Export and Import Outlook Express Emails

Step-by-step instruction to export and import Outlook Express emails.

Backup / Export Outlook Express Emails

1. In Outlook Express, click Tools menu then click Options.
2. On the Maintenance tab, click Store Folder.
3. Remember to the folder location.
4. Open Windows Explorer, and browse to the folder location.
5. Select and copy all the files in the folder to a new folder(example: mail_backup)
6. Done.

Restore / Import Outlook Express Emails

1. In Outlook Express, click File menu, point to Import, and then click Messages.
2. In the Select an e-mail program to import from box, click Microsoft Outlook Express 5 or Microsoft Outlook Express 6, and then click Next.
3. Click Import mail from an OE5 store directory or Import mail from an OE6 store directory, and then click OK.
4. Click Browse, and then click on the email backup folder(example: mail_backup).
5. Click OK, and then click Next.
6. Click All folders, click Next, and then click Finish.
7. Done.

These instructions are taken from Microsoft article “How to back up and recover Outlook Express data“. The article also has instruction to backup and restore Outlook Express address book, mail account, newgroup account and mail rules.

Thought:
For some reasons, my office staffs often switching their seats. For each time they swich, I need to migrate their documents and emails. Document is easy, just create a share folder, copy over and delete shared folder. But, export Outlook Express emails was giving me headache. The OE export features only export to Microsoft Outlook!

I was looking for easy and free tool to export OE emails but found this useful article. It is easier than I thought, yet it is unknown by many (included me, the 100% thunderbird user).

I success move all emails of a staff two days ago, and she was so happy that almost want to hug and kiss me. Muahaha… :lol: