Import Outlook 2007 mail and addresses

This guide will cover a way to import Outlook 2007 mail and addresses and it is useful if you are planning to transfer them to another computer or if you just want to reinstall Windows and you don’t want to lose any of your emails.

The first thing you need to do is to have the Personal Folders and Archive Folders pst files available. You can get these files after Exporting Outlook 2007 mail and addresses. I am assuming that when you first opened Outlook 2007 it has already created an empty .pst file.

Now that you are prepared we should get started. Here are 2 ways that will get your emails and addresses back into Outlook 2007:

Method #1: Using the Import and Export wizard

1. Open Outlook 2007, go to the File menu and click on Import and Export….
2. Click on Import from another program or file and click Next.
3. Click on Personal Folder File (.pst) and then click on Next.
4. Click on Browse and go to the location of the Personal Folders pst file after which click on Next.
5. In the upper side of the following wizard window select Personal Folders.
6. Make sure that Include subdirectories is checked.
7. In the lower part of the window check the Import items into the same folder in: radio button and select Personal Folders from the drop-down list.
8. After clicking on Finish Outlook 2007 will start importing your emails and addresses. You should know that this method also transfers your Contacts.
9. Repeat the above procedure for the Archive Folders.

Method #2: By copying mail and addresses from the backup pst

1. This method is more complicated but it will allow a more granular control over which emails and contacts you decide to keep when importing.
2. Open Outlook, click on File. Click on Open and then on Outlook data file.
3. Go to the location of your backup .pst file, select it and then click open.
4. You should see something named Personal Folders (if you kept the default name) below the usual Outlook email folders.
5. Open it and go to the first folder (usually Deleted Items).
6. Select the emails that you are interested in transferring and copy them to the corresponding folder contained in the Personal Folders folder from above. You should drag them with the right click pressed instead of the left click as the latter moves them from the backup pst. If you want to select all of them you can do so by pressing Ctrl+A.
7. Repeat step 6 for every folder in the backup pst (Inbox, Sent Items and so forth).
8. The Archive Folders can simply be copied to the default location of the pst files (see the Export guide for the exact paths) after which it can be simply opened by using steps 2 and 3.
9. In order to copy the Contacts click on the Contacts folder and then on Contacts in Personal Folders.
10. Click Ctrl+A and copy them to the Contacts folder above.

I hope that this is not to complicated and if you have any doubts just use the first method as you have no chance for mistakes.

Tags: import, import outlook 2007 mail and addresses, transfer outlook 2007 mail

This entry was posted on Saturday, April 3rd, 2010 at 12:28 pm and is filed under Software. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.