.dbx). I can't find anything anywhere to tell me what I'm doing wrong (in fact, several sites tell me to do what I've already done and nothing more...).

Judging from the above, looks like I'm not alone. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Regarding the problem that Anthony and Mark were having, I had a problem with this too and have now resolved it. A step-by-step explanation can also be found on: http://windowshelp.microsoft.com/Windows/en-GB/Help/53e5df86-5ffb-43cf-a0c8-164e3fe7994f1033.mspx

My problem was that I could copy the files across to the machine, but I didn't realise a couple of important points when importing them into windows mail. The mistake I was making related to these points:

When locating the OE6 files you have created --> Click Browse, find the Outlook Express folder you copied to this computer, and then click the folder once to select it. (Do not open the folder when you select it.) The mistake I made was opening this folder, which caused to not work, because: Outlook Express stores your messages in a folder that contains several different .dbx files. These files (folders.dbx, inbox.dbx, outbox.dbx) contain all your messages. Windows Mail cannot import any of these files individually; you must import the entire Outlook Express folder.

Hope this might be useful for anyone else coming across this thread when trying to deal with this issue!

I keep my OE emails in a folder in My Documents so that they are backed up whenever I backup My Documents. I've just had a virus which zapped all of my programs (including OE), but not my data. So the emails were saved, but I lost my address book. I would like to be able to keep my address book in My Documents. Does anybody know if you can change the folder in which the address book is kept?

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