Ask Leo! by Leo A. Notenboom

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

Search First! Then browse: Categories | Full Archive | By Date | Newsletter
Ask Leo! on Facebook

Home » EMail » Email Programs » Outlook Express

Summary: Moving Outlook Express folders from one machine to another isn't obvious. Moving Outlook Express folders involves finding them, copying them, and importing them. And then there's the address book.

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

In particular, the person asking had just received a new Windows XP machine to replace her Windows 98 machine.

There are several approaches, naturally, but in a nutshell we'll locate the folders on the old machine, copy them to the new machine, and then import them.

And then we'll do something similar for the address book.

On the old machine, the easiest way to locate Outlook Express' email store is to ask Outlook Express. Fire it up, and then in Tools, Options, on the Maintenance tab, there's a button labeled Store Folder. Click that and it will tell you the folder containing your email folder.

Copy the entire contents of that directory to a floppy, CD-ROM, or share on your network.

"There are several approaches, naturally... "

The address book we handle a little differently. Open up the address book either from the accessories menu item on your Start menu, or by pressing Ctrl+Shift+B in Outlook Express. In the address book, select File, Export, and click on Address Book (WAB).... You can now select a location and filename for your address book to be placed. Again, you can copy it to floppy, CD-ROM, or to a share on your network.

Fire up Outlook Express on the new machine, and we'll just reverse the process.

Select File, Import, Messages.... Choose Microsoft Outlook Express 6 and press Next. Select Import mail from an OE6 store directory and press Next. Now on the next screen, browse to the location that you've placed the message store we saved from your old machine. Import, and your messages should now be transferred.

Note: if you've copied your mail folders to a CD-R, you'll need to first copy them to your local hard disk, and then unmark them from being read-only before you import. OE will not open read-only folders.

The process for the address book is similar - even simpler. File, Import, Address Book..., select the address book we exported above, and import.

Finally, you'll want to configure your email accounts in Outlook Express to access your email account from your ISP.

Article C2130 - July 18, 2004

Was this article helpful? «Yes» «No»

Recent Comments
243 Comments

i am unsuccessful in copying one .dbx folder from another computer to my computer. everytime i try to import from the location, it says no such folder exists or another program is trying access. Pl adv how do i transfer only some messages (not entire mails) just some mails say about 50-60 messages from another computer's outlook express to my computer's either outlook express or preferably into ms outlook as i prefer to work in ms outlook.

Posted by: Pradeep K. Ivon at June 2, 2010 11:04 PM

(1) Create a folder on your Computer
(2) Sellect the email files you want to copy
(3) drag them to your folder then burn folder to cd

Posted by: Rod at June 14, 2010 6:28 PM

I had the same problem when I went to reinstall vista on my laptop. I tried to export contacts and messages to an external hard drive but couldn't do. What I did was I opened up windows mail and imported mail and contacts from Outlook. I then exported mail and contacts from windows mail to my external hard drive.
Once I had reinstalled vista, I opened windows mail and imported contacts and mail from external hard drive and then I opened up outlook and imported contacts and mail from windows mail.
it all worked fine. Don't know if it is a correct procedure but now have all old contacts and mail now in outlook

Posted by: wilf turnbull at June 25, 2010 3:29 AM

thankyou very helpful as ive been racking my brain trying to do this for my wife since ive upgraded our hard drive ive been trying to transfer her outlookexpress this simplified it once again thanks big help

Posted by: michael at July 4, 2010 3:21 AM

I successfully imported my email messages and address book to my new computer (XP to Vista). However, the DRAFTS and SENT folders are not there. Can you tell me why this would happen? I really need both of these folders. I've checked the old drive and they don't seem to be there. Could they be "hidden" for some reason? Please help! Thank you. :)

Posted by: Christina at July 17, 2010 10:21 PM

Post a comment on "How do I move my Outlook Express folders to my new machine?":



(Name will be included when your comment is published.)



(Email Address will not be published.)

Remember Me?

By popular demand...
my tip jar
Cuppa Joe
Buy Leo a Latte!

(you may use HTML tags for style)

RSS feed Subscribe to the RSS Feed specifically for comments on this article.

Before commenting, please...

  • Read the article at the top of this page. If your comment shows you didn't, it'll be deleted and ignored.

  • Comment only on this article. Use the Google search box at the top of the page if you have a question about something else.

  • Don't include personal information in the comment. No email addresses. No phone numbers. No physical addresses.

  • Don't spam. Excessive links to unrelated sites within a comment or across multiple comments will cause all such comments to be removed.

  • Don't ask me to recover lost passwords or hacked accounts. I can't, and those comments will be deleted.

  • I can't respond to every comment. And I can't vouch for the accuracy of others who do.

Please wait. Your comment is being processed ...


Question? Ask Leo!