This question came from an Outlook & iPhone user. The user wants to upgrade her phone and her small business is considering moving to Office 365.
I have an iPhone. I use Outlook on a Windows computer without Exchange. I'm replacing my phone and need to preserve my sent messages for my business from my phone. It's a POP3 email from our company domain. I have messages on the phone (including sent messages) that are only on the phone. I often need my messages for proof of certain conversations.Can I move them to Outlook? Someone told me the email from my phone would not migrate into Outlook unless I forward each email. I don't want to do that as it would not only take a ridiculous amount of time also not provide the ideal result. I would like to be able to have my sent messages intact and be able to search the data using the correct parameters.
Yes, you can move the messages to Outlook (or anther email client) and it’s actually really easy. Just add an IMAP account to your phone (or iPad) then move the messages from the POP3 folders to the IMAP folders. An iCloud account will work just fine for this, or you can use a gmail, outlook.com, or Yahoo email account.
If you want to move the mail to a new folder in the IMAP account (so it doesn't get mixed up with messages already in your account), create a new folder, either using web access or on the device. To create a folder on the device, select the IMAP account to view the folder list, then Edit (top right) and New Mailbox (bottom). Enter a name for the folder then tap Done.
- In the Accounts list, select the POP3 account and open the folder you want to move messages from.
- Tap Edit (upper right)
- Tap a message to select it. (You can tap anywhere on the message; you don't need to tap in the circle to select it.)
- When you are finished selecting messages, click Move (bottom of message list).
- The folder list is now on the screen. Tap < Accounts to go back to the Accounts list.
- Tap the IMAP account.
- Tap the folder you want to move the messages into.
That is all there is to it. Seriously. If you have a lot of messages to move, it can be monotonous and may take a ridiculous amount of time, but the messages will be intact.
After you have finished moving the messages on the device, add the IMAP account to Outlook and wait for the messages to sync down. If you need the messages in another mailbox, you can move or export them from Outlook.
More Information
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Gerard says
Brilliant! I had exactly the same problem (except in my case the emails I wanted to move were on my iPad rather than iPhone). I'd been wondering literally for years how to ever solve this problem, and now it's done. THANK YOU!
Denise Rossatto says
Thanks a lot!! It worked well!! :)
Mohamed Yassen says
I need your help, I'm facing a critical issue with my GM the issue is the Exchange server was corrupted then we installed another one with the same configuration but no backup except the email at iPhone!
therefore I've to find a way to transfer thoes emails into another account but when i tried the IMAP solution it showed me that this mail can't be transferred!
Please Support
Diane Poremsky says
You might need to forward the email - this assuming it's really set up as imap and you can change the smtp - without refreshing the phone. It's going to be slow, but i'm not sure if there is any commercial email recovery program for iPhone.
Suzanne says
Hi - I tried to move the messages on my ipad to my Gmail account as I've understood you to suggest above but it tells me it can't move them. I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong. Any suggestions? Thanks.
DBK says
Thanks Diane but each time I try and "move" an email at the moment the app bombs out and goes straight back to the home page?
Emir says
I selected all of my e-mails (they're about like +1,500) and moved it to my iCloud mail (to a new folder) and like 200 of my mails moved. But rest of them returned back to their own mail account's inbox. why they didn't move to new folder? It always happen when I'm trying to do it.
What should I do?
DBK says
i have a similar problem but the messages on my iphone were from an exchange server that I now longer have access to.
The emails and more importantly the contacts are still there how can I transfer to outlook please?
Many thanks
Diane Poremsky says
The method used for pop3 should work for other accounts as long as they are stored locally on the phone. As far as I know, you'll need to use a 3rd party utility (from the app store) to get a back up copy of the contacts.
Dstronnaa says
iTunes>Click the iPhone on the left tabs>Info>Contacts>Sync
noorbus says
THANKS:) but if I have 5 pop mailbox and 1000 mail in each mailbox ? any solution to tap "mark all message" ?
Diane Poremsky says
To the best of my knowledge, no, you can't select all.
Rita Karolina Sobczyk says
Thanks! It helped me in solving my issue.
Chirag Shah says
Thanks a Milion... :)
Rbt says
I forgot to be more explicit
I want to transfer from my Outlook Express all POP3 Mail on an PC with Windows XP to my Outlook 2013 on a notebook with Windows 8.1
Rbt says
Transfer POP3 Mail on an PC with Windows XP to Outlook 2013 on a notebook with Windows 8.1
Diane Poremsky says
See https://www.slipstick.com/outlook/config/moving-outlook-to-a-new-computer/ for the steps needed to move from an older version of Outlook to a new computer.
Barb says
I'll add my Thanks for this solution. This is MUCH easier than forwarding all those mails that need to be kept.
Thanks Diane
Tricia Sommers says
I can't thank you enough. This worked so well to get all of my messages off of my phone. I had searched long and hard on the Internet and was unable to find a solution out there. Thank you for answering my request and saving my thousands of emails. I often need to fall back on them. I won't leave myself in that spot on my new phone!
Sue says
Hi.. did you have to move those thousands one by one? I have 7 gb of mail on my phone....
Diane Poremsky says
You can select more than one message at a time in seleect mode but I'm not sure what the max # you can select it - with 7gb, its going to be slow.
Rick Spiewak says
You can probably set your iPhone or other phone in the future to automatically Bcc you on all sent messages. That makes it a little easier