Use Outlook to Move Data Between Accounts

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Applies to: Office 365 for professionals and small businesses, Office 365 for enterprises, Microsoft Exchange, Live@edu

If you can use Outlook 2007 or Outlook 2010 to access an account, you can move your e-mail, contacts, task, and calendar information from another account that you access using Outlook to that account. You do this by first backing up the data in one account to a Personal Folder (.pst) file and then importing it into the other account.

How do I back up Outlook data to move it to another account?

  1. In Outlook, click File > Import and Export.
  2. In the Import and Export Wizard dialog box, do the following:
    1. Under Choose an action to perform, select Export to a file, and then click Next.
    2. On the Export to a File page, select Personal Folder File (.pst), and then click Next.
    3. On the Export Personal Folders page, under Select the folder to export from, select Mailbox -<user name>. Select the Include subfolders check box, and then click Next.
    4. On the Export Personal Folders page, in the Save exported file as box, note the location where the backup.pst file will be created. By default, it's C:\Users\<user name>\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Outlook\backup.pst. Under Options, select Replace duplicates with items exported, and then click Finish.
    5. On the Create Microsoft Personal Folders page, click OK to create a .pst file. If you want, set a password to protect the .pst file, which will be named backup.pst. A password isn't required.

How do I move the data to another account?

  1. Connect to the account you want to move the data to using Outlook 2007 or Outlook 2010. For more information, see Connect Outlook to This Account.
  2. In Outlook, click File, and then click Import and Export.
  3. In the Import and Export Wizard dialog box:
    1. Under Choose an action to perform, select Import from another program or file, and then click Next.
    2. On the Import a File page, select Personal Folder File (.pst), and then click Next.
    3. In Import Personal Folders, under File to import, locate the backup.pst file you created. Under Options, select Replace duplicates with items imported, and then click Next.
    4. In Import Personal Folders, under Select the folder to import from, select the top node. Select Include subfolders, select Import items into the same folder in, and then select the top node of your mailbox (Mailbox - <user name>). Click Finish.
      After you click Finish, Outlook will import the contents of the backup.pst file into the local Outlook data store on your computer. After the data has been copied into the local data store, Outlook will upload the data into your mailbox. If you have lots of data in your mailbox, this may take hours. Make sure that you don't shut down Outlook, and make sure you're connected to the destination account while the upload happens.

What else do I need to know?

  • Depending on the settings on your account, you may be able to import contacts through Outlook Web App. For more information, see Import Contacts.