Are you trying to convert Mac OS X Mail to Pst file? Don’t fret. I know it can be tough, with all the inefficient solutions out there.
Um, actually, I would not have known it if it was just a week ago.
“Illusions of Transparency”
I wasn’t aware that people find it difficult and very tedious. Since I dwell in the dark halls of email technology, I’ve got my hands fairly dark now, and can deal with any email related task easily.
That’s what created a huge “illusion of transparency” in my mind. Perhaps in my latest articles, I may have said something that I didn’t know that you didn’t know about. Particularly about that post when I talked about Postbox email client, and just in a quick passing by, I touched the discussion of moving your content from Thunderbird to Postbox. I even saw many comments about that moving part, and I yet again responded to them under being heavily affected by the bias of “illusion of transparency”.
This series on email migration is my way of making up for that. For today, I picked up Mac OS X Import to Pst file, or in other words, how to convert emails from ‘Mail’ to Pst file format. And believe me, I DO now know that it can be tough.
To get it out now, let me say Pst is a file format that Windows Outlook uses to store its content. So by converting “Mail” data from Mac to Pst file, you can easily transfer the emails to Windows Outlook. However, with the recent launch of Outlook 2016, now you can even import Pst files into Outlook 2016.
A third party software or manual conversion methods?
In short, you can’t convert Apple Mail data into Pst file by manual conversion. You can only ‘get’ your email data through some manual methods in Windows Outlook or Outlook 2016 for Mac, but you can’t convert the actual files. And you need to have at least some of the data in your email online server. It if is not, if it is offline stored, you are out of luck with the manual methods.
Secondly, in any case, manual conversion methods have been long proven to be very inaccurate, tiring, hard, and simply inefficient. Having said that, I would recommend you to try them if your database is small, if there are only 1-2 folders that you want to move, and they are stored in your email server. Otherwise, it can been nasty.
That is why, my personal recommendation is always a third party software that can convert the files.
How to import Mac OS X Mail to Pst file?
Coming to the main point of this post, there are good third party solutions that can help you convert Mac Mail data into Pst files. But the best is “Mail Extractor Pro”. And, why it is best? Here’s why.
Simply, because of its simplicity (user-friendly GUI). Secondly, because of its accuracy of conversion (Every bit of data is converted to Pst). Thirdly, because of its speed (almost 1 GB in 5 minutes). Fourth, because of its impressive tech support (quick, helpful, and good natured).
Fifth, because of its useful range of different features that allows flexibility in conversion. You can load Apple mail data directly from your identity folder “Mail” containing everything. No need for Mbox files. Although, there is an option to manually select Mbox files if you want, such that in cases where Apple mail isn’t installed but you have the Mbox file.
The tool also displays the folders that inside your selected database or Mbox file and you are free to select or de-select the folders from the conversion. You can even filter the folders according to their type – emails, contacts, or calendar data. You can also hide empty folders, which makes sense when the database is huge with countless folders, many of which may be empty. Thus, it helps in clearing your data and makes management easier.
Another features is that it will always preserve your read/unread status, meaning, it won’t turn the unread emails into read emails. Another one is its non-English support, safely converting the text of all languages.
Free Trial
You can download the free trial version to test it. It converts only 10 items from each folder. The good thing is that you don’t have to sign up or give any information to download it. The download is direct from its server.
I hope I’ve covered the issue for everyone to understand and didn’t let any “illusion of transparency” hinder my ability. Next time, I will deal with another similar email migration issue.
Related Readings: Export Mbox to Pst – And How Not to Lose your Folder Structure
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