Importing .dbx folders -?

[Jim Wood]

I just "upgraded" from Outlook Express to Outlook. I had two identities in
OE, one for home and one for work, each with two accounts. Outlook found and
imported the Inbox and Sent folders forone identity, but not the other. As
Outlook does not seem to manage dual identities, I am not sure how it would
do this anyway. But the identity that it did NOT import (work) is the one
that I wanted to use with Outlook, leaving the other identity (home) on
Outlook Express.

Question 1) Can I do this, actually run the two programs without conflict?

Question 2) How do I bring the orphaned .dbx folders into Outlook manually?
I went to File/Import, but .dbx folders are not among those listed for
action.

Thanks much!

 

[Brian Tillman]

I just "upgraded" from Outlook Express to Outlook. I had two
identities in OE, one for home and one for work, each with two
accounts. Outlook found and imported the Inbox and Sent folders
forone identity, but not the other. As Outlook does not seem to
manage dual identities, I am not sure how it would do this anyway.
But the identity that it did NOT import (work) is the one that I
wanted to use with Outlook, leaving the other identity (home) on
Outlook Express.

Question 1) Can I do this, actually run the two programs without
conflict?

Outlook will import the information for the default identity only. Now, the
Outlook equivalent of identities is mail profiles and you can create a
second mail profile for your work data, switch Outlook Express to make the
work identity your default identity, then import the data from that identity
into the work mail profile. Note that you should export messages using
Outlook Express to Outlook, but import addresses and rules from Outlook
Express using Outlook.

Question 2) How do I bring the orphaned .dbx folders into Outlook
manually? I went to File/Import, but .dbx folders are not among those
listed for action.

You can't import DBX files into Outlook. Period.

 

[Jim Wood]

Brian,

Thanks for the help; I'd be lost without you guys on the list. Trouble is,
I deleted the 'work' identity in Outlook Express because I thought that
Outlook had brought everything in. What I will try to do now is to re-create
that identity in Outlook Express (the .dbx files are still there), make it
the default identity, then I suppose I ought to uninstall Outlook and
re-install it so it can grab the right identity. Does this sound plausable?

Another question if I might; Outlook Express let you choose where mail
folders are kept. I put mine in the My Documents area to make backups
easier. Can I specify folder locations in Outlook? I don't see it at first
glance.

 

[Brian Tillman]

Thanks for the help; I'd be lost without you guys on the list.
Trouble is, I deleted the 'work' identity in Outlook Express because
I thought that Outlook had brought everything in. What I will try to
do now is to re-create that identity in Outlook Express (the .dbx
files are still there), make it the default identity, then I suppose
I ought to uninstall Outlook and re-install it so it can grab the
right identity. Does this sound plausable?

Just create an identity in OE, import your DBX files, then export the
messages to Outlook. I'm not in a position right now to experiment with the
addresses, but those should still be intact in the Windows Address Book. I
don't know why you think you have to uninstall and reinstall Outlook, and I
think you should avoid that.

Another question if I might; Outlook Express let you choose where mail
folders are kept. I put mine in the My Documents area to make backups
easier. Can I specify folder locations in Outlook? I don't see it
at first glance.

All of Outlook's folders are kept in the same file. The default location
for that file is the (hidden) folder %UserProfile%\Local
Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook. It's default name is "Personal
Folders.pst" or "Outlook.pst". That's not a magic location, though, and you
can move it to My Documents if you like, either when you create it
(File>New>Outook Data File) or by renaming it there with Outlook closed,
starting Outlook, then browsing to it when Outlook complains it can't find
its folders.

 

[Jim Wood]

Brian,

I truly appreciate your help with this, but it's academic at this point. I
originally changed from Outlook Express to Outlook because incoming e-mails
from the .biz domain (invaiably SPAM) were causing OE to crash. These same
messages come through without a problem to others who share the mail account,
and as they were using Outlook, I figured that changing mail programs would
solve the problem.

Unfortunately, during the swapover to Outlook, one of those .biz e-mails was
received and caused Outlook to crash in a manner identical to Outlook
Express. As I was getting along fine (otherwise!) with OE, I have just moved
everything back there and am up-and-running as before. With either mail
program I need first to open the company's mail account with a Web-based mail
utility and delete .biz messages.

My problem is thus not with Outlook Express or Outlook, but evidently with
Windows. An MVP monitoring the OE group has identified it as a kernel32.dll
problem, which can probably be corrected only by reinstalling the OS; a task
I am not looking forward to.

But many and sincere thanks for your time and trouble, and I fervently hope
that you and others will continue providing good information to the rest of
us who still have so much to learn.

 

[Brian Tillman]

Unfortunately, during the swapover to Outlook, one of those .biz
e-mails was received and caused Outlook to crash in a manner
identical to Outlook Express. As I was getting along fine
(otherwise!) with OE, I have just moved everything back there and am
up-and-running as before. With either mail program I need first to
open the company's mail account with a Web-based mail utility and
delete .biz messages.

Does your ISP not allow you to add ".biz" to a server-side filter?

 

[racerdog]

Outlook will import the information for the default identity only. Now, the
Outlook equivalent of identities is mail profiles and you can create a
second mail profile for your work data, switch Outlook Express to make the
work identity your default identity, then import the data from that identity
into the work mail profile. Note that you should export messages using
Outlook Express to Outlook, but import addresses and rules from Outlook
Express using Outlook.


You can't import DBX files into Outlook. Period.