Ben Shoemate - Web Architect - Latest Comments in How to upload all your old archived Email to Gmail from outlook, lotus notes, and unix (pine)

Re: How to upload all your old archived Email to Gmail from outlook, lotus notes, and unix (pine)

revaaron — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 11:02:07 -0000

This rules. I've been trying to set up imap on my leased server and failed.
Then my QNAP 639pro and failed.
Finally since google controls my whole life, I decided to give into gmail since it will be auto-backed up, always available (phone/work/home/etc..), my disjointed accounts have me missing things (I get about 100-200 "critial emails" daily), and using thunderbird with sbpython KILLS my machine (except for my 3GHz quadcore).
I just hope that they make gmail eventually work better with folders just like reader works.

I have 16GB of emails going back to 1994 that I want to keep.
This will work 100% for me I hope. Last night, I tried to drag and drop almost 10K pictures from my gf to gmail and it uploaded 97 and then went :(.

Re: How to upload all your old archived Email to Gmail from outlook, lotus notes, and unix (pine)

facebook-584490692 — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 14:21:50 -0000

Some comments on how part of the above tutorial did not apply to my system.

This occurred on Windows Vista x64 with SP2 using Microsoft Outlook 2007 and Mercury/32 version 4.7

For awhile I could not get Outlook to connect to Mercury via IMAP. Watching the log, I could clearly see that no connection was ever made.

I decided to check on what "localhost" is so I pinged it (Start > Run > "cmd", then "ping localhost" in the console). I saw the IP was in the 128-bit form as "::1". Since I suspected that maybe one of the programs only supports 32-bit IPs, I edited the Email Account info in Outlook, replacing every instance of "localhost" with "127.0.0.1". This worked flawlessly and I was able to proceed.

I request that you update your guide to include mention of this possible scenario, since I'm certain that many other people are probably inflicted with this issue.

Re: How to upload all your old archived Email to Gmail from outlook, lotus notes, and unix (pine)

benshoemate — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 00:01:03 -0000

You should be able to set up a pop server in parallels or find a way to set
up a local server on a mac.

Re: How to upload all your old archived Email to Gmail from outlook, lotus notes, and unix (pine)

chriskeller1 — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 13:04:16 -0000

Dear Ben,

Thanks a lot for this great tutorial. I tried to set it up with Parallels because I'm using a Macintosh and all my e-Mail since 1998 is stored in Microsoft Entourage. It is a big hassle to im- and export from Entourage to Thunderbird and still I get the Mercury not working.
Two days ago Mac released its new OS called Leopard Server. Do you think I will be able to import my email with that new OS establishing a POP3-Server there?! Or is there any other useful method to import from Mac Entourage (POP3 offline database) to Gmail not losing dates? Please help me guys, thanks a lot!!!

Re: How to upload all your old archived Email to Gmail from outlook, lotus notes, and unix (pine)

benshoemate — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 11:31:34 -0000

Open a cmd prompt and "ping localhost" to make sure localhost is valid
reference for your computer. If not, try replacing localhost with you local
ip address or 127.0.0.1. so:
name_of_mailbox_you_set_up_in_mercury@127.0.0.1Also:
- check the log files for errors.
- You're outgoing address might need to match. So when you set up outlook,
make sure you set you name and address to match the account you created.
- SMTP is a separate service and you might have not turned it on in mercury
so you can receive but not send. Make sure SMTP is enabled - if it is,
you'll see a little window running and when you send a message you will see
it in the log in that window in mercury.

Good luck.

Re: How to upload all your old archived Email to Gmail from outlook, lotus notes, and unix (pine)

wyendor — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 23:35:29 -0000

Ben -
I'm having trouble getting Outlook to connect to the new Mercury server. I tested Mercury by sending an email (to myname@'my IP address' ) from my Gmail account, and it showed up fine in my Outlook Inbox. I also tried the reverse, sending a test email from Mercury (File>Send Mail Message) to gmail -- no luck in that direction.

I set up Outlook exactly as above, using "myname@localhost" as the email address and "localhost" as the incoming&outgoing server. When I click "Test Account Settings" in the setup box, it says it can't log in to the server. The incoming IMAP port number is 143. The outgoing port number is 25. None of the settings in Mercury mentioned "localhost", though. Did I miss something?

[Windows Vista SP1 / Outlook 2007 / Mercury v4.72 ]

Thanks.

Re: How to upload all your old archived Email to Gmail from outlook, lotus notes, and unix (pine)

benshoemate — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 19:51:15 -0000

That could be it. Make sure you follow the directions for mercury
install carefully. There must be some way to confirm that it works.
Seems like a hassle but It's worth it to do it right.

Re: How to upload all your old archived Email to Gmail from outlook, lotus notes, and unix (pine)

arthurpjohnson — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 12:52:01 -0000

Thanks for your reply, Ben. I tried each of the above things -- only I had to use Windows Mail instead of Outlook Express, because I am running Vista -- no joy. I tried using my IP address AND my IP address in brackets. Same errors. I am running Vista Home Premium with Outlook 2003, Windows Firewall and NOD32 antivirus. Could it be that I didn't set up Mercury correctly? Thanks!

Re: How to upload all your old archived Email to Gmail from outlook, lotus notes, and unix (pine)

benshoemate — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 08:25:14 -0000

Try turning off your firewall temporarily. Also, test that you have mercury
set up properly by trying to connect with outlook express. Another thing to
try is connect using you ip address instead of local host.

Re: How to upload all your old archived Email to Gmail from outlook, lotus notes, and unix (pine)

arthurpjohnson — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 16:56:03 -0000

This sounds perfect, but I can't get Outlook 2003 to recognize my Mercury server. I get the following message from Outlook:

Task 'Checking for new mail in subscribed folders on localhost.' reported error (0x800CCC0E) : 'Outlook is unable to download folder (null) from the IMAP e-mail server for account localhost. Error: Unable to connect to the server. If you continue to receive this message, contact your server administrator or Internet service provider (ISP).'

Task 'localhost: Folder:Inbox Check for new mail.' reported error (0x800CCC0E) : 'Outlook is unable to download folder Inbox from the IMAP e-mail server for account localhost. Error: Unable to connect to the server. If you continue to receive this message, contact your server administrator or Internet service provider (ISP).'

I followed your directions faithfully -- port 143 for incoming server, and all that -- but am stuck. Any suggestions? Thanks, Ben!

Re: How to upload all your old archived Email to Gmail from outlook, lotus notes, and unix (pine)

benshoemate — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 13:12:26 -0000

Maybe just label it "sent_mail" or something. You can bulk rename them once
they are in gmail

Re: How to upload all your old archived Email to Gmail from outlook, lotus notes, and unix (pine)

Justin — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 10:59:25 -0000

Whenever I try to label stuff "sent" it tells me that I can't because it is a reserved system label. Any way around this?

Re: How to upload all your old archived Email to Gmail from outlook, lotus notes, and unix (pine)

Emily — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 00:29:01 -0000

I am stuck at step 9. I have a university owned computer with thunderbird mail and my university email address. When I'm at home, such as now, I use Time Warner cable (service) but still use my thunderbird mail, as though TWC didn't even exist--the only difference is that I use a wireless router at home. I've never used my TWC email address at all. So it seems that I have 3 entities here; thunderbird, my university and my cable provider.

So... do I get my user name and server info 1) my university or 2) Time Warner. Similarly, do I use my university email password (which is automatically associated with thunderbird), or do I use my router password (which I'm not even sure what it is)?

I'm basically confused about how to pick correct servers, IP addresses and passwords.

Thanks-

Re: How to upload all your old archived Email to Gmail from outlook, lotus notes, and unix (pine)

MDowns — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 14:36:29 -0000

Thanks for the tutorial!

I'm running into some trouble with step #9. When trying to set up the pop3 and it asks me to enter the email address, it will not accept my local host username and ip address as the email. I've read that I might have to enter brackets around the ip address to get it recognized, but that did not work either. Any suggestions??

Thanks?

Re: How to upload all your old archived Email to Gmail from outlook, lotus notes, and unix (pine)

benshoemate — Fri, 15 May 2009 01:07:06 -0000

I separated them into batches, the sent messages I did last and when I
imported them to gmail, I set gmail to tag all email in that batch with
"sent".
Of course if they are already in gmail, just search for all the email sent
by your various email address, select all and tag them.

Re: How to upload all your old archived Email to Gmail from outlook, lotus notes, and unix (pine)

SHAWSKI — Thu, 14 May 2009 19:45:27 -0000

Thanks for the article. Any tips on how to import *sent* messages into Gmail and have them appear in 'Sent Mail'? Gmail assumes they are *received* messages and shows the "From:" header instead of the "To:" header, and so on..

Re: How to upload all your old archived Email to Gmail from outlook, lotus notes, and unix (pine)

Larry — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 12:00:18 -0000

I see in the comments that some people have questioned the value of a complex setup like this. I for one can speak to the problems with trying to import large volumes of email into Gmail directly from a local app like Outlook into Gmail using the IMAP interface. It does not handle attachments well and generally seems to choke up.

As for the Gmail upload tool, my guess is that it was an assignment for someone at Google and that they have little incentive to get all the idiosyncrasies of the Outlook format worked out. My guess is that it will choke up at lots of places. The benefits of having the email server in between is that the IMAP and POP protocols are highly standard and tested extensively for the various email clients. The chances of any given email client to be able to talk to a local email server properly are very high.

I think this is an elegant solution and I will explore using an Outlook add-on I use with this setup. It is called Clear Context and let's me quickly file email threads. Right now I have it filing things to a PST file but I will test having it file directly to the local IMAP server and see if I can have Gmail pull emails from there periodically. This way I have a complex but hopefully stable solution for archiving emails out of my exchange mailbox into Gmail.

I would not recommend the techniques being tried here to anyone who does not consider themselves an expert email user with detailed knowledge of email formats.

I actually think there is a good business for someone to create an add-on for Outlook allows for archiving to Gmail but uses a technique similar to this to create a local cache that let's Outlook run at full speed and sends data to Gmail in the background. Sort of the way ZumoDrive has been able to do a great job of a cloud based local drive.

great work with this article Ben.

Re: How to upload all your old archived Email to Gmail from outlook, lotus notes, and unix (pine)

Larry — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 11:51:16 -0000

I would say that one option is to run Outlook under emulation to be able to work with these files. You can use Outlook inside a Parallels session on the Mac to connect to the local IMAP server. How you run your own local IMAP server on a Mac is another challenge, maybe there is a good OS X mail server.

Re: How to upload all your old archived Email to Gmail from outlook, lotus notes, and unix (pine)

benshoemate — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 18:50:17 -0000

Some how you are going to have to open the .pst file. That is your first
goal. Search for .pst readers or install the trial of outlook for mac.
This method will work after that.

Re: How to upload all your old archived Email to Gmail from outlook, lotus notes, and unix (pine)

Garth — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 18:43:48 -0000

and meant to say I am using a macbook.

thanks

garth m

Re: How to upload all your old archived Email to Gmail from outlook, lotus notes, and unix (pine)

Garth — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 18:28:14 -0000

Hi,

I have saved my .pst fiels on a disc, can I use your process for retrieving my files? They are form my old MS Outlook and now I am using gmail

Thanks!!

Garth M

Re: How to upload all your old archived Email to Gmail from outlook, lotus notes, and unix (pine)

Johnny — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 02:31:34 -0000

hey ben and others:

An easier (if slightly amoral) solution which also provides dates:

1. Open a gmx mail account.
2. Synch gmx imap w/Thunderbird
3. Drag/drop all localhost mail to gmx account (the IMAP NEVER FROZE 4 ME, EVEN AFTER 9000 EMAIL!!)
4. DL all GMX mail into Gmail using the gmailPOP service.

TADA.

GMX probably supports the use of tags/folders, too.

I realize that this is sort of wrong, and that I shouldn't abuse gmx, but...well i did.

Re: How to upload all your old archived Email to Gmail from outlook, lotus notes, and unix (pine)

JustAnotherPoorSlob — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 15:58:14 -0000

Ben,

Cool idea with Mercury (IMAP from Notes to Gmail is a disaster). Ran into an interesting problem with Folders--maybe you have a suggestion?

Have a few folders to transfer from Notes to Gmail and want to preserve the folders as labels. Set up the mercury server, and started uploading locally into folders I had created on mercury through IMAP and Notes.

When I finally started Thunderbird, I noticed that none of the folders appeared--only the files in the "inbox".

Figured that they must only want subfolders of inbox, so moved them all in notes

Nothing

Tried to move them back, now I'm getting IMAP errors--no such folders-and all my uploaded mails are gone

Erased the lotus notes cache, now there's no folders and no mails.

Any ideas?

Re: How to upload all your old archived Email to Gmail from outlook, lotus notes, and unix (pine)

Giddeaon — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 19:30:22 -0000

This was PERFECT. Thank you for this. I'm reformatting my laptop and wanted a way to have multiple backups, and to send items to gmail with ease. This was it. Thank you very much for this article and tutorial.

Re: How to upload all your old archived Email to Gmail from outlook, lotus notes, and unix (pine)

Dan — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 11:33:22 -0000

I agree that a "plain text" conversion is adequate most of the
time. Alas, losing the formatting makes some email simply unreadable.

I would therefore like to report here that I've found an alternative
way to migrate from lotus notes and convert any set of selected emails
to "eml" format, in a way that preserves the formatting. The "eml"
format can be converted to the canonical MBOX format using such tools
as eml2mbx (http://home.arcor.de/luethje/prog/) or eml2mbox
(hrrp://www.broobles.com/eml2mbox). Alternatively, "eml" files can be
directly imported to Thunderbird through the ImportExportTools add-on
(http://www.nic-nac-project.de/~kaosmos/mboximpo...).

The way to export Lotus Notes email does not involve IMAP. Instead,
you configure you Lotus Notes client such that an 'export' option is
added to your 'Actions' menu. This option converts the selected emails
to "eml" files.

The instructions are found here:

"Lotus Notes Email Export"
http://tech.niques.info/projects/lotus-notes-em...

Perhaps you should include this information in your above post.

Thanks again for the quick replies,
Dan.