Moving emails from one email address to another.

[norse-storyteller]

Hello, my main email address, hotmail, is 'old' and contains a lot of emails that I have kept and want to keep. For various reasons I think it likely that I will want to set up a new main email address, which will probably be another hotmail address, and close down my current one. I have asked hotmail/MS if there is a way to move, en masse, my saved emails from the current email address to a new one but since both address are/would-be freebies the only answer they can come up with is to individually forward each email to the new address. Aside from the possiblilty of missing emails during the long process it would take a vvvvveeeeeerrrrrryyyyyyy llllloooooonnnnnggggg time, in my inbox alone there are over 400 emails, then there are the emails in folders and copies of emails I have sent.

I had the desire yesterday to make some emails available to my solicitor and set up a hotmail email address for them to which I forwarded around 60 emails, it took me nearly an hour to forward and check these few plus the effective time stamp for any email becomes that at the time of forwarding.

Therefore I was wondering if anyone knows of a better way to do this?

Thanks

[dx100uk]

why?

 

are you using outlook?

 

if so just load the old pst file into your new one as personal folders

 

howwever i cant see why you want a new one, or has the old one been compromised

 

dx

[norse-storyteller]

DX thanks for the reply, the change is for personal reasons.

I think I have used outlook once but that was a long time ago, (is it that program that down loads emails to the HDD of your computer?), if I have used it then I recollect that I more recently tried to use it and couldn't. Normally I just visit my email address and read the emails there without actually downloading the emails to my computer.

Re -if so just load the old pst file into your new one as personal folders- are you saying, and given my understanding of outlook, that I would download all the inbox emails and other folders with their 'enclosed' emails to my computer and then upload them to the new email address?

[dx100uk]

DX thanks for the reply, the change is for personal reasons.

I think I have used outlook once but that was a long time ago, (is it that program that down loads emails to the HDD of your computer?),

 

- yes

 

if I have used it then I recollect that I more recently tried to use it and couldn't. Normally I just visit my email address and read the emails there without actually downloading the emails to my computer.

Re -if so just load the old pst file into your new one as personal folders- are you saying, and given my understanding of outlook, that I would download all the inbox emails and other folders with their 'enclosed' emails to my computer and then upload them to the new email address?

 

the last bit no.

you will not be able to upload from local outlook back onto a webserver that way.

 

i dont know of a way to do it either..

 

if you are using only one PC, i'd be inclined to use outlook.

 

info on how to do this on the web for hotmail.

 

dx

[Tezcatlipoca]

Simple to do, but you'll almost certainly have to ditch Hotmail and start your new email address with a different provider.

 

Basically, free Hotmail is the problem because it only properly supports POP3 protocols, whereas almost every other free email provider (GMail, Yahoo, etc.) supports both full POP3 and full IMAP protocols. It is this IMAP protocol that is the key to your issue.

 

How does this work? Well, let's say you setup a GMail account for free (and you really should consider it as it has a number of advantages over Hotmail).

You setup the account online in the normal way. You then configure your local email software (let's say Outlook, but Thunderbird would be a better choice as it's better at handling IMAP) to collect all your email from Hotmail via POP3. Your mail gets downloaded on masse to the client on your computer. Step one is done and your mail is sitting at home.

 

You then setup your GMail account within that same client as an IMAP account. So your client now has two mailboxes sitting in it; one Hotmail and one GMail.

Now, because it's IMAP, you can then simply copy/drag mail from your Hotmail box in the client across to the IMAP box in the same client and the mail will get uploaded from your computer to your account onto the remote server. Do this on masse and you will quickly have all your mail from Hotmail sitting in your new email account, ready to be used as you wish.

 

Once done, you can either continue to use the client to monitor both boxes, or discontinue its use and just start logging into your new account remotely from a browser.

I'd actually suggest you keep it running in your local client so you can monitor the account both remotely via browsers and from your own PC via your client. It also means that by keeping both accounts set up, you can continue to gather your old Hotmail stuff and take appropriate action as new mail comes in, wiping it or uploading it to your other account.

 

If you are happy to consider taking up an IMAP account (and GMail is a good choice if you are) I can walk you through the entire process in easy steps, or, if you're happy to provide me all the login details I can do the job for you in about 15 minutes, then you can retake the account, change the password for security, and carry on as before with a new email address and all your old emails. Up to you.

 

Of course, you can take this principle as far as you like. For example, Uncle Tez maintains two Thunderbird clients - one at home and one at work - and one iPhone (which is usually hidden at the bottom of whichever pocket I've forgotten I put it in).

Using IMAP protocols and some extra geeky trickery, all three clients connect to a set of 9 email accounts in realtime. This means a change on one is instantly reflected on them all, meaning I can centrally run everything, work and play, from whichever client happens to be nearest to hand.

Edited February 24, 2010 by Tezcatlipoca

[SOD'EM]

Just put a tick in the box on the left hand side of every email you want to move. Then click on options (which is on the top right hand side), then click on "more options", then click on send emails to another email account(This is on the left about 3 options down). You should have no problem forwarding them (even if it they are going to a new Hotmail account).

 

I would recommend personally opening a Gmail account as someone stated above though. I've personally never liked or got used to Outlook even though I still have it.

[norse-storyteller]

Thanks folks I'll have a read of these after I have had a kip, worked nights last night, and at the minute I think Tezcatlipoca is speak Aztec!! LOL

[locutus]

Uncle Tez's way would be a bit tricky for a novice to set up unaided (but you can easily do it with support from this forum) and involves setting up an IMAP email account (preferably g-mail) . After the hard work is done, you can then just drag and drop your emails from your old hotmail account to the g-mail account and they will remain both on your local PC and available on line through g-mail.

 

I'm sure Uncle Tez will be online later to offer his assistance setting this up. google "gmail imap" and you will se this is a much better system for emails!

[norse-storyteller]

Boy that was a long kip! Sorry for the delay in answering but life got in the way. Anyhow re sod'em's method, I have had a look and that looks like it forwards all emails that will arrive in the future but not those currently at my email address, am I correct?I am reading and working through Tezcatlipoca's post at the minute.Ta.

[norse-storyteller]

Ok tried thunderbird and it wont install on this PC, however I had live mail on my more up to date laptop and it has downloaded all my emails.

Just as a matter of interest does anyone know how I can copy them from were they are on drive C to a memory card? I dont like saving things on drive C.

On drive C they are in the folder 'blah/blah/...........Hotmail (se312' but the names they have there do not reflect the titles of the emails and they are .eml's. However a search on drive C for shall we say "Ziess ikonta" finds the appropriate email complete with attached photos etc.

[Tezcatlipoca]

Ok tried thunderbird and it wont install on this PC,

 

Won't install, or you didn't manage to install it and gave up? If the former, I'd be very surprised; I've never known ThunderBird (hereafter, TB) to fail an install onto any operating system, be it Windows, Mac or Linux.

The only block I can see would be you running something like Vista and so trying to install without administrative rights, which is a quirk of Vista, not of TB.

 

however I had live mail on my more up to date laptop and it has downloaded all my emails.

 

Live mail supports IMAP, it just won't run an IMAP account anywhere near as efficiently or stably as TB.

I can guide you through this process, but I'd sincerely advise using TB. I'm also curious to learn exactly why TB "wont install on this [sic] PC".

 

Regardless, the process is the same from any client that supports IMAP protocols. You establish an IMAP-supporting account, such as a GMail, then connect to it with the client using the credentials you establish when creating the account.

Once done, you'll have two mailboxes in your client; one contains your downloaded Hotmail mails, the other is your brand new account.

I can't speak for WLM, but in TB/Outlook you need only drag the mail from one location to another, and copies will be uploaded onto the remote server.

 

Just as a matter of interest does anyone know how I can copy them from were they are on drive C to a memory card? I dont like saving things on drive C.

 

I'm not sure I follow you. You want to just make a copy of your local mail and put it elsewhere, or you want to change the whole default storage location so that WLM works with its mail from somewhere else?

If the latter, this is simple path mapping. Windows Live Mail stores its content in slightly different locations, depending on which operating system you're using, but you should be able to remap this to another location.

Edited March 4, 2010 by Tezcatlipoca