trouble importing message folders after XP upgrade

[m_corbelli]

I recently upgraded to XP Home from WinMe. I use Outlook Express as my
email client. I exported my email messages and folders before the
upgrade. When I try to import them, I get an error that the folder
doesn't contain them. When I look in the folder, they are there plain
as day. I did a little checking on MS and I think they are to have
either an .ibx or an .mbx extension, but mine all have .dbx extensions.
Did I do something wrong?

 

[Galen]

In (e-mail address removed) <[email protected]> had this to say:

My reply is at the bottom of your sent message:

I recently upgraded to XP Home from WinMe. I use Outlook Express as my
email client. I exported my email messages and folders before the
upgrade. When I try to import them, I get an error that the folder
doesn't contain them. When I look in the folder, they are there plain
as day. I did a little checking on MS and I think they are to have
either an .ibx or an .mbx extension, but mine all have .dbx
extensions. Did I do something wrong?

I think so. Outlook Express only exports in Exchange or Outlook formats. You
could probably find a tool that will convert the files though I don't know
of a freeware tool that will do this for you. For future reference the
OEBackup is a better tool for backing up your mail in OE.

http://www.paulsxp.com/downloads.html

Galen

 

[R. C. White]

Hi, M.

The mother lode for all OE questions:
Welcome to InsideOE
http://www.insideoe.com/

If you actually used "upgrade" from WinME to WinXP, you probably didn't need
to Export the files at all. Just point OE's File | Import to the Messages
and let it bring them into WinXP OE's Store Folder. But if you "clean
installed" WinXP, including reformatting the HD, then you needed a temporary
storage place. You could either have Exported them (as you say you did) or
used any copy message to store them where you could find them after you got
WinXP running, then Import them.

I haven't done this in a while, but as I recall, you may need to point to
the Parent folder, rather than to the actual folder that holds your files.

The .ibx and .mbx extensions were for prior (pre-OE5) versions of IE/OE;
your WinME files would already have been using .dbx only.

RC

 

[m_corbelli]

I should have said that I did a clean install. I exported the OE
folders to a file and burned them on a CD. Now OE doesn't recognize
them.

 

[Gordon]

(e-mail address removed) wrote:
|| I should have said that I did a clean install. I exported the OE
|| folders to a file and burned them on a CD. Now OE doesn't recognize
|| them.

Copy them back to a folder on your machine (NOT the default OE one), remove
the Read-Only attribute. Open up OE and go to File-Import and navigate to
the folder you copied the files to.

HTH

 

[m_corbelli]

That worked...problem solved. Thanks

 

[Gordon]

(e-mail address removed) wrote:
|| That worked...problem solved. Thanks

You're welcome!

 

[Lester Stiefel]

I should have said that I did a clean install. I exported the OE
folders to a file and burned them on a CD. Now OE doesn't recognize
them.

Try copying the dbf files you exported/burned to cd, back
to the documents area (or a folder on the desktop). OE does
not read from readonly disc very well, but can read from
local hdd.