How to move existing Outlook items to an Office 365 or any other new email setup.
Now that you have an Office 365 account working in Outlook you can copy your current Tasks, Contacts and Calendar from your current Outlook store into the Office 365 account.
In short, open up the existing Outlook folder and copy the contents to the corresponding Office 365 folder. We strongly suggest you COPY rather than move Outlook items so that you can restore your setup if something goes wrong.
Opening source Outlook data
If you added the Office 365 account to an existing Outlook profile you should be able to see your existing data folders in the folder list.
If you created a new profile then you’ll need to open you existing Outlook data file (the PST file) from Account Settings | Data Files | Add | choose the type of PST file then point to where that file is on your computer.
Copying Outlook data requires care and attention to detail. It’s easy to get duplicate entries if you’re not careful. The whole process isn’t helped by Outlook’s erratic behavior when copying/moving many items (especially between data stores) – something that is really unforgivable in such a mature product but something Microsoft seems unwilling to fix.
We have some separate tips on how to bypass Outlook’s poor conduct when copying a large number of Outlook items.
When moving to an Office 365 account the first stumbling block is that the primary folders (Inbox, Contacts, Calendars, Tasks etc) cannot be deleted from the Exchange Server account. That’s understandable however it means you can’t simply copy an existing folder (say Tasks) to the Office 365 folder tree. Instead you have to select all of the items in the folder and copy them to the comparable folder in Office 365 – that should be easy but it isn’t always reliable.
These instructions are based on years of bitter experience with Outlook. You might think it’s a slightly long-winded approach but it’s what seems the most reliable to us.
Tasks
We’ll start with moving Tasks because that’s the easiest one to do.
- Open the existing Tasks folder
- Make sure there’s no filter in the View so that you are seeing all the tasks.
- Select All the task entries – Ctrl + A shortcut.
- Note the number of items selected in the bottom left of the Outlook status bar.
- Copy to the Office 365 Tasks folder
- In Outlook 2007 go to Edit | Copy to folder and select the Tasks folder under the Office 365 / Exchange Server tree.
- In Outlook 2010 go to right-mouse click Move … | Copy to folder | select the Tasks folder under the Office 365 / Exchange Server tree.
- In Outlook 2007 go to Edit | Copy to folder and select the Tasks folder under the Office 365 / Exchange Server tree.
Look in the new Tasks folder to see that all the entries have copied across. Make sure the number of items in the target folder is the same as the source folder.
If you have other Tasks folders, select that folder from the folder list, right-click and choose Copy Folder with a destination under the Office 365 account tree.
Notes
The Notes folder is another simple one to move because there are usually few items.
- Open the existing Notes folder
- Make sure there’s no filter in the View so that you are seeing all the contacts.
- Select All the Notes entries – Ctrl + A shortcut.
- Note the number of items selected in the bottom left of the Outlook status bar.
- Copy to the Office 365 Notes folder
- In Outlook 2007 go to Edit | Copy to folder and select the Notes folder under the Office 365 / Exchange Server tree.
- In Outlook 2010 go to right-mouse click Move … | Copy to folder | select the Notes folder under the Office 365 / Exchange Server tree.
Look in the new Notes folder to see that all the entries have copied across. Make sure the number of items in the target folder is the same as the source folder.
If you have additional Notes folder, copy the entire folder across in the same way as shown in ‘Tasks’ above.
Contacts
- Open the existing Contacts folder
- Make sure there’s no filter active in the View so that you are seeing all the contacts.
- Select All the contacts entries – Ctrl + A shortcut.
- Note the number of items selected in the bottom left of the Outlook status bar.
- Copy to the Office 365 Contacts folder
- In Outlook 2007 go to Edit | Copy to folder and select the Contacts folder under the Office 365 / Exchange Server tree.
- In Outlook 2010 go to right-mouse click Move … | Copy to folder | select the Contacts folder under the Office 365 / Exchange Server tree.
- In Outlook 2007 go to Edit | Copy to folder and select the Contacts folder under the Office 365 / Exchange Server tree.
Look in the new Contacts folder to see that all the entries have copied across. Make sure the number of items in the target folder is the same as the source folder. Check that your contacts appear as you expect, for your View settings may not be the same and you may need to change the way some Columns (fields) display.
If you have an additional Contacts folder, copy the entire folder across in the same way as shown in ‘Tasks’ above.
Calendar
Copy the calendar items is slightly different because you have to change the Outlook view. The usual calendar views don’t support ‘Select all’.
- Open the existing Calendar folder
- Change to List view.
- In Outlook 2010 under View | Change View | List
- In Outlook 2007 or before go to View | Current View | All Appointments
- In Outlook 2010 under View | Change View | List
- Make sure there’s no filter in the View so that you are seeing all the calendar items.
- Set Arrange By to Start Date.
- Select All the calendar entries – Ctrl + A shortcut.
- Note the number of items selected in the bottom left of the Outlook status bar.
- Set Arrange By to Start Date.
- Copy to the Office 365 Calendar folder
- In Outlook 2007 go to Edit | Copy to folder and select the Calendar folder under the Office 365 / Exchange Server tree.
- In Outlook 2010 go to right-mouse click Move … | Copy to folder | select the Calendar folder under the Office 365 / Exchange Server tree.
- In Outlook 2007 go to Edit | Copy to folder and select the Calendar folder under the Office 365 / Exchange Server tree.
Look in the new Calendar folder to see that all the entries have copied across. Make sure the number of items in the target folder is the same as the source folder.
If you have additional Calendar folder, copy the entire folder across in the same way as shown in ‘Tasks’ above.
Take these steps for both your Inbox and Sent Items folder.
- Open the existing source email folder
- Make sure there’s no filter in the View so that you are seeing all emails.
- Select All the entries – Ctrl + A shortcut.
- Note the number of items selected in the bottom left of the Outlook status bar.
- Copy to the Office 365 destination email folder (Inbox / Sent items etc)
- In Outlook 2007 go to Edit | Copy to folder and select the destination folder under the Office 365 / Exchange Server tree.
- In Outlook 2010 go to right-mouse click Move … | Copy to folder | select the destination folder under the Office 365 / Exchange Server tree.
- In Outlook 2007 go to Edit | Copy to folder and select the destination folder under the Office 365 / Exchange Server tree.
Look in the destination folder to see that all the entries have copied across. Make sure the number of items in the target folder is the same as the source folder.
If you have additional email folders, copy the entire folder across in the same way as shown in ‘Tasks’ above.
As a final check, you might like to do a second check of the item number in each source folder and compare that with the number in the matching destination folder.
Once that’s done you can disconnect the source PST folder from Outlook by returning to Account Settings | Data Files , selecting the source data file and clicking ‘Remove’. Despite the name on the button this merely disconnects the data file from Outlook, it doesn’t delete the PST. If you wish, you can then move the entire PST to archive / backup storage in case it’s needed in the future.
If you are having trouble copying Outlook items, see our guide to troubleshooting Outlook copying.
