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Merging folders in Outlook 2010 RRS feed

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    Hello!

    I have a new customer that came with a challenging request yesterday and since I have not experience with Outlook I don't even know if it is possible.

    THE STORY...

    He has been using Outlook 2007 -- pointing to a NON-MS account -- for some time (the last 5 years or so).

    Happens that lately he had his PC reformatted by someone else and when the computer returned from the maintenance it came back with Outlook 2010 installed instead. The problem is that now there are FOUR sets of message boxes (inbox, draft, sent, etc) where it should have only one since he has only one email account. As far as I could see, one of the sets is pointing to his actual email account and the other sets seem to be the earlier messages from before he had the PC reformatted and "upgraded" to Outlook 2010. Computer has Windows 7 Ultimate.

    THE REQUEST...

    He would like to merge everything into an unique set of folders but before to even try to dive in this crazy venture my questions are:

    1) Is this possible?
    2) If YES, where should I start?

    Thanks!

    ;)




    • Edited by Yan Kleber Sunday, December 11, 2016 1:33 PM
    Sunday, December 11, 2016 1:30 PM

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    THE REQUEST...

    He would like to merge everything into an unique set of folders but before to even try to dive in this crazy venture my questions are:

    1) Is this possible?
    2) If YES, where should I start?

    Something about the end result of this sounds really strange (O/S is irrelevant for this question)

    1) did this user only have one set of folders in OL'2007? If the answer is <yes> means that the account was configured as a POP3 account.

    2) how is this "one" email account configured in OL'2010 - POP or IMAP? If it's IMAP, that would result in 2 pst files getting added to the profile. So if the old PST file was also added to the profile, that would result in 3 PST files begging the question of "what is contained in the 4th and where did it come from?

    To determine how the account is configured - from OL menu, go to File --> Account Settings --> Email tab --> shows all the email accounts currently configured (protocol shown in right-hand column). While you're in Account Settings, click on Data files tab and take note of all the data files (and the full folder path/file name of each) configured in this profile. The one you definitely want is the one contains the data that existed in OL'2007

    3) You stated that "the other sets seem to be earlier messages.............". That wouldn't make sense if there were only one set of folders in OL'2007 otherwise

    For the sake of speed and simplicity, ignoring the above questions and assuming that this involves a single POP account from OL'2007, suggest the following having the data file info as noted in item #2

    a) close Outlook

    b) open Control Panel <Mail> app and create a <new> profile (new = starting from scratch, NOT making a copy of the existing one and making changes to it

    c) configure the email account as a POP3 account (you'll need the user's email account (userid/password) info along with the applicable server settings etc making sure to select the existing PST file with the email data


    Pay atten to whether or not email messages are supposed to "Left on the server" in <Advanced Settings>

    As an additional side comment - since the machine was returned with OL'2010 instead of OL'2007 and assuming the user didn't buy OL'2010 - probably means that this is not a legal copy for the user which in turn means that the install media and license code was also not provided by whomever worked on the computer. Something to be aware of since that can become an issue in the future if there is ever a need to reinstall Office '2010 etc.

    Karl Timmermans [Outlook MVP] "Outlook Contact Import/Export/Data Mgmt" http://www.contactgenie.com

    Sunday, December 11, 2016 6:18 PM
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    Anyway I scheduled an appointment with my customer tomorrow morning and will check closer what is going on. I will bring a hard print of your detailed explanation and will see what can be done.

    I will get back with more information!


    At the end of the day, getting to one set of folders is going to be a simple enough process. Whether anything needs to be "merged" depends on how the email account is currently configured.

    I'm guessing they configured the email account in OL'2010 as IMAP (result = 2 PST files, one for email data and one set as the default data file for the profile for the <default> contact/calendar folders). Then added the original PST file from OL'2007 which would have had all the data up to the point of reformat (including contact/calendar items>)  if the account was configured as a POP3 account in OL'2007. Anyone's guess is what the 4th data file is all about.

    No point importing any email data from the IMAP email data file. When the account is configured as POP3 and connects to the server, all that email data will be downloaded. Only thing to determine is there is any contact/calendar data created in the week following the reformat. To be honest, while that would be easy enough to recover, given everyone's lack of experience with Outlook, if everything is back to normal after configuring the email account using POP3 except for whatever contact/calendar data was created in the week following the reformat, might be easier to just manually re-create that info depending on how much there is of it.

    And don't forget, this likely involves an installation of OL'2010 for which the user has no installation media or registration info, something that should point out so that your customer is aware of that. You might also want to point out the benefits of using image backup software like Acronis True Image with an external hard drive (along with maintaining regular backups) - would have been back up and running in a very short time after the hard drive was reformatted without all the aggravation - just sayin.

    Karl Timmermans [Outlook MVP] "Outlook Contact Import/Export/Data Mgmt" http://www.contactgenie.com

    • Marked as answer by Yan Kleber Tuesday, December 13, 2016 2:41 PM
    Monday, December 12, 2016 9:42 PM

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    THE REQUEST...

    He would like to merge everything into an unique set of folders but before to even try to dive in this crazy venture my questions are:

    1) Is this possible?
    2) If YES, where should I start?

    Something about the end result of this sounds really strange (O/S is irrelevant for this question)

    1) did this user only have one set of folders in OL'2007? If the answer is <yes> means that the account was configured as a POP3 account.

    2) how is this "one" email account configured in OL'2010 - POP or IMAP? If it's IMAP, that would result in 2 pst files getting added to the profile. So if the old PST file was also added to the profile, that would result in 3 PST files begging the question of "what is contained in the 4th and where did it come from?

    To determine how the account is configured - from OL menu, go to File --> Account Settings --> Email tab --> shows all the email accounts currently configured (protocol shown in right-hand column). While you're in Account Settings, click on Data files tab and take note of all the data files (and the full folder path/file name of each) configured in this profile. The one you definitely want is the one contains the data that existed in OL'2007

    3) You stated that "the other sets seem to be earlier messages.............". That wouldn't make sense if there were only one set of folders in OL'2007 otherwise

    For the sake of speed and simplicity, ignoring the above questions and assuming that this involves a single POP account from OL'2007, suggest the following having the data file info as noted in item #2

    a) close Outlook

    b) open Control Panel <Mail> app and create a <new> profile (new = starting from scratch, NOT making a copy of the existing one and making changes to it

    c) configure the email account as a POP3 account (you'll need the user's email account (userid/password) info along with the applicable server settings etc making sure to select the existing PST file with the email data


    Pay atten to whether or not email messages are supposed to "Left on the server" in <Advanced Settings>

    As an additional side comment - since the machine was returned with OL'2010 instead of OL'2007 and assuming the user didn't buy OL'2010 - probably means that this is not a legal copy for the user which in turn means that the install media and license code was also not provided by whomever worked on the computer. Something to be aware of since that can become an issue in the future if there is ever a need to reinstall Office '2010 etc.

    Karl Timmermans [Outlook MVP] "Outlook Contact Import/Export/Data Mgmt" http://www.contactgenie.com

    Sunday, December 11, 2016 6:18 PM
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    Karl, thanks for your attention!

    Answering your questions... I don't know if it's using POP3 or IMAPI, but I "guess" it's IMAPI because at certain point while I was looking the program it popped a message error about IMAPI a couple times. I got a couple 'not connected' status too. Seems that it is a real mess there!

    My customer also said -- I didn't see it happen though -- that when he wants to send a message he has to use an specific set (others won't work) but after the message goes it appear in the sent folder of a different set (????).

    OK, from the five minutes I stayed in front of his computer I remember of three sets:

    1) One with all the old messages from years until a couple months ago when the computer was reformatted;

    2) One with messages from the formatting date until one week ago;

    3) One with messages from one week ago till now and ongoing.

    4) I don't remember what had in the fourth set.

    I suspect that my customer is not telling me the whole story. I believe that when his PC returned from the maintenance it came with only TWO sets: one with the old messages from OL 2007 (that the guys didn't manage to import to OL 2010) and a brand new one for the new installed OL 2010. My guess is that the two "extra" sets were created by my customer in some crazy attempt of join the two originals. I have this suspicion because I remember he mentioned that at certain point he found the system folder where there were the old messages and renamed it but then one of the sets in OL disappeared so he renamed it back to the old name and the folders came back -- that means that he stayed playing in the backyard. Also I don't think that Outlook would create these sets by itself and the fact of the dates of the message are posterior to the return of computer from the maintenance is more than a clear evidence that someone else stayed crapping... probably himself.

    Anyway I scheduled an appointment with my customer tomorrow morning and will check closer what is going on. I will bring a hard print of your detailed explanation and will see what can be done.

    I will get back with more information!

    :-)

    Monday, December 12, 2016 7:20 PM
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    First of all, make sure he has one email account only configured. After that he can merge all items from all other data files into the primary account using free Merge Storages or Merge Folders utility. And after that he can safely remove redundant data files.

    Alexey Kuznetsov,
    Relief Software
    More than 120 free add-ins for Outlook


    Monday, December 12, 2016 7:41 PM
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    Anyway I scheduled an appointment with my customer tomorrow morning and will check closer what is going on. I will bring a hard print of your detailed explanation and will see what can be done.

    I will get back with more information!


    At the end of the day, getting to one set of folders is going to be a simple enough process. Whether anything needs to be "merged" depends on how the email account is currently configured.

    I'm guessing they configured the email account in OL'2010 as IMAP (result = 2 PST files, one for email data and one set as the default data file for the profile for the <default> contact/calendar folders). Then added the original PST file from OL'2007 which would have had all the data up to the point of reformat (including contact/calendar items>)  if the account was configured as a POP3 account in OL'2007. Anyone's guess is what the 4th data file is all about.

    No point importing any email data from the IMAP email data file. When the account is configured as POP3 and connects to the server, all that email data will be downloaded. Only thing to determine is there is any contact/calendar data created in the week following the reformat. To be honest, while that would be easy enough to recover, given everyone's lack of experience with Outlook, if everything is back to normal after configuring the email account using POP3 except for whatever contact/calendar data was created in the week following the reformat, might be easier to just manually re-create that info depending on how much there is of it.

    And don't forget, this likely involves an installation of OL'2010 for which the user has no installation media or registration info, something that should point out so that your customer is aware of that. You might also want to point out the benefits of using image backup software like Acronis True Image with an external hard drive (along with maintaining regular backups) - would have been back up and running in a very short time after the hard drive was reformatted without all the aggravation - just sayin.

    Karl Timmermans [Outlook MVP] "Outlook Contact Import/Export/Data Mgmt" http://www.contactgenie.com

    • Marked as answer by Yan Kleber Tuesday, December 13, 2016 2:41 PM
    Monday, December 12, 2016 9:42 PM
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    Karl,

    Everything worked like a charm. I followed your step-by-step instructions and things got back to normal. After to create a new POP3 account and remove the IMAP one the OL 2010 kind of synchronized itself. Now we have a set of folders called "2007 Files" with all the old files and another one with the current messages.

    I told him that we could try to consolidated both sets in an unique one but he told me that it was not necessary and that he would be happy to keep it as is.

    The only side effect is that in the process we lost a few messages of the sent folder within the time frame between the day computer was formatted and a week ago. My customer told me that this is not a big deal though.

    So I gave this issue as solved!

    Thanks again for all the help!

    Tuesday, December 13, 2016 2:50 PM
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    The only side effect is that in the process we lost a few messages of the sent folder within the time frame between the day computer was formatted and a week ago. My customer told me that this is not a big deal though.

    So I gave this issue as solved!


    Just as a FYI for reference purposes regarding the <Sent> items folder (or any other folders outside the <Inbox> for that matter.....

    Just need to configure the same email account as an IMAP in the same profile where you configured it using POP (nothing prevents the same account being configured with different protocols in the same profile).

    Once it's configured, move/copy anything you want in the IMAP <Sent> items folder to the corresponding POP3 <Sent> items folder. When you have everything you want, just remove the IMAP account from the profile. (Nothing will get deleted from any IMAP folder until you actually manually do that).

    Karl Timmermans [Outlook MVP] "Outlook Contact Import/Export/Data Mgmt" http://www.contactgenie.com

    Tuesday, December 13, 2016 3:00 PM
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    Cool, thanks, I will check this out!

    Wednesday, December 14, 2016 11:20 AM