I have a customer who’s been trying to use Windows Live Mail (WLM) 2011 for the past 6 months, but keeps running into issues and problems in using it. So today I installed Outlook 2010 onto his computer, and began the process of exporting his email and contacts from WLM to Outlook. Several things I discovered during this process.
1. I exported the WLM account settings to an IAF file, but then discovered that Outlook 2010 does not recognize/support importing an IAF file for setting up an email account. The reason I was trying to do this was because we did not know the user’s email/account password! So, what does one do? A quick search of the Internet uncovers an online IAF decoder program! It worked like a champ. It displayed the entire contents of the IAF file included POP and SMTP URL’s, user name AND password, ports used, and more. I was then able to proceed and create the user’s mail account in Outlook 2010.
2. Next I was ready to export the email in the WLM inbox, but when I went to do so, I thought it was strange that it never prompted me for a file name or file location to store the export file. I naturally assumed it was going to create a PST file. Lo and behold, there was no need to ask for a filename, as WLM directly imported the contents of the mailbox into Outlook 2010. Very nice!
Note: to transfer mail boxes, click on File > Export Mail > Email Messages > click Select Microsoft Exchange (even if you are only using standalone Outlook!) > Next > OK > click Selected Folders > and then select mailbox to be transfered.
3. Then I was ready to transfer over Contacts. WLM creates a CSV file when exporting contacts. Be sure to click on the mapping button and map the first name and email address. For some reason those are not selected automatically.