I receive queries asking how to move mail from the old email host to the new host. It's actually quite easy: open the new mailbox in your profile and drag everything to the new mailbox. If you use an older version of Outlook you'll need to export the old mailbox contents to a pst file then import it into the new mailbox, since you can't have two Exchange accounts in the profile.
If you have a lot of folders in your current mailbox, it will be easier to Import the mail into the new mailbox. If you're using a different Exchange server or an IMAP account, export the mailbox to a pst file then Import it into the new mailbox.
If you have a lot of mail, you many need to use a filter to import only newer messages, to avoid filling up your new mailbox quota.
Note: Use steps 1 and 2 to move any account to a new host.
I'm using a hosted Exchange service and I'm not very happy with it. I'm going to start using Office 365. I want to make sure all the mail, contacts, calendars, etc I have in my mailbox get transferred to the new service without losing anything. How do I go about that?
Step 1: Set up new account
Set up the new account at the new host. Create your mailbox and change DNS so mail is delivered to the new mailbox.
Step 2: Add new account to Outlook
Add the new account to Outlook. Use the same profile as your current account and set the new account as default.
Step 3: Move mail, calendar, and contacts to new mailbox
Move mail from the old mailbox to the new one. You can do this one of two ways:
- Select all (Ctrl+A) in each default folder and drag or use the Move to folder command (use a List view in the Calendar). You can drag folders (and the contents)
- Export the old account to a pst and import it into the new mailbox.
My preference is to move everything myself, but if you have a large mailbox it may be a lot faster and easier to export from the old mailbox and import into the new mailbox.
POP3 and IMAP
You'll use steps 1 and 2 to move any account to a new host. When you are moving mail to an IMAP account, use the method in step 3 to upload the mail to the server.
If you are moving to a new POP3 account, add the account to your profile and set it to deliver it to the pst file the old account uses.
