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Transferring Outlook data (Office 2000 version) to Thunderbird v17 on my Windows XP machine does not work.

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  • Last reply by PeterHills

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I asked how to transfer from Outlook (Office 2000) to Thunderbird on a Windows XP machine about a year ago and was told to download an old version of Thunderbird - v17 was suggested - which I have done. When I use the Tools/Import , setting to Import everything, Thunderbird says that the Import is complete and that it has imported Account SAettings, Address Book and Folders. However, nothing seems to be there. This is becoming urgent, as with Forefox soon ceasing to be supported in XP, I need to get a new computer, and I believe Outlook is not now available. Any suggestions?

I asked how to transfer from Outlook (Office 2000) to Thunderbird on a Windows XP machine about a year ago and was told to download an old version of Thunderbird - v17 was suggested - which I have done. When I use the Tools/Import , setting to Import everything, Thunderbird says that the Import is complete and that it has imported Account SAettings, Address Book and Folders. However, nothing seems to be there. This is becoming urgent, as with Forefox soon ceasing to be supported in XP, I need to get a new computer, and I believe Outlook is not now available. Any suggestions?

All Replies (4)

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Have you looking in local folders in Thunderbird for an outlook import folder? does it contain anything?

Have you looking in the account settings to see what accounts are setup?

is the data you are trying to import the default PST in outlook it has to be. You can only import what you can see in outlook.

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Microsoft Office Outlook is still available if you want it. You have to buy a current version of Office (like the subscription version, Office 365), that contains Outlook.

If you want to switch to using Thunderbird, then ...

For just the e-mail, you can use MailStore Home. It is an e-mail archiving program that is free for home users. It can be used to archive e-mail from many different e-mail programs and even webmail. It can then be used to export the archived e-mail to many different e-mail programs, thus making it a good e-mail converting program also. Once archived, your e-mail can be viewed in MailStore Home just like an e-mail program.

For your contacts, you will have to use Office to export them to a CSV file. See this webpage for how to do that. Then you will import the contacts into Thunderbird's Address Book.

In Thunderbird's Address Book, click Tools: Import from the menu bar. Select "Address Books" to import, then Text file (LDIF, .tab, .csv, .txt) for the file type. In the file selection window that comes up, change the file type to look for to Comma Separated (*.csv), then find and choose the file.

You will see a window like the screenshot below. You will need to move up and down the fields on the left side to match the fields on the right side. Selecting (check-marking), the fields that you want to import.

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Reply to Matt 1.Local Folders contains 3 files for Outlook import (presumably reflecting multiple tries) None contain anything. 3.Outlook data are currentrly stored in the default .pst file. 2. Settings for account say this is a Special Account and no identities are associated with it. This looked hopeful, so I went to Account actions/ add email account. Filled in my name yjen existing email address and password, then hit Continue. Message came up saying Thunderbird failed to find account settings. Noticed Incoming Mail setting was IMAP, so changed to POP3 and hit Retest. Nothing happened. There doesn't seem to be anywhere asking me who my ISP might be etc.

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Further response to Matt. I have at last succeeded in getting Thunderbird to run on my machine following some of the information on the website, so I now have access to my isp and can send and receive emails using Thunderbird . However, I still cannot transfer my old emails and Address book from Outlook. If I go to my folder - peter@peterhills.co.uk - in Thunderbird and try import all, it claims to have inported settings, address book and mail folders, but there is nothing there. If I try to import just the address book or just the mail it says there is none to find.