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Importing from Outlook for Windows based PST to Entourage

If you are looking for a way to import data from an Outlook for Windows based PST to Entourage then here is something you can use. Bad news is it uses Outlook 2001 which is a Classic application. MacIntel users can forget about this unless they have access to an older computer.

  • You can use the PST Import Tool to import data from any PST created using Outlook 2001 for Mac into Entourage 2004.
  • You can also use a workaround to import all data from any PST (no matter where it was created, i.e. Windows PC or Mac) but that is not guaranteed to work without any issue as MS never tested this against all those PST formats (thus not supported by PSS!).

All you need to do is transfer all data from any PST (ANSI or Unicode) into an ANSI PST (PST created to work with OL2002 and previous versions on PC, can be created using Outlook 2003/2007) by drag and drop or move/copy operation. Then open that ANSI PST on a Mac using Outlook 2001 for Mac (yes, these PSTs are cross-platform PSTs), then again move all data from this ANSI PST to a new PST you should create using Outlook 2001 for Mac.

  • This carries with it the limitations of ANSI PSTs (limited size). You can always use multiple PSTs to workaround size.
  • Before you ask...Yes, it does handle Calendar and Contacts.

Now, you can use the final PST file which you created using Outlook 2001 for Mac with the PST Import Tool to import all data into Entourage 2004.

This tip is provided by Amir Haque. Amir reports "It's a workaround which I have tested myself, it works fine, I have provided it to many of our enterprise customers as well, none of them complained."

Download Outlook 2001 for Mac

Comments (37)

dow said:

I'm trying to import a Windows PST file into Entourage.

I tried the tip above to go via Outlook 2001 for Mac, but can't get Outlook 2001 to fully launch, as it insists on being given a Microsoft Exchange Server - which I dont have...

Any workarounds?!

Bob Coogan said:

I use Outlook 2 Mac (O2M) to export. PST Import Tool doesn't work for me at all. Though O2M has it's share of problems as well. I have to install it on my work Dell, move all of my e-mails I want to transfer to my Inbox (O2M won't export from anywhere else), then copy the .mbox file it creates to my thumb drive. Then on my Mac I have to import the .mbox files to Apple Mail (Entourage won't directly import PST files), then import from Apple Mail to Entourage! Too much work.

Rakesh said:

How do I get the O2M tool? Is it available for free?

Diane Ross said:

Outlook 2 Mac

It is not free. The cost is $10.

Jim said:

Is it possible to import my PST from Outlook 2007 into Entourage 2004?

Hi Jim!

Yours is the first request to move from Outlook 2007 to Entourage 2004 that I've seen. If Outlook 2007 allows you to create PST files as described above then you can follow those instructions plus some addtional instructions posted in this blog post Use an empty Exchange profile to open PST files in Outlook 2001. Essentially, you'll save your PST file from Outlook to a format that Outlook 2001 for Mac can read. Then you'll use Outlook 2001 to create a new PST file and move your messages into that. Finally, you can take Microsoft's PST Import Tool to move your messages into Entourage 2004.

The method sounds convoluted but it works and for just a one time move you can't beat free and simple. If you try this, please let us know your results.

Thanks for posting!

Mike said:

I wanted to share my experience since it burned most of my day:

1) O2M did not copy my attachments no matter how I tried it. Save the $10.
2) Using Thunderbird for the transfer process is tedious and also did not copy my attachments and I would have had to manually reasign every single folder. Bother.
3) What did work:
Created a 97-2002 pst in Outlook 2007 and manually moved the files.
Uninstalled Outlook 2007
Installed Outlook 2000. Ran O2M again, still no joy.
Reinstalled orig OS X Jaguar with OS 9 support on older iMac.
Installed Outlook 2001 and blank exchange file.
Copied ANSI .pst to iMac
Pointed Outlook 2001 to it.
Created new personal folders in Outlook 2001 and manually copied the mail into it.
Installed Entourage 2004 and import tool.
Imported the email-everything was there, my contacts, my cal, and even all my attachments.
Created an archive .rge file
Copied to a USB 2 HDD
Copied it to my new Macbook. Imported it.
Joy.

I would like to know if anyone has found a way that works. I've heard other people claim success with O2M, but it didn't work for me.
Anything out there that works all the time?

June said:

How do you transfer from Outlook 2007 to Entrouge 2004 using Leopard?

dianer Author Profile Page said:

Leopard did not change the way you import from Outlook 2007 into Entourage. See the Cross Platform page for help or ask on the Entourage newsgroup.

http://www.entourage.mvps.org/cross_platform/index.html

How to subscribe to the Microsoft Entourage newsgroup

http://www.entourage.mvps.org/support_options/subnews.html

tim said:

Dear sirs,

I would like imports all emails, contacts, rules, pst.files from XP-Outlook to Entourage 2004.

dianer Author Profile Page said:

Check out the options on the "Convert Mail from Windows to Mac" Page:

http://www.entourage.mvps.org/cross_platform/win_mac.html

Entourage can import a .csv file. Just select the option in Outlook to export as .csv or text file. In Entourage select the Import --> Contacts from a text file --> tab delimited file and navigate to the .csv file.

Third party options:

Outlook2Mac...$10

http://www.littlemachines.com/

Transfer Windows® Outlook® email, contacts, and calendar appointments from your PC to your Macintosh® computer! See this MacTech article for more info on using Outlook2Mac.

http://www.mactech.com/articles/mactech/Vol.22/22.10/OutlookAndEntour/index.html

Use Paul Berkowitz's Export-Import Scripts (shareware). Download here

http://www.scriptbuilders.net/search.php?search_str=Export-Import+Entourage

Elwin said:

wow, all looks like a lot of work. does anyone tried this with a .pst file of 2.4gb?

thanks,


elwin

Mike Roberts said:

Trying to transfer emails, callander , contacts and tasks from Outlook 2003 on a pc to entourage 2004 on a new MacBook. Read the above info about going via Outlook 2001 and found
"Remember, Outlook 2001 runs only in Mac OS 9 or in Mac OS X under Classic mode. This method will not work with an Intel Mac."
So what to do? (I find it a bit shocking that these 2 MS products won't talk to each other).

What about using iCal, address book & mail on the MacBook - will these import from a pst?

Help!

dianer Author Profile Page said:

Hi Mike, Sorry but none of the Apple applications will import from a .PST file either. See the comments above for options.

Be sure to check out the options on the Convert Mail from Windows to Mac

In addition send Feedback to Microsoft under Help in the menu bar while in any Office application. Hopefully, it will get added in a future update.

Roland said:

Hi,

Can someone tell me if it is possible to import a .pst file from Outlook 2007 into Entourage 2008?

I use mail, calendar, address book, notes and tasks.

thanks,

Roland

dianer Author Profile Page said:

Entourage 2008 did not add this feature. See above comments for ways to import.

Borgy said:

I recently transferred my mail, calendar, and contacts from Outlook to my new iMac (Leopard) using O2m. My first trial failed and I was about to agree with other posts here but decided to try again. One is given the option of converting to the imac formats or "any other" which I took Entourage to be. I went back and converted to the iMac formats and was able to transfer the files when I followed the detailed instructions for importing. It is important to follow his 'open with' instructions carefully. I had to open all the Calendar entries on the mac in Entourage but they were accepted when I closed them. It was a great relief.
Support was responsive, by the way, which is pretty surprising for a $10. program.

Jim said:

I have been struggling for a couple of days now trying to get my Outlook '03 data into my new iMac Entourage '08 app. I have purchased the O2M program, run it successfully, buy cannot get Entourage to allow it to be imported.
I open Entourage, file, import, click on 'contacts or messages from a text file' , 'Import messages from an MBOX-format text file', open the folder containing the information, click on 'contacts' to highlight the folder, then click on 'Import', then all my contacts show except they are 'greyed out' and the 'Import' button is not available, (greyed out), only the 'Cancel' button us available.

I have tried everything I can think of but no luck. What am I doing wrong?

Jim

Patrick said:

I was able to import a series of

I would suggest using Emailchemy these days, although it can take some time.

Stephen W said:

I'd suggest finding a hosted exchange service
ie www.4smartphone.com in outlook create a new profiles for the exchange account, load your old pst file, that will sync all your contacts etc with exchange. Then on the mac connect to your exchange account with entourage. This will now sync your hosted exchange data with entourage.

Yes you have to pay for the exchange hosting but there are a lot of inexpensive options out there. Plus you now have your data backed up to a hosted server. in the case of www.4smartphone.com you also have the benefit of syncing all your contact info and current email to a smartphone

Cevdet said:

Any idea how to transfer Outlook 2003 pst files to Entourage 2008?
Regards,

[There is no direct way. There are several options listed on Convert Mail from Windows to Mac] Diane Ross

Suzanne said:

Dianer

You said:

"In addition send Feedback to Microsoft under Help in the menu bar while in any Office application. Hopefully, it will get added in a future update."

You don't understand. This massive obstacle to transferring Windows Outlook to Mac Entourage IS INTENTIONAL. Microsoft WANTS you to have massive trouble, to discourage people from transferring from Windows to Mac.

Microsoft doesn't realise that it has the opposite effect. It makes me determined not to ever let my data get stuck in proprietary formats such that i am held at ransom like this.

For emails, I use IMAP (try Gmails free IMAP) to transfer files. All dates and attachments are transferred perfectly.

For Calendar, I'm thinking of syncing Outlook to Google Calendar, using www.syncmycal.com and then from there, synching Google Calendar to iCal with either www.busymac.com or www.spanningsync.com

For address book, I'll try www.littlemachines.com

For to-do list, I'm still working on that one.

Ron Bower said:

I am trying to use O2M to export and convert my Outlook 2007 data to Entourage. O2M crashes if I try to convert ANY attachments at all. If I tell it to ignore all attachments it works fine.

Has anyone been successful using O2M with attachments? My attachments are very generic: jpgs, docs, etc.

Thanks!

Diane Ross Author Profile Page said:

Sorry, I don't have personal experience with O2M, but some other users might be able to help. You could try Paul Berkowitz's Export/Import scripts. They continue to be useful rather than being a one time use like O2M.

German said:

How can I import my email from Outlook 2003 to Entourage 2008. Somebody have the answer to do that!!

Diane Ross Author Profile Page said:

The Entourage Help Page is the source for finding answers where the blog is for the latest news and tips.

Check out the options on the "Convert Mail from Windows to Mac" Page.

Import PST Files

Entourage can import a .csv file. Just select the option in Outlook to export as .csv or text file. In Entourage select the Import --> Contacts from a text file --> tab delimited file and navigate to the .csv file.

Import/Export CSV File

If you are new to the Mac, see my tips for new Mac users.

New2Mac & Entourage

Jane Powell said:

Hi

I need to import 3000 contacts from a pst file into Entourage 2008. I've exported the data into a pst file, and now looking at mapping fields BUT there is no category field listed. The contacts I'm importing have 30 different categories, and its essential that I import them. Where do I go?

Jane

Diane Ross Author Profile Page said:

Your best option is to select export as a .csv file rather than a .pst file. PST is for mail not contacts.

Import Contacts

Jane Powell said:

I have exported it into a csv file, and next tried to map fields for importing into Entourage. But there is no category field to import to. I've 30 odd categories and over 3000 records, so doing it manually in Entourage is going to be a pain

Diane Ross Author Profile Page said:

Have you looked at Little Machine's O2M? It has a demo that you could test.

Does Outlook have a notes field that exports and then could be used in Entourage to assign categories?

Creating each category as a separate csv file would be easier than marking them in Entourage once they are all imported.

Please report back and let me know what you find. I can write this up for future questions. Thanks!

Thad said:

I have tried several options, but this one worked very well for me. I am mbox (ing) pst files created on an exchange server using exmerge but it should work for normal pst files as long as the index is intact:
Download this file here:

http://www.marklyon.org/gmail/readpst.zip

Unzip it. Create a new text file and paste the following into the new text file:

:batch script written by Thad Williams
:contact bb@seabyrdtech.com
:Free to anyone who wants to use it, use at your own risk


@echo off
echo .
echo .
echo . 1.) Place the pst in this directory
echo . 2.) ONLY ONE PST at a time.
echo . 2.1) Your PST will be renamed to CONVERT.PST
echo . 3.) Note warning below:
echo .
echo .
echo .
echo . !WARNING! If the folder "Mbox" exists it will be erased!
echo . Please move the directory "Mbox" if you want to keep it
echo .
echo .
echo . 4.) Push the any key ;)
echo .
echo .
echo .
echo .
echo .
pause

:rename the pst file

ren *.pst convert.pst

:deletes old runs, makes a folder, then runs the script

rmdir mbox /S /Q
mkdir mbox

readpst.exe -o mbox -w convert.PST

:then rename them all .mbox

ren mbox\*. *.mbox


Now save this text file as "runme.bat" (note: NOT runme.bat.txt)

Put the .bat in the extracted directory, drop your .pst into the directory, and wait. In my experience a 1.5gb pst will take ~20 minutes.
NOTES: Works on windows only. Your .pst file will be renamed convert.pst. If you are worried about this, put a COPY of the pst into the directory. That is just good practice anyway...

Sonya Steele said:

Hi all,

I just switched from a PC to a Mac and am trying to transfer emails from a German Outlook (2003) into Entourage 2007 (v. 12.0.0) on a Mac OS X (v.10.5.2).

I wanted to use the O2M (http://www.littlemachines.com/), but the company said that its product is incompatible with non English-language-characters.

Next I imported my Outlook email to Mozilla Mail and added an .mbox extension. I copied the .mbox files to the desktop of my Mac and tried dragging (and importing) the .mbox icon from the desktop to Entourage.

Although the .mbox files on the Desktop appear to be of the right format, I'm not able to import them (either manually or by dragging them to Entourage or its icon on the Dock). When I try to import it, it will not allow me to select the file (it remains greyed out, as if it doesn't recognize the format), and when I drag and drop, the email contains no information. I've also converted them to .eml files - no luck.

I am not sure what to try next...

Thanks for your help.

Cheers,
Sonya

Diane Ross Author Profile Page said:

You mention Entourage 2007 (12.0.0) did you mean Entourage 2008? You definitely need to upgrade to 12.1.0 (SP1) as it fixes many problems.

I you still have access to a server, you might be able to get your mail via an IMAP account.

Regarding your bad MBOX files... did you follow the directions in Dave Riches tutorial? Paul Berkowitz's Export-Import scripts are also very good and can be used after you get imported for backup, moving to a new Identity etc. ($20)


The Convert Mail from Windows to Mac outlines some other options that you should check out.

David said:

I have just migrated from PC to Mac. Using the Entourage 2008, I managed to export/import my emails and contacts from Outlook to Entourage.

My only problem is importing my MS Outlook Calendar to Entourage. I tried exporting my Outlook Calendar in PST and CRV but failed to import into Entourage. Help!

Diane Ross Author Profile Page said:

I'm sorry to say this is one of most troublesome of the transfer saga. See these options: Transfer Contacts and Calendar

Your problem would benefit from other user's experiences. You can subscribe to the Entourage newsgroup or the YouTalk mailing list.

How to subscribe to the MSFT newsgroups

How to subscribe to the YouTalk Mailing List

Paul Corriveau said:

I like many of you am making the switch form Windows to MAC, and, am trying to convert Outlook (2003 in my case) to Entourage. I researched many utilities and purchased O2M. Right off the bat I receive a message that O2M cannot connect to Outlook. It implies that one must turn off security software running. So I shut down my Norton 360 and attempted again with no luck. I have sent an email to LittleMachines but have not heard back.

Anyone out there experience this???

zlatan24 said:

I heard about not bad application-read contacts from pst, provides a possibility to read contacts from pst, decrypt this file and extract all contacts to *.vcf files, that can be opened by Personal Information Management (PIM) and Windows Address Book any time. Other files are extracted with *.eml and *.txt extensions.

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