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Moving Microsoft Outlook mail from one machine to another involves copying a single file once the new copy of Outlook has been set up.
How do I move my Microsoft Outlook mail & address book (not Outlook Express) from one computer to another?
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I've done this countless times back when I was using Microsoft Outlook.
My approach turns out to be extremely easy, though the steps may not be quite as obvious as you might hope.
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This technique assumes you have two machines. One I'll call it the "old" machine, that has Microsoft Outlook up and running and on which you currently receive email. The other that you're setting up I'll call the "new" machine. Your plan is to move your email and your email access from your old machine to your new one.
Almost everything you need to copy is in a single file, your "PST" or "Personal Store".
Step 1: Install Outlook on your new machine. Set it up as completely as you can, including email account definitions, but don't download any email. Not yet.
Step 2: Determine the location of the new PST file on the new machine. Where is my Outlook "PST" file located? will show you how.
Step 3: Determine the location of the old PST on the old machine. This is the PST file that contains all of your current email, contacts, and calendar.
Step 4: Save your rules to a file if you use Inbox Rules.
Step 5: Shut down Outlook on both old and new machines.
Step 6: Copy the old PST from the old machine to the new, replacing the new PST on the new machine. If required, rename the PST in the process to match the name of the PST on the new machine. (Typically copying is done via a network connection, but burning your PST to a CD or DVD is also quite common and a good way to create a backup of the file at the same time. Be sure to reset the read-only attribute when you copy the file to your new machine.) Also copy the file containing your Inbox Rules if you created one earlier.
Step 7: Fire up Outlook on your new machine. It should come up with your email, contacts, and calendar, all transferred from the old one.
Step 8: Finish configuring Outlook on the new machine. Particularly if you have Inbox Rules, this would be the time to import them and make sure they're working properly.
Step 9: Never use the Outlook on the old machine again. Doing so might cause some email to be downloaded into that old PST and if you're using your new machine to download email that's not where you want it. There's no simple way to transfer just "some" of the email from one machine to another. It's possible, but the steps are definitely more involved.
Article C3180 - October 14, 2007
Leo A. Notenboom has been playing with computers since he
was required to take a programming class in 1976. An 18 year career as a programmer at Microsoft soon followed.
After "retiring" in 2001, Leo started Ask Leo! in 2003 as a place for answers
to common computer and technical questions. More about Leo.
I have followed your steps to move outlook from my old computer to my new computer. At first the old file structure of personal folders appeared in the new computer, but they were empty. after 'repairing ' the .pst file they now contain all the messages correctly. BUT the new computer fails to send or receive. The error message is :- Task 'sending' reported error (0X8004010F) Outlook data file cannot be accessed. Same message for 'receiving'. Queries. The old data file is Outlook 97 -2002, the new Outlook is 2010. Could this be a problem? In the Settings of the data file no password was set. I tried to add the password used in the account settings but it was reported as incorrect. When transferring the .pst file I changed the name to {email removed}.pst as that was the name of the .pst file in the new computer. I had set up the email account on the new computer with this name before transferring the .pst and it sent and received correctly. I would be most grateful for help with this problem.
Posted by: Peter T at August 22, 2011 4:26 AMIf only wantes to move my contact from old pc (outlook 2003) to new pc (outlook 2010), how could I do that?
Posted by: Sid Siddiqi at August 22, 2011 7:54 AMThanks for great info on how to move microsoft outlook mail and address book from one computer to another. You can also try http://www.outlookaddressbooks.com/outlook-address-book-2/exporting-outlook-address-book-to-yahoo-mail/
Posted by: Outlook address books at November 15, 2011 2:58 AMWhen you replace your current computer with a new one, you have to transfer your programs and files first.. after which, transfer Outlook email so as to enable access to all the old emails on your new computer..
Posted by: Technical Support at December 20, 2011 5:17 AMTHANK YOU so much for this info...took me a little bit to find the file on the old computer and 1st try didn't work but I got it reading more of your notes and I can't thank you enough for posting!!! I did it and it works!!
Posted by: Kristie at January 4, 2012 9:07 AM