Migration is such a chore but is it a difficult task. Not if you know what we know that is. Let us walk you through step by step, especially when you have bought that brand new pristine computer and are itching to use it as soon as possible.
However, your old Outlook has many files and folders that you do not know how to port them all over in the same way and settings. Let us show you how.
Update
Updating is the very first thing you need to do. Many forget to perform this crucial task before migrating everything over. Updating ensures all the latest security patches are working and working well. Sometimes an outdated Outlook software may not be allowed to download emails from your email servers. So ensuring everything is updated allows your send/receive function to work smoothly. Assumptions
We are assuming that you have successfully installed Outlook and office
into your laptop and have managed to connect it to your email server. Be it Gmail or exchange. Please do so beforehand, this tutorial's aim at duplicating all of your old folders to your new computer.
Step 1: Account settings
Migrate Outlook folders to your new computer
You will need to open your Outlook on your old computer and click on 'File' on the top left-hand corner of your screen. It should bring you to the screen you see here with the same options.
Now click on 'Account settings', and a drop-down menu should emerge. Click on 'Account settings' again to get to the next step.
Step 2: Data Files
Migrate Outlook folders to your new computer
Now here is a crucial second step. Make sure to have a portable hard disk or a significant enough thumb drive on hand in case the files get too abundant here. After entering the Account Settings side of things, you should see a 'Data Files' tab, click on it to see a similar screen as shown here. In many cases, you should be able to see many files here.
But in our case, we only have one here. You may have many. Do take note that Outlook data files are all in .pst formats. An important point to note, you do not want to copy the wrong files here. If you have many folders, we expect you to see many Outlook data files. So copy all of them to your transfer medium, be it your shared drive or your portable hard disk. Copy all the files onto it, which is one of the more time-consuming parts of this tutorial, so please bear with it.
Step 3: Opening Data Files
Migrate Outlook folders to your new computer
Once you have copied the file to your portable drive and or hard disk, you guessed it; it is now time to copy all of those .pst files to your new computer. If possible, open the file location of your default .pst files and dump all your old data files in the same folder. It makes it easy to locate these files in the future, for you, that is.
The last step is rather simple, go to file again on your new computer's Outlook. Click on 'Open & Export' and then click on 'Open Outlook Data File'. Give it a moment to open all of your emails, and you should see a new tab on the left-hand side of your Outlook application. Now repeat the same step for all your data files too!
Thank you for reading 'Easy way to migrate Outlook folders to your new computer' and have a beautiful day.
