Import dbx files to windows mail

J

Jan Rockstedt

Hi all,

How do i import my old oe6 files "dbx" into windows mail?

Regdars Jan
 
J

Jim Pickering

Copy all the DBX files, including Folders.dbx, into a folder on your Vista
setup. (if you use a CD, make sure the files have the Read-Only attribute
cleared after copying to the Vista folder), then open Windows Mail and use
its menu, File/Import/Messages - pointing it to the folder containing the
old DBX files. Be aware that newsgroups will neither import nor export.
 
J

Jim Pickering

Opinicus said:
Can't someone fix that?

Please...

We have asked for it for years. Users should be the ones to decide what
info they can import/export. But, no success.
 
J

Jan Rockstedt

Thanks Jim,

After the moving the files from my desktop to the win-mail folder it work ok
with the import menu.

/Jan
 
O

Opinicus

Jim Pickering said:
We have asked for it for years. Users should be the ones to decide what
info they can import/export. But, no success.

Can't it be accomplished with a plug-in/add-on?
 
J

Jim Pickering

Opinicus said:
Can't it be accomplished with a plug-in/add-on?

None presently exist that I'm aware of. The registry info differs between
Outlook Express and Vista, so that "cloning" as we used to do for earlier
versions of OE no longer work.
http://www.insideoe.com/backup/clone.htm

But, we may see a utility sometime in the near future. Stay tuned.
 
S

Sky King

Hi;

Pardon me for jumping in, but I'd like to offer an answer. Still No. <G>

The reason is that MS has no idea what server you use to get your news
feed(s). And no two news servers have exactly the same number of messages,
the same index of the messages they have, and the same updating schedule.

Therefore it is impossible for MS to "maintain" or "import" news messages,
since there can't be a certainty on the starting and end points for doing
any of those actions. IOW, your ISP will have a totally different index of
files than would Server1 at msnews.microsoft.com --- and Server1 at
msnews.microsoft.com will be slightly different than Server2 at
msnews.microsoft.com, etc., etc.

It is worth noting that WinMail makes using/importing/recovering older
WinMail folders better than any version of OE.

HTH :)


--

....Sky

Tom "Sky" King
===========

In
 
G

Guest

When I try and import from OE6 I receive an error dialog that says "No
messages can be found in this folder or another application is running that
has the required files open. Please select another folder or try closing
applications that may have filess open". The folder I am referring to
contains all the OE6 dbx files from my xp install and I am am also running
Outlook 2003.
 
J

Jim Pickering

Are you running the RTM version of one of the early Preview releases? I can
import w/o problem running the RTM version but there were some problems with
earlier versions as would be expected in a beta program. If you copied the
DBX files to your hard drive, then cleared the Read-Only attribute from
*ALL* of the DBX files, and included the master file, "folders.dbx" the
import will work using the RTM version.
 
G

Guest

I am running the release version that I downloaded from my MSDN account. It
appears that Mail does not even see the dbx files. The process worked perfect
 
J

Jim Pickering

All I can suggest is check the file path to the old stored DBX files while
performing the import. If you add an inadvertent click while performing the
import, you may "duplicate" the path (for example if you save the DBX files
in a folder on the C: drive with the name of "Mail" and click too
energetically, rather than C:\Mail it will appear as C:\Mail\Mail and then
the import will fail).
 
G

Guest

I gave up and found a program to convert the dbx files to eml then was able
to drag/drop them into Win Mail. Don't know that the problem is with the dbx
files, something for MS to figure out in their own time, thanks for your help
 
R

R. C. White, MVP

Hi, Duckman.

Too late for this time, I guess, but I had a similar problem through all the
betas, right up to about RC2. Then I realized what the problem was.

Since I'm a one-man, one-computer kind of guy, with no net but the Internet,
I never had to learn much about permissions and such. But with Vista's UAC,
I've had to learn at least a little bit about it. I finally realized that I
had to right-click on my old Store Folder, then click Properties | Security
and give myself Full Control of the folder. I've forgotten the details; I
stumbled around a while before I got the right combination. But when I
finally got it right, WM's Import wizard could see the .dbx files and import
all my email messages. Not the newsgroup posts, but all the email.

Just be warned: As you probably already found out, copying a few .dbx
files, even with thousands of messages, doesn't take very long, but creating
or copying thousands of one-message files takes a loooong time.

RC
--
R. C. White, CPA
San Marcos, TX
(e-mail address removed)
Microsoft Windows MVP
(Running Windows Mail 7.0 in Vista Ultimate x64)
 
S

Steve Cochran

I can write something to do the accounts so they will import, but the
messages will be somewhat problematic due to some issues Sky raises, but
also do to the new database design and the way it handles the news message
information and abstracts it in the db, which is unfortunately not
accessible via the limited programmability WinMail offers.

I'm looking into what can and can't be done, as MS, as usual, has done the
minimal.

steve
 
R

R. C. White, MVP

Hi, Alan.

Vista told me that MANY times before I finally realized that I had to give
myself permission to see the files in that folder. Once I muddled my way
through the Security settings and found the right combination, all the .dbx
files were visible in the Import Wizard and they all came through just fine.

Maybe you are a one-man, one-computer kind of guy like me. I never had to
learn anything about Permissions and Users and such until Vista came along
with its UAC (User Access Control). We griped about that all through the
beta period. The RTM version of UAC is not so hard to live with, but it
still takes some learning and adjustment for a solo computer pilot like me.

See my other post in this thread.

RC
--
R. C. White, CPA
San Marcos, TX
(e-mail address removed)
Microsoft Windows MVP
(Running Windows Mail 7.0 in Vista Ultimate x64)
 
G

Guest

Thanks for that - but....

I have checked the perminssions. I have even used "TAKEOWN" to make sure
that I own the files (the TAKEOWN reported success). But I still cannot get
Windows Mail to import my old DBX files. It still says no messages can be
found.

Any more ideas gratefully received

Alan
 
G

Guest

It's worked. For some reason, when I selected the directory (C:\Mail Backup),
the system added an extra "\mail backup". I sorted that out and it is
importing as we speak.

thanks for the help - I'm sure the take ownership was the key.

Alan
 
R

R. C. White, MVP

Hi, Alan.

Yes, that redundant folder name came up many times for me, too. I never did
figure out why, but eventually it worked.

I'm glad it worked for you - finally - and thanks for the report back.

RC
--
R. C. White, CPA
San Marcos, TX
(e-mail address removed)
Microsoft Windows MVP
(Running Windows Mail 7.0 in Vista Ultimate x64)
 

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