The importing with "Import and Export" does not work right

[Steve]

I had a laptop with Outlook 2007, and on that laptop I had Outlook setup to
handle two email accounts. I would periodically backup my email to a pst
file using the Import and Export Wizard's "Export to a file" feature.

My laptop put up a noble effort, and lasted well over a year, but Vista
finally killed it (why can't Microsoft just get rid of those sleep and
hibernate features if they can't get them to work?) I decided to move all my
stuff to my other and more stable XP system.

I added a new email account to this second system, so like the other it now
has the same two email accounts except that their order is swapped: my main
account on the other is now the second accout here.

I attempted to retrieve the data. What a mess!

I sent into Import and Export Wizard and selected the PST file. I told it
where it was supposed to import the mail and... nothing. Nothing happened.
I did it again, nothing. I finally did it a tirt time and instead of
selecting my new email account folder I instead chose to use the default
"Personal Folders" item. This worked except now Outlook has merged all of
my emails of two accounts into the same folders! They're all mixed together!

Why is it always like this when using a Microsoft product? I told it what
to do, and it didn't do it. THen I play along with it just to get SOME
progress and now all hell broke loose. It's always the same anti-user,
anti-common sense experience when using Microsoft's products. Now I have to
waste my time and split apart my emails until I can get something funtional.

 

[Russ Valentine]

Even a cursory glance at this newsgroup will tell you that you do not Export
and Import to transfer Outlook data. Use a supported method for Outlook data
transfer. Take a look at these pages for info on Outlook data backup or
transfer:
http://www.slipstick.com/config/backup.htm
http://www.howto-outlook.com/Howto/backupandrestore.htm
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/assistance/HA010771141033.aspx

Note that some of the information on the Microsoft page is outdated and
contains errors, particularly when applied to Outlook 2003 or 2007.
Specifically:
1. Ignore any advice to copy your PST file to Outlook's default location to
connect it to your profile. Doing so will often corrupt your Outlook
profile. Copy it
anywhere BUT the default location and then open it within your Outlook
profile.
2. Ignore any advice that tells you to use export or import to transfer
Outlook data. That has never been sound advice, but the process has become
too deeply flawed to be of any use.

 

[Karl Timmermans]

Am not a fan of PST2PST import/export at the best of times for all kinds of
reasons (but your description is not one of them). You provided absolutely
no detailed information regarding the steps followed except for the last
attempt which worked exactly as it was supposed to (based on the
description).

There are multiple settings that can easily impact the results (ergo - have
an impact on the description of "I told it where it was supposed to import
the mail")

#1 - Whether or not to allow duplicate items
#2 - Which folder in the PST being imported was selected
#3 - Whether or not to include sub-folders
#4 - Whether to import to the currently selected folder in the navigation
tree (which must be done BEFORE starting the import/export process) OR
#5 - Whether to import to "SAME" folders in the selected target PST which
is done DURING the import/export process

Regardless of whether or not I'm a fan of PST2PST import/export - the
process itself works when everything is set correctly particularly in terms
of the choices made in items #4/5. Your description simply describes having
picked item #5 above and the import wizard did exactly what it said it was
going to do - "import items into the same folder" in <target
infostore/PST> - ergo the contents of the same folder(s) would end up being
combined.

In the case of the first two attempts - that could easily be the case if no
folder was selected from the PST file being imported combined with "Include
SubFolders" not being checked.

Alternatives

For backup - just make a copy of the PST file you want to backup - no need
to export.
For retrieval - open the additional PST file in Outlook and copy what you
want to the desired location.

Can also only surmise that you don't maintain a backup of your PST files in
the event of a disaster (of any kind/for any reason) in which case the
recovery process from anything unexpected would have been a very simple,
straightforward, and very quick process.

Karl
--
____________________________________________________________
Karl Timmermans - The Claxton Group
ContactGenie - QuickPort/DataPort/Exporter/Toolkit/Duplicate Contact Mgr
"Contact import/export/data management tools for Outlook '2000/2010"
http://www.contactgenie.com