Moving from Outlook to Mac Mail

aumz · 12 Feb 2011 at 11:58

Recently moved from PC to Mac.
On PC was using MS Outlook so on the Mac installed office and started using Outlook for Mac...however I now wish to use Mac Mail and uninstall Outlook for Mac.

Problem is I can not find a way to transfer all my settings and mail to Mac Mail from Outlook. Settings not soo important but I want to keep all my emails and the folders.

Any help appreciated.

Feek · 12 Feb 2011 at 12:05

There is no easy way to do this. In fact it's difficult to find any way to do it at all.

aumz · 12 Feb 2011 at 12:10

Yes I feared as much.....should have bloody stuck with Mail App one time.....I just find outlook too much for my now simple day to day email...

Feek · 12 Feb 2011 at 12:24

How about setting up an iMap email account somewhere and synchronising Outlook with it and then configuring Mac Mail to do the same thing so the mail goes up, then comes down. Not sure if that will work, just thinking on solutions.

v0n · 12 Feb 2011 at 12:26

Imap account is the only "easy" way to do it. Set up your own server, copy messages in outlook into chosen folder structure on imap server, then open it up in mac mail and move messages into new "static" account.

As far as my experience goes (Netscape -> Outlook Express -> Outlook -> Entourage -> Thunderbird over last 10 years) nothing on this green earth, regardless of cost, will let you reliably carry over filters, settings and labels between mail apps in osx.

Craig321 · 12 Feb 2011 at 12:27

Feek said:
How about setting up an iMap email account somewhere and synchronising Outlook with it and then configuring Mac Mail to do the same thing so the mail goes up, then comes down. Not sure if that will work, just thinking on solutions.

That would work.

So you'd connect Outlook to an IMAP account, copy all the emails into there, then connect Mail to the same IMAP account and copy all the emails from there into a POP account.

I think with Mail if you change the server from IMAP to POP after it has synced it removes the synced emails, so you need to copy them from one account to the other.

Craig321 · 12 Feb 2011 at 12:30

Actually, this sounds kind of promising: http://www.mac-forums.com/forums/os...1-outlook-pst-file-apple-mail.html#post298836. It's worth a go.

So you basically import your mail into Thunderbird, then add the MBX extension to the Thunderbird mail files. It is a 4 year old post, so might not work anymore.

[Edit]
Better article explaining the above: http://www.trickyways.com/2010/08/how-to-transfer-emails-from-outlook-to-apple-mail/

Chris_83 · 12 Feb 2011 at 13:31

Thats what I did coming from exchange, import them into the windows version of thunderbird, then you can import the thunderbird files into Apple Mail.

Sagalout · 15 Feb 2011 at 13:45

Not sure if this will work from Mac Outlook to Mac Mail, but I used http://www.littlemachines.com to move from Windows Outlook to Mac mail. It transferred 3 years of emails, folders etc absolutely flawlessly, and only cost $10

Yucca · 17 Feb 2011 at 00:58

Sagalout said:
Not sure if this will work from Mac Outlook to Mac Mail, but I used http://www.littlemachines.com to move from Windows Outlook to Mac mail. It transferred 3 years of emails, folders etc absolutely flawlessly, and only cost $10

Im doing this RIGHT NOW.

I'l post later to let you know if it worked for me!

SIAT · 17 Feb 2011 at 10:32

I've used Outlook to Mac from Little Machines for years and its great. It's worked for tons of clients moving from pc to mac. It's a shame there is no easy/free way of doing it, but I suspect that's because of the pst file issue.