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A question about moving from Outlook to Thunderbird

  • O-Trap
    Hey, I've got a question.

    Recently, I was let go from my job, but I'm doing some freelance stuff in December for the time being. My contacts were saved to a .pst file from my work Outlook.

    Well, being my temporarily unemployed self, I'd rather just use Thunderbird as a desktop email client. The .pst file is on my desktop. Is it possible for me to import the .pst file?

    Thanks.
  • Curly J
    I just googled it. Few different ways I guess. I've never tried to.

    http://kb.mozillazine.org/Import_.pst_files

    http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic.php?t=82067&highlight=outlook+2003

    http://forums.techarena.in/windows-software/1133084.htm
  • O-Trap
    Damn. You've gotta be kidding me. I tried Googling all kinds of word combinations.

    Thanks, anyway, Curly J.
  • O-Trap
    Actually, these won't work, because they all involve a person still having Outlook. I no longer have Outlook. I have the messages and address book FROM my Outlook on my (Vista) work machine on the desktop of my (also Vista) personal machine. I have T-Bird on my personal machine as well, and I'm looking to take a .pst file not in Outlook and import it into Thunderbird.
  • LJ
    email mozilla
  • gut
    Hmmmm, I think you may be out of luck with the contacts.

    Try importing the contacts into Outlook Express and then try using all the options of exporting and hope one of those can be imported into Thunderbird.

    Also, I'm pretty sure you can export/open the outlook contacts to be read in MS Access. You then may able to save that into a format that can be imported into Thunderbird. But those seem like pretty easy fixes that would be more obvious via a google search, so it probably doesn't work.
  • Curly J
    Is there anywhere you can download Outlook Express?. Then import the old Outlook .pst files to it, then to T-Bird?
  • Cleveland Buck
    Did you try downloading this?

    http://linux.softpedia.com/get/Communications/Email/Thunderbird-PST-Import-plugin-33014.shtml
  • O-Trap
    Unfortunately, Outlook Express isn't an option, because it doesn't work with Vista. It was replaced by Windows Mail.

    Cleveland Buck, I am going to check that out.
  • O-Trap
    Cleveland Buck, I just downloaded that, but I cannot figure out how to get it to function as a plugin of Thunderbird.
  • Cleveland Buck
    I don't have Thunderbird, so I won't be much help there, but these were the instructions on the page you downloaded the file from:

    How to Install in Thunderbird;

    1. Right-click the link below and choose "Save Link As..." to download and save the file to your hard disk.
    2. In Mozilla Thunderbird, open Add-ons from the Tools menu.
    3. Click the Install button, and locate/select the file you downloaded and click "OK".

    If you tried that already, then I don't know how to help. Hopefully someone else does.
  • Curly J
    O-Trap wrote: Unfortunately, Outlook Express isn't an option, because it doesn't work with Vista. It was replaced by Windows Mail.

    Cleveland Buck, I am going to check that out.
    Ahh, I uploaded Vista and ran it for a week, then wiped it off my HDD and went back to XP.
  • gut
    O-Trap wrote: Unfortunately, Outlook Express isn't an option, because it doesn't work with Vista. It was replaced by Windows Mail.

    Cleveland Buck, I am going to check that out.
    That's right. I had a similar issue but was only trying to recover Outlook messages, not the contacts. I ended up having to download some obscure PST2MSG converter that wasn't the friendliest interface but you could probably figure it out. But that was for messages, not contacts.

    Simplest solution, if you're comfortable with it, is borrow someone's computer with the old windows (which will have outlook express) and try what has been posted here. Heck, you could even go to Kinko's and probably do this in under an hour. Or just find someone with the old Windows, temporarily install it on your machine and do this (but I know swapping out OS's like that is painful).