Migrating To New .pst file

[John Schneider]

I'm running Outlook 2003 and today hit the 2 gig limit on my pst file, which
I have been using since I upgraded from Outlook 2000. I then went through
the following steps (didn't read this anywhere, I just winged it):
1. Took Outlook offline
2. Created a new pst file (File, New, Outlook Data File...)
3. Dragged and dropped all the folders from the old Personal Folders to the
New Personal Folders
4. Set the new Personal Folders to be where my mail is delivered (Tools,
E-mail Accounts...)
5. Removed the old Personal Folders file (File, Data File Management...)
6. Closed Outlook and rebooted.

When I started Outlook back up and went online, messages that came in with
applicable rules errored out, my Outlook Today page is blank (no tasks or
calendar items are showing up), my views are all screwed up, and I kicked my
dog (just kidding, but it was tempting).

I've looked around, but don't see any procedures for moving to a new pst
file and keeping everything intact. I don't want to keep the old pst file,
but want to move everything to a new one. Has anyone seen any tips on
getting this done without getting the urge to inflict pain on the nearest
animal?

Thanks,
John Schneider

 

[Diane Poremsky [MVP]]

Your method was fine - it preserved custom views stored in the folders. The
other methods lose all custom views.

When I started Outlook back up and went online, messages that came in with
applicable rules errored out,

You need to reset the rules to point to the correct folder.

my Outlook Today page is blank (no tasks or calendar items are showing
up),

Go to the Outlook today properties (right click on outlook today folder) and
reset it to default and see if it fixes it.

my views are all screwed up

Define 'screwed up'.

You didn't say if the To button brings up your contacts in the address
book - but it's another common problem when making new psts. If not, make
sure the Contact folder is enabled as an email address book. Right click the
Contacts folder, choose Properties then Outlook Address Book. Is the box to
enable as email address book is checked?



--
Diane Poremsky [MVP - Outlook]
Author, Teach Yourself Outlook 2003 in 24 Hours
Coauthor, OneNote 2003 for Windows (Visual QuickStart Guide)
Author, Google and Other Search Engines (Visual QuickStart Guide)



Join OneNote Tips mailing list: http://www.onenote-tips.net/

 

[John Schneider]

Diane,

Thank you so much for the response, but I'm still hosed, and I'm in some
deep do-do without my calendar. Please see my responses below.

Your method was fine - it preserved custom views stored in the folders. The
other methods lose all custom views.

None of the custom views were preserved. This leads to my biggest problem
with Outlook, in that it defaults to grouping in each folder, and I prefer
to have each folder not grouped. Every time I set up a new folder, I have
to manually go uncheck the "group by" option.

You need to reset the rules to point to the correct folder.

I've looked for every option to do this, but can't find it anywhere. Maybe
I'm missing something obvious. This would not be the first time!

Go to the Outlook today properties (right click on outlook today folder) and
reset it to default and see if it fixes it.

I don't even have the Outlook Today folder showing up.

Define 'screwed up'.

As mentioned above, every folder I've ever created, I have to, once again,
go uncheck the "group by" option.

You didn't say if the To button brings up your contacts in the address
book - but it's another common problem when making new psts. If not, make
sure the Contact folder is enabled as an email address book. Right click the
Contacts folder, choose Properties then Outlook Address Book. Is the box to
enable as email address book is checked?

Along with the calendar and tasks, none of my contacts (accumulated over the
past 3 years) are there either.

I guess that my bottom line here is, where in the MSKB, or some other
outside source, is there a procedure listing the steps involved to migrate
from a pre-2003 pst file to a 2003 pst file?

I did (of course) back up my old pst file before I started this process, but
even if I restore it, I still don't have everything I had before.

SOL,
John

--
Diane Poremsky [MVP - Outlook]
Author, Teach Yourself Outlook 2003 in 24 Hours
Coauthor, OneNote 2003 for Windows (Visual QuickStart Guide)
Author, Google and Other Search Engines (Visual QuickStart Guide)



Join OneNote Tips mailing list: http://www.onenote-tips.net/

I'm running Outlook 2003 and today hit the 2 gig limit on my pst file,
which
I have been using since I upgraded from Outlook 2000. I then went through
the following steps (didn't read this anywhere, I just winged it):
1. Took Outlook offline
2. Created a new pst file (File, New, Outlook Data File...)
3. Dragged and dropped all the folders from the old Personal Folders to
the
New Personal Folders
4. Set the new Personal Folders to be where my mail is delivered (Tools,
E-mail Accounts...)
5. Removed the old Personal Folders file (File, Data File Management...)
6. Closed Outlook and rebooted.

When I started Outlook back up and went online, messages that came in with
applicable rules errored out, my Outlook Today page is blank (no tasks or
calendar items are showing up), my views are all screwed up, and I kicked
my
dog (just kidding, but it was tempting).

I've looked around, but don't see any procedures for moving to a new pst
file and keeping everything intact. I don't want to keep the old pst
file,
but want to move everything to a new one. Has anyone seen any tips on
getting this done without getting the urge to inflict pain on the nearest
animal?

Thanks,
John Schneider

 

[Brian Tillman]

None of the custom views were preserved. This leads to my biggest
problem with Outlook, in that it defaults to grouping in each folder,
and I prefer to have each folder not grouped. Every time I set up a
new folder, I have to manually go uncheck the "group by" option.
http://www.outlook-tips.net/howto/grouping.htm
I've looked for every option to do this, but can't find it anywhere.
Maybe I'm missing something obvious. This would not be the first
time!

Open the rule and reselect the folder to which messages will be moved. Do
this for each rule that requires it.

I don't even have the Outlook Today folder showing up.

Do, if you click on the root of your delivery location, you don't get the
Outlook Today page?

I guess that my bottom line here is, where in the MSKB, or some other
outside source, is there a procedure listing the steps involved to
migrate from a pre-2003 pst file to a 2003 pst file?

I've done what you describe at least a dozen times and it has never failed.
Create a new PST, copy all folders to it (I use right-click>Copy), set it as
the delivery location, and restart Outlook.

I did (of course) back up my old pst file before I started this
process, but even if I restore it, I still don't have everything I
had before.

How did you back it up? How do you restore it? File>Open>Outlook Data File
would be the preferred method of "restoration". If all your data is not
there, then it was lost in whatever method you used to back it up.

 

[John Schneider]

http://www.outlook-tips.net/howto/grouping.htm

Thanks for the link. Lots of good stuff on this site!

Open the rule and reselect the folder to which messages will be moved. Do
this for each rule that requires it.

Ok, I'll give that a try

Do, if you click on the root of your delivery location, you don't get the
Outlook Today page?

Nope. I've spent a couple of hours trying to get my Outlook Today page
back, but its just gone.

I've done what you describe at least a dozen times and it has never failed.
Create a new PST, copy all folders to it (I use right-click>Copy), set it as
the delivery location, and restart Outlook.

That sounds logical, but it just didn't work. None of my contacts, calendar
or task items made it to the new PST. Any ideas why?

How did you back it up? How do you restore it? File>Open>Outlook Data File
would be the preferred method of "restoration". If all your data is not
there, then it was lost in whatever method you used to back it up.

I backed it up by shutting down Outlook and copying the entire PST file to
another drive and renaming it. For the restore, I reversed the procedure.

I'm back on my old PST file for now, and had to archive a bunch of stuff to
get the PST back under the 2gb limit. Everything seems to be ok now. I'll
try the migration again later, but it just does not seem to be as easy as
just copying folders from one PST to another.

Thanks for the reply,
John

 

[Brian Tillman]

Nope. I've spent a couple of hours trying to get my Outlook Today
page back, but its just gone.

If you right-click on the root of your delivery PST and cloose Properties,
then click the Home Page tab, the "Show home page by default for this
folder" box should be checked and the Address box should contain
res://C:\Program Files\Microsoft
Office\OFFICE11\1033\outlwvw.dll/outlookX.htm, where "X" is "1", "2", "3",
or "4", depending on the OL Today style you want.

 

[John Schneider]

If you right-click on the root of your delivery PST and cloose Properties,
then click the Home Page tab, the "Show home page by default for this
folder" box should be checked and the Address box should contain
res://C:\Program Files\Microsoft
Office\OFFICE11\1033\outlwvw.dll/outlookX.htm, where "X" is "1", "2", "3",
or "4", depending on the OL Today style you want.

Yes, that's just how it looks now with the old PST file. When I try the
migration again later today, I'll check that again, and if it does not
exist, I'll fill it in manually.

With regards to the contacts, calendar and tasks, when you did your
migrations, how did you get that information over to the new PST?

Thanks again for the help!
John

 

[John Schneider]

Finally figured this migration thing out.

I created a new PST file (File, Data File Management, Add...), then used the
Import function to import everything from my old PST file, including
contacts, tasks, etc. Now I'm on the new 2003 style PST file. Wasn't so
painful after all.

John

 

[Russ Valentine [MVP-Outlook]]

That may work, but is not the best or safest way to do it.
Do not import.
Just open the old PST in the same profile and copy its contents into the new
PST. Read the post. That's what Brian told you to do.

 

[John Schneider]

That may work, but is not the best or safest way to do it.
Do not import.
Just open the old PST in the same profile and copy its contents into the new
PST. Read the post. That's what Brian told you to do.

I tried that route, and it just did not work. I don't care how many times
he had done it, I tried it twice and had nothing but trouble. Contacts,
tasks and calendar did not copy correctly. Not to mention the nightmare
trying to get Outlook Today back.

The import route worked flawlessly, including getting the Outlook Today page
perfect and took considerably less time than copying each folder over
manually. What could possibly go wrong with the import functionality? When
you tell it that you are importing from a PST file, it knows the format.

 

[Sue Mosher [MVP-Outlook]]

When you import, you lose:

-- custom views
-- custom forms
-- links between contacts and other items

Using the original file as the default store preserves all that information.
There is no copying involved (as there is with importing).
--
Sue Mosher, Outlook MVP
Author of
Microsoft Outlook Programming - Jumpstart for
Administrators, Power Users, and Developers

 

[John Schneider]

Sue,

Thanks for the reply!

When you import, you lose:

-- custom views
-- custom forms
-- links between contacts and other items

I did notice that I had to redo my custom views (not a big deal), but I
don't use any custom forms. As for the "links between contacts and other
items", what type of links would these be? I don't understand how that
would work.

Using the original file as the default store preserves all that

information.
Again, I don't understand what you mean by this. My purpose was to migrate
to a new PST and get rid of the old one. Are you saying that you need to
keep the old one around?

There is no copying involved (as there is with importing).

The importing took only a couple of steps to copy all the information over
from the old PST. The method previously described in this thread required
you to manually copy over each folder individually.

Do you know of any MS article, or some other 3rd party article that
describes, step by step, the "proper" procedure for migrating from an old
97-2002 PST file to the new 2003 format PST file? There are many other
people in my group who are about to do the same thing, and I was kind of the
guinny pig to figure out how to do it.

Thanks,
John

 

[Diane Poremsky [MVP]]

Changing pst formats is one of the times import may be acceptable.

--
Diane Poremsky [MVP - Outlook]
Author, Teach Yourself Outlook 2003 in 24 Hours
Coauthor, OneNote 2003 for Windows (Visual QuickStart Guide)
Author, Google and Other Search Engines (Visual QuickStart Guide)



Join OneNote Tips mailing list: http://www.onenote-tips.net/

 

[Russ Valentine [MVP-Outlook]]

The reason that reusing the PST was not suggested is that you wanted to
change formats to UNICODE. Otherwise reusing the PST is always the preferred
method for migrating data. I've never had trouble copying data from one PST
file to another. Guess I've just been lucky.