Outlook to Evolution

When I switched to Linux I successfully converted my .pst files to mbox
format, together with my Outlook contacts and imported them into
Evolution. It's a fairly convoluted process, but it worked for me.

If you have a strong stomach (or masochistic tendencies), make yourself
a large pot of coffee (or something stronger) and give this a try:

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Mozilla under Windows can access the .pst Outlook files because it can
use the Windows MAPI.DLL library. Using MAPI.DLL is the only way to
access .pst files, and it can be used under a Windows operating system.

To start importing your Outlook mail to Evolution, run Mozilla Mail on
Windows and select the Importer to begin:

File > Import

Then select the .pst file that you wish to import Mail from Outlook.
Once Mozilla has imported all your mail, reboot your computer into
Linux.

Mount your Windows partition in Linux and run Evolution to begin
importing your mail. Select the Importer from the File menu to start
importing:

File > Import File...

Set the file type to "MBox (mbox)" and click on [Browse] to select the
file containing mail you want to import.

If you are the only user on Windows, the mail files will be stored in
/mnt/windows/c/Windows/Application
Data/Mozilla/Profiles/default/XXXX/Mail/imported.mail/ where
/mnt/windows/c/ is your windows partition mount point and XXXX is some
collection of numbers and digits ending in .slt.

If there is more than one user, the file will be in
/mnt/windows/c/windows/Profiles/USERNAME/XXXX/ Mail/imported.mail/ where
USERNAME is your Windows username.

For each mail folder in Outlook, Mozilla will convert the folder into
one mbox file. To import all your mail, import all the files into
Evolution, that do not a .msf extension.

ALTERNATIVELY

You may want to get the conversion program libpst-0.3beta1.tgz which can
be downloaded from http://sourceforge.net/projects/ol2mbox/

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To import your contacts from Outlook you will need to export all of your
contact folders in Outlook to a .csv file. To do this in Outlook:

Click on File > Import and Export....
Choose "Export to a file" and click [Next].
For the file type choose "Comma Separated Values (DOS)".
Click [Next].
If you have sub-folders under "Contacts" each sub-folder must be
exported separately.
Name the exported files "same_as_outlook_folder.csv" (sans quotes and
keep a note of the path).
Click [Next].
Click [Finish].

To import contacts.csv into Evolution you will have to run each .csv
file through the attached Perl script (csv2vcard.pl). Download
csv2vcard.pl into your home directory and make the script executable by
running this command:

$ chmod +x ~/csv2vcard.pl

Run this script to convert contacts.csv to contacts.vcf:

$ ./csv2vcard.pl contacts.csv contacts.vcf

Once you have contacts.vcf, you can import it into Evolution by:

Clicking File > Import.
Click [Next].
Click on "Import from a single file"
Click [Next] again.
For file type choose "VCard...".
Click [Browse] and select your file.
Click [Next] then [Import].
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Download http://jdshelp.org//howtos/evolution...set_ISO-8859-1 01-csv2vcard.pl

as soon as our new database admin gets the helpdesk application webberized.

then, I'll just boot into linux all the time, and only boot into windows for a very few Micro$oft-centric things.

Notwithstanding Tom Adelstein's nice scripted solution above, there are step-by-step instructions with complete screenshots in Chapter 6 of our book, "Exploring the JDS Linux Desktop" for moving your address book contacts from Outlook (Outlook 2000) to Evolution (JDS).

It's a simple 3-step process:

I. Select and export all Outlook address book entries to a text file;
II. Mail the text file to yourself as an attachment and field it in JDS;
III. Import the text file in Evolution.

Let me know if you'd like it layed out here.

-Sam Hiser

I would very much like this process outlined here. I'm struggling to get my Outlook stuff imported into evo. Tried outport, but that didn't do it. Tried vcard export, but most info of contacts containing foreign characters is lost. Tried the script as described above, but got errors...

Thanks,

Graham

I'm not sure I understand what you're asking.

Do you want a 1-2-3-4 step by step "Howto"

Yes, that would be nice, but looking over the thread again I realized that this is all very specifically JDS, which runs Evo 1.4 I think. I'm running Evo 2.0, and a lot has changed with regard to import/export etc. I suspect. I can't import CSV files for example.

So, if anyone has had any luck importing outlook items into evo 2.0, I would be very interested.

Thanks,

GDI

EDIT: removed a typo.

Right, you would need to use Evolution 1.4 and then migrate to Evolution 2 (AFAIK)

I too have been having problems with this particular conversion. Here's what I've tried:

Outlook > Mozilla on Win (stopped there because attachment names in mails were suddenly in 8.3 format, I.e. a file named thisisafile.doc was thisis~1.doc. Apparently, this is a known bug listed in the MS Knowledgebase (search for outlook attachment truncated))

Outlook > OutlookExpress Win (same problem)

Outlook > Eudora Win (at last! Attachment names not truncated) Then Eudora Win to Evolution Linux (mails all there, BUT attachments point to T:\blahblahblah on my Windows machine - not a great help).

This conversion is the last hurdle before I can get rid of MS out of my daily life. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!!

The solution I found was to download outport from http://outport.sourceforge.net/

Using outport you can export all your Outlook contacts to individual vcard files into a single folder. Since Evolution will only import a single .vcf file at a time, combine your individual vcard files at the command line:

cat *.vcf >> contacts.vcf

Then use the Evolution import wizard and import your new file. Works like a charm.

Can any one tell me how to download Sun Desktop System i cant find any link i download live cd but need proper version for use... I dont want to spend money on buying the version... So, please help or give me any link so i can download a full version ....

Thanks.

Hi everyone,

I can point you to a great solution for converting Outlook to Evolution. It is something that has been mentioned before in these forums i think (or perhaps elsewhere) so I won't take credit.

Outlook2Mac http://www.littlemachines.com

This program can be used to export all your mail folders in outlook INCLUDING attachments to mbox files. it will also export all your contacts, calender etc too.

The only downside is that it will cost you US$10. A small price to pay for a solution that really does work without too much hassle. However i also have some suggestions for making your transition easier with this program. There is a trial version but this will only do 5 exports at a time. Maybe good for those with one email folder and only a few contacts.

Outlook2Mac will create a separate mbox file for each folder you have in your outlook inbox. Evolution will only import one mbox file at a time, asking you which folder you want it linked to each time. This can be a real pain if you have a lot of folders like i did. I think it might be easier to almost merge all your folders into as few as possible and then create filters in evolution to process the mail back into the original folders. Personally i think the filter creation utility in Evolution is much quicker to use than Outlook.

Unfortunately you also have to import all your .vcf contact files individually too. This was a nightmare for me with over 200 contacts to import. If someone has a quicker way to do this, I am all ears.

my 2 cents!

Originally posted by rstrilec The solution I found was to download outport from http://outport.sourceforge.net/ Using outport you can export all your Outlook contacts to individual vcard files into a single folder. Since Evolution will only import a single .vcf file at a time, combine your individual vcard files at the command line: cat *.vcf >> contacts.vcf Then use the Evolution import wizard and import your new file. Works like a charm.

thanks for that tip rstrilec!!

Originally posted by gdi2k I would very much like this process outlined here. I'm struggling to get my Outlook stuff imported into evo. Tried outport, but that didn't do it. Tried vcard export, but most info of contacts containing foreign characters is lost. Tried the script as described above, but got errors... Thanks, Graham

Here's a summary of the detailed version (Outlook 2000 to Evolution...should work for most versions)

Step 1:
In Outlook, select all names in the address book and Save As text file (that last part is the illogical but critical part: a TEXT .txt fie). You could save this to \My Documents or another directory of your choice or directly to a small USB storage device. Let's call this file "contacts[date].txt."

Step 2:
Using Outlook or your USB storage device, transfer "contacts[date].txt" to your Linux home directory: /home/[username]. You could email it to your own email account or simply drag & drop it from the storage device.

Step 3:
From Evolution, import "contacts[date].txt" by selecting File->Import which will run you through a file import wizard. Select to "Import a single file" when prompted and then just browse for "contacts[date].txt" in your home directory and make the logical choices through the rest of the wizard, such as File Type: AUTOMATIC.

Watch while the Evolution contacts populate. I hope this is explicit enough to be helpful.
-Sam Hiser

Came across this site: http://www.resolvo.com/moveover/. Moveover automates the entire process of migrating the Windows environment to Linux, including moving all contacts, emails and email config in Outlook to Evolution.

I have (almost) painlessly moved messages and address from Outlook Express v 6 to Evolution 2.2.1.1 using, of all things, Kmail and Kaddressbook.

Kmail v. 1.8 can import outlook mailboxes directly; I just had it import the *.dbx files directly from my Windows 2000 partition.
For each mailbox, I then selected all of the messages and used the File->Save As option, which creates files which Evolution
will read as mbox files.

I exported the addresses from Outlook Express as CSV files, used Kaddressbook to read them in, and then saved them as
a single VCard file, which Evolution recognized and read in.

Kudos to Kmail and Kaddressbook! Why Evolution 2 has regressed to the point it doesn't support these import formats is beyond me.