NEED HELP SOON: Win7 Files & Settings Transfer Wiz & Office Outlook PST Mailboxes

[Leythos]

You appear to have some pressing need to validate and defend your own
experience. That experience is anecdote and should be recognized as such for
the benefit of other readers of this thread.
The experience of many is far more valid than the experience of one. In
this newsgroup over the last 12 years we have confirmed that the following
information is not transferred when you export and import a PST file:
1. Custom Forms
2. Custom Views

Never tried, don't have any myself and don't have any customers with
custom forms and views and I'm betting that 90% of people out there
don't either.

3. Connections between contacts and activities

What activities?

4. Received dates on mail

Sorry, I see the date the email was received on every email that is
imported from a PST. Don't know how you are missing it - please try it
yourself.

5. Birthdays and anniversaries in calendar

All calendar items, appointments, such as Birth days, Anniversaries,
that I've entered or customers have entered, are imported fine.

6. Journal connections

Don't know anyone that uses this, so I can't comment.

7. Distribution Lists

Distro lists, as in ones created in Outlook, in your contacts folder,
are also imported properly, worked fine since Office XP that I know of.

8. Rules

This is misleading as the Rules are not exported in a PST, Outlook
includes a function to export rules and they import just fine.

9. Link between Contacts and the address book view, which cannot be
re-established until a new profile is created and the data migrated
properly.

Never seen or tried this, switching VIEW modes in contacts shows all
contacts in the different views.

If none of that information is important, then sure you can export and
import. Why you would want to remains a mystery, however, since simply
copying and opening the PST file is much easier and preserves all of the
above information.

You've listed a lot of things that are incorrect for an export/import
between different versions as well as from/to the same version.

The cardinal rule when providing advice in these groups is primum non
nocere. Your insistence that export and import is the best way to transfer
Outlook data to a new installation violates that rule. Readers of this
thread should know that so they can make up their own mind on what they want
to do. This is a public newsgroup. Your opinion is welcome but needs to be
placed into context.

I have not insisted that Export/Import is the best anything, I've only
disputed what I've seen as incorrect. I don't maintain that either is
BEST, but I suggest you try each of the above items you list and come
back and let us know you were wrong.

 

[Russ Valentine]

As I said, your opinion has been duly noted. Your reply certainly explains
why you are confused and more than a little behind the times:
1. In fact, rules do transfer with the PST file. Exporting Rules separately
is no longer necessary.
2. Date modified is the relevant field for emails. It is changed by
importing.
3. Since you don't know what Activities are, they are links to other Outlook
Items for any given Contact Record within an information store. They are
broken when you export and import.
4. Appointments are imported, but they lose their connection to the Calendar
view when you import a PST file.
5. You appear to have no idea what the Outlook Address Book is. It is not
just another of the standard views of the Contacts Folder. It is a separate
MAPI view of electronic addresses pulled from the Contacts Folder. Users
rely upon it heavily when sending messages. It is irreparably broken when
you import a PST file.

I've wasted far more time in this reply than I have available. Believe
whatever you want. Just don't lead other users astray.Let the end users
decide for themselves what they want to do. Thank you for contributing your
opinion to the discussion.

 

[Diane Poremsky [MVP]]

1. Custom Forms

Never tried, don't have any myself and don't have any customers with
custom forms and views and I'm betting that 90% of people out there
don't either.

Not sure it's 90% but it is high.

What activities?

When you open a contact and look on the Activity page, linked appointments,
tasks etc are listed. After import, only mail is listed.

Sorry, I see the date the email was received on every email that is
imported from a PST. Don't know how you are missing it - please try it
yourself.

I've only seen the modified date changed when importing from a pst.
Importing from OE screws the date up.

All calendar items, appointments, such as Birth days, Anniversaries,
that I've entered or customers have entered, are imported fine.

When you enter a contact's birthdate, outlook creates an event on your
calendar. Import breaks this and the next time you edit the contact it
creates a new birthday event.

Don't know anyone that uses this, so I can't comment.

This belongs up with custom views and forms... its not a popular feature.

Distro lists, as in ones created in Outlook, in your contacts folder,
are also imported properly, worked fine since Office XP that I know of.

I've never had a problem with Contact DLs - PAB and WAB DLs are screwed up.

This is misleading as the Rules are not exported in a PST, Outlook
includes a function to export rules and they import just fine.

Beginning with either 2003 or 2007, rules are stored in the pst. Open a pst
in a new profile and you've got your rules.

Never seen or tried this, switching VIEW modes in contacts shows all
contacts in the different views.

When you hit To while composing mail, imported contacts may not be listed.

 

[Leythos]

As I said, your opinion has been duly noted. Your reply certainly explains
why you are confused and more than a little behind the times:
1. In fact, rules do transfer with the PST file. Exporting Rules separately
is no longer necessary.

Then why did you bring it up, and I thought we were covering all
versions from 97 forward...

2. Date modified is the relevant field for emails. It is changed by
importing.

I can't recall looking at anything other than READ status, UNREAD status
and the date/time it showed up in my inbox, and that date/time is
imported fine in outlook from outlook.

3. Since you don't know what Activities are, they are links to other Outlook
Items for any given Contact Record within an information store. They are
broken when you export and import.

Great to know - how many people, as a %, do you think this impacts?

4. Appointments are imported, but they lose their connection to the Calendar
view when you import a PST file.

5. You appear to have no idea what the Outlook Address Book is. It is
not just another of the standard views of the Contacts Folder. It is a
separate MAPI view of electronic addresses pulled from the Contacts
Folder. Users rely upon it heavily when sending messages. It is
irreparably broken when you import a PST file.

Strange, other than the nicknames auto populate, I've not seen a problem
with typing a recipients name and clicking SEND or Check Names and
having it work just fine - seems to search the contacts just fine.

I've wasted far more time in this reply than I have available. Believe
whatever you want. Just don't lead other users astray.Let the end users
decide for themselves what they want to do. Thank you for contributing your
opinion to the discussion.

You didn't need to think this was a snit or something, but the things
you've mentioned don't seem to be a major factor for most people, at
least not the ones I deal with across 80 companies.

 

[Leythos]

When you hit To while composing mail, imported contacts may not be listed.

The only time I've seen this is when a customer has multiple contact
folders and has not selected "show in address" (or the option by another
name). Would it be any different if it was a PST file, opened and then
dragged/dropped below the contacts folder?

 

[Joel]

Not at all. There's absolutely NO NEED to import in the first place. Do you
IMPORT Word or Excel documents when changing computers? Of course not - you
OPEN them. Same with Outlook data.

The point is that it shouldn't *matter*, if you want to use export and
import - it should just work. Outlook is just a *broken* program.
It's Wintendo-ware. All the bells and whistles of it are only a way
of making it a bloated, unmanageable (not to mention overpriced) mess.

 

[Diane Poremsky [MVP]]

The problem Russ and I refer to is when the folder is checked as an address
book but the email addresses aren't "resolved" as electronic addresses so
the imported contacts won't show in the address book while new contacts do
show. Its not the most common problem with importing, but it does happen
enough that we get asked about it a few times each month.

--
Diane Poremsky [MVP - Outlook]
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