Importing data from Microsoft Outlook. Andre Klapper ak-47@gmx.net Novell, Inc

Creative Commons Share Alike 3.0

Outlook

These steps refer to locally stored data such as POP accounts. For remote data (like IMAP) this is not necessary, since the data is still on the server and does not need to be manually transfered. You can set up the corresponding account in Evolution and the data will be downloaded.

Prerequisites under Windows

First, while using Microsoft Windows, prepare your messages for import:

Find your Outlook files (they normally have the file ending .pst or .ost):

Windows 7, Windows Vista

Windows XP

Outlook 2010

C:\Users\username\My Documents\Outlook Files

C:\Documents and Settings\username\My Documents\Outlook Files

Outlook 2007 and earlier

C:\Users\username\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Outlook

C:\Documents and Settings\username\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Outlook

(Replace "username" by your username.)

Copy the Outlook files to the system or partition that Evolution is installed on.

As your Windows hard drive is probably in the NTFS format, some Linux systems cannot read it without additional software. You might find it simpler to copy the mail folders to a USB drive or to burn a CD.

Mount your Windows drive or the disk where you saved the mail files.

Copy all the mail files into your home directory or another convenient place.

Start Evolution.

Optionally select FileNewMail Folder to create the folders you want.

Importing into Evolution

Click FileImport.

In the Importer Type tab, click Import a single file.

Choose the Outlook personal folders (.pst) file that you would like to import.

The file type will be automatically determined.

If the option to import Outlook personal folders (.pst files) is not available under FileImportImport single fileFile type, your distribution might have not enabled this functionality.

Choose the destination (e.g. the folder in Evolution) for the imported data.

Repeat the import steps until you have imported all your data.