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Ryan1524 · Apr 23, 2004, 10:55 PM

my dad's notebook is dying on him, and he wants me to re-format it and go through the whole whack of XP routine maintenance. but since his computer's old anyway, i'm suggesting him to get a new one, a mactop supposedly. maybe an iBook or PowerBook. but i ahve one problem, his mails are very very important since it's central to his work.

now is there ANY way i can transfer them to Mail or maybe Entourage, or any decent mail app that works on OS X?

if this is do-able, it'll be a hell of a lot easier to convince him. i'm getting tired of nursing that P.O.S.

thx for any and all help.

MacEgo · Apr 24, 2004, 01:41 AM

http://littlemachines.com/

rytc · Apr 24, 2004, 06:19 AM

Originally posted by Ryan1524:
my dad's notebook is dying on him, and he wants me to re-format it and go through the whole whack of XP routine maintenance. but since his computer's old anyway, i'm suggesting him to get a new one, a mactop supposedly. maybe an iBook or PowerBook. but i ahve one problem, his mails are very very important since it's central to his work.

now is there ANY way i can transfer them to Mail or maybe Entourage, or any decent mail app that works on OS X?

if this is do-able, it'll be a hell of a lot easier to convince him. i'm getting tired of nursing that P.O.S.

thx for any and all help.

Well a quick look found me this
http://zoe.omara.ca/ConvertingToMbox
Which converts you mail in Outlook XP to mbox files which can then be imported directly in Apple Mail by selecting File>Import Mailboxes and selecting "other". I've never done it from PCs but have imported old mail from Claris Emailer into Outlook Express and then into Mail OS X over the years without too much trouble. It's definately doable. However, if your dad uses IMAP for his mail then just setup his email account on the new laptop and the mail will get transferred over. IMAP unlike POP stores the messages on the server rather than downloading them locally.

Cheers Ry

Ryan1524 · 01:08 PM

no, his mails are definitely POP. i set up most of them, so i know they're POP. as for the MBox conversion methods, just to clarify - so Mail uses MBox to store its mails as in OE's DBX files?? and i assume it'll take up those files as easy as OE takes up dbx..?

i'll definitely look into those apps, thx.

any more suggestions?? just to keep the alternatives open.

bkb · Apr 24, 2004, 02:02 PM

Trying to fiddle around with mbox files wasn't the easiest thing. The easiest way I could find to do it is this:

Set up an IMAP account in Outlook. You can find free IMAP accounts here:
http://www.emailaddresses.com/email_imap.htm

Upload all your mail to the server by dragging and dropping it (you can do it in one shot with Select All). Set up the same account on your Mac & download the mail to which ever client you want to use there. If the service provider you chose supports POP, you can just download it as POP, instead of IMAP.

It isn't hard.

Good luck,
BKB.

ink · Apr 24, 2004, 03:25 PM

Originally posted by bkb:
Set up an IMAP account in Outlook.

Better yet, just LEAVE your email in imap; that way it doesn't matter what email client you use. I use Evolution at work, pine or webmail at school and Mail.app at home; they all hit my IMAP/SSL account and I can read all of my mail in each one. Now, if only we could store addresses in IMAP... of course, there's always LDAP, but I haven't done that yet.

rytc · Apr 24, 2004, 05:50 PM

Originally posted by Ryan1524:
no, his mails are definitely POP. i set up most of them, so i know they're POP. as for the MBox conversion methods, just to clarify - so Mail uses MBox to store its mails as in OE's DBX files?? and i assume it'll take up those files as easy as OE takes up dbx..?

i'll definitely look into those apps, thx.

any more suggestions?? just to keep the alternatives open.

Yes Mail uses the mbox format for storing its messages. It should just import them straight in, I've imported mbox files from an email account on another computer and it was all very straightforward.
Using an IMAP account to transfer message was what I was trying to hitn at in my last post. I'd try that, may take a couple of transfers if your dad has a lot of old messages.

Cheers Ry

Ryan1524 · Apr 24, 2004, 10:01 PM

old messages...lol. he has stuff going back months, even years.

and how do you mean it'll take several transfers?? is it because the free online IMAP accounts can only take certain numbres at a time?? if so, will the time and sequence of the mails be disrupted?? i mean...those mails are dated, if those dates are messed up, it might become useless...since then it'll be very hard to trace which one's which.

but if the MBox method is indeed that simple..then i might opt for that one. think i'll try and visit a store soon and see if it works.

bkb · Apr 25, 2004, 10:39 AM

Originally posted by Ryan1524:
old messages...lol. he has stuff going back months, even years.

and how do you mean it'll take several transfers?? is it because the free online IMAP accounts can only take certain numbres at a time?? if so, will the time and sequence of the mails be disrupted?? i mean...those mails are dated, if those dates are messed up, it might become useless...since then it'll be very hard to trace which one's which.

but if the MBox method is indeed that simple..then i might opt for that one. think i'll try and visit a store soon and see if it works.

Using the IMAP route - the sequence won't be messed up. You need several transfers because of the total storage space you can have on there at any one point. If none of his old emails have large attachments, and if they are all mostly small (i.e. under 5k or so) then you might be able to do it in one shot, as I did.

bkb · Apr 25, 2004, 10:42 AM

Originally posted by ink:

Better yet, just LEAVE your email in imap; that way it doesn't matter what email client you use. I use Evolution at work, pine or webmail at school and Mail.app at home; they all hit my IMAP/SSL account and I can read all of my mail in each one. Now, if only we could store addresses in IMAP... of course, there's always LDAP, but I haven't done that yet.

I find IMAP slow compared to POP. In IMAP, my client is always talking to the server, updating, etc... In POP it only downloads - that's it. Plus, you can leave mail on the server in POP - which basically achieves the same thing. I realize that POP isn't quite as good as IMAP when it comes to synching a number of different computers, but in my experience, it is much faster for everyday use - and I therefore prefer it.

BKB.