Migrating Windows Emails

From MEPIS Documentation Wiki

If you saved your emails from a Windows application, you will probably want to import them into a Linux-based mail client. MEPIS installs KMail (and Thunderbird, in some versions) by default and the import process for those will be described here, though there are many other clients available.

Contents 1 Common client formats 1.1 Kmail 1.2 Thunderbird 2 MS Outlook

Common client formats

Kmail

• Open Kmail by clicking KMenu --> Internet --> Mail Client (KMail)
• Click File --> Import Messages
• Select the program you would like to import from, then click Next. If you exported your email messages earlier as text files, as recommended, select the option Plain Text emails at the bottom of the list.
• Follow the directions that show on the following screen.

Once importing has finished, your emails should be available for viewing immediately.

Thunderbird

• Start Thunderbird by clicking KMenu --> Internet --> Thunderbird Mail
• Click Tools --> Import --> Mail
• Follow the Wizard to complete the process. For more options, see ImportExport Tools

You can also copy mail files directly from Windows Thunderbird to MEPIS Thunderbird, see this discussion.

MS Outlook

If you imported Outlook files from Outlook into Outlook Express before exporting them, as recommended earlier, then you can import them directly using the procedure above. If you exported your messages directly from Outlook as a *.pst file, however, you can try a different method (only works with Outlook versions prior to Office 2003):

• Install in the usual manner readpst from the repositories.
• Open a terminal and type

readpst -r PathAndNameOfFile.pst

• If you want to bring them into KMail, type instead:

readpst -rk PathAndNameOfFile.pst

This will recreate your folder structure with the emails in mbox format. It may be necessary to change the permissions for the new folders using chown. Details on the man page. Both KMail and Thunderbird can import emails in mbox format.

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