Solved Help me change Outlook from IMAP to POP

Dave in Houston said:

Have you made any progress on this?

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Dave, if you would rather reinstall Outlook and use the OLD PST file. Scroll down to Outlook – Microsoft 365 subscription in the following link. (Because you’re using Office 2021 yes?)

Please note before you start the instructions: Outlook PST files are stored in “Documents/Outlook Files” when creating an Outlook account / POP3 PST.

before you start the instructions on this link, go into that folder and copy the current PST into a safe folder (just in case) I believe the PST file you currently have is youremailaddress.pst?
After copying it somewhere (maybe into a folder called new pst or something) delete that pst file that was made when you last reinstalled Office/Outlook from the “Documents/Outlook files” folder

Go to your old PST file and copy it (please keep the original safe from anything you do so as to ensure you always have it incase something goes wrong) as I said, copy the original, old pst file into the “Documents/Outlook Files” folder
You can name it anything you like, you can rename it to youremailaddress.pst if you like or “davesPSTfile.pst”, because if you follow the steps in this link, you will be telling Outlook that you want to use that particular pst file for your email account.

In step 8, direct Outlook to the original PST file that you have just copied into “Documents/Outlook Files”

Dave in Houston said:

Have you made any progress on this?

Click to expand...

There is one thing you could try to test out something before reinstalling Outlook:
(Some of these instructions are copied from the previous post)

Go into the “Documents/Outlook Files” folder and copy the current PST into a safe folder (just in case) I believe the PST file you currently have is youremailaddress.pst? PLEASE NOTE THE NAME OF THIS PST FILE

Now go to your old PST file and copy it (please keep the original safe from anything you do so as to ensure you always have it incase something goes wrong) copy it to another folder, you could call the folder “Modified Original PST” or something.
Rename this PST to exactly the same name as the current PST in “Documents/Outlook Files” folder if it isn’t already named the same.

Now copy the Modified original PST that you just renamed and overwrite the one that is currently situated in the “Documents/Outlook Files” folder.
Restart Outlook.

If that worked, it will save much screwing around.

UPDATE: That's a negative on the merge software. I was curious about Systools PST Merge so I bought it. I wanted to know how it would fare with the end result of a full merge.
I ended up testing it in Outlook and the result was far too complex. I would need to spend a lot of time cleaning it up and understanding what some of the "Orphaned Folders" mean (there were 15 of them) also the references to the original PST files before merging as there were a couple of folders in the end result referring to them.
I wish I could remember the name of one I once owned & used many years ago. I can't find it on my software drive nor do I remember what it was called, it was fantastic.

END RESULT: The good news is my suggestion in post #22 worked just fine. After creating the merged PST file, I renamed it to the one in the “Documents/Outlook Files” folder and copied and overwrote the current one. I restarted Outlook. The PST was there and ready. Follow the steps in #22

Remember to make a backup of your PC or at the very least a backup of the PST files as instructed.

Hi folks

@antspants

Try this :


Just create a .reg backup : I/e Export the following key.

• Outlook 365 / 2016 2019:
• HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Outlook\Profiles
• Outlook 2013: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\15.0\Outlook\Profiles
• Outlook 2010 or earlier versions: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Windows Messaging Subsystem\Profiles

To restore : just run the .reg

Note -- you'll need to remember your passwords for the accounts.

cheers
jimbo

Hi Jim.

I’ve never seen that.
In the end (after all my screwing around) I realised that it seemed to be easy enough to rename the OLD PST to the same as the new and overwrite it, unless a merge has to take place.

I’ve noted this though, would come in handy when screwing with profiles, thank you very much

antspants said:

There is one thing you could try to test out something before reinstalling Outlook:
(Some of these instructions are copied from the previous post)

Go into the “Documents/Outlook Files” folder and copy the current PST into a safe folder (just in case) I believe the PST file you currently have is youremailaddress.pst? PLEASE NOTE THE NAME OF THIS PST FILE

Now go to your old PST file and copy it (please keep the original safe from anything you do so as to ensure you always have it incase something goes wrong) copy it to another folder, you could call the folder “Modified Original PST” or something.
Rename this PST to exactly the same name as the current PST in “Documents/Outlook Files” folder if it isn’t already named the same.

Now copy the Modified original PST that you just renamed and overwrite the one that is currently situated in the “Documents/Outlook Files” folder.
Restart Outlook.

If that worked, it will save much screwing around.

Click to expand...

How did you go with this Dave in Houston?

I didn't get to it yesterday. We had family over. I'm about to dig in shortly.

antspants said:

How did you go with this Dave in Houston?

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This doesn't seem to be the solution. There might be some emails that Were missing before, but my contacts and calendar are still gone.

Thanks again for all your help.

Dave in Houston said:

This doesn't seem to be the solution. There might be some emails that Were missing before, but my contacts and calendar are still gone.

Thanks again for all your help.

Click to expand...

That doesn’t sound right, Dave. I am wondering if at some point a more recent PST replaced your original PST somehow, an accidental copy & paste over?

Is there only one PST file in documents outlook files folder, Dave?

Probably should also check that outlook is using a pst in that outlook files folder

Open MS Outlook and navigate to File > Info > Account Settings > Account Settings.



In “Data Files” tab, where does it say your PST data file location is? And what is the “name” of the data file?

There are several old PST files in that location:



I thought I told it to use "040124" but apparently it chose another one.




I think I wll try moving all the others to a backup folder to force it to "040124." Does that make sense?

Thanks again!
Dave

Dave in Houston said:

I thought I told it to use "040124" but apparently it chose another one.

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Go back to that dialog, add the one you want, set it as the default then remove the others & restart Outlook.
It will do what you tell it to do.
And yes, it would be worth putting all the others into an archive of some sort so you can check what's in them later on if you wish. Personally, I'd just zip them all up & remove their originals.


All the best,
Denis

Dave in Houston said:

There are several old PST files in that location:

View attachment 92276

I thought I told it to use "040124" but apparently it chose another one.

View attachment 92275


I think I wll try moving all the others to a backup folder to force it to "040124." Does that make sense?

Thanks again!
Dave

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Dave, those are some pretty large PST file sizes. Theory would have it that the largest is the one to use, then again it’s hard to tell. What is the file size of the original that you wanted to restore and where is it backed up to? Because theory would have it, 031724 would be the most complete.
Also not sure how it is showing 2 instances of the same file in the account settings.

Dave, later on, once you have gotten to the point you are trying to get to, could I suggest an addon for Outlook.

Tom Hoffmanns Outlook Backup Add-In. It says 2019 but I use it for 2021.


On the right of the page you will see “Releases”

At the bottom of this page is a link to the latest OutlookBackupAddIn.zip Unzip it and run the instale exe.
Start outlook and at the top you will now see an entry “BACKUP”
Click on this and the settings are fairly easy. Choose the PST you want to backup, set a destination and make the backup interval “0” this will make Backup do it’s job every time you close outlook.
Tell it to wait 5 seconds or more after closing Outlook to backup.
When you close Outlook, a box will popup with a countdown and then it will backup your PST.

If you need help with it (After all else is done) let me know.

antspants said:

I haven’t forgotten you. I have a computer issue and have been having to use my iPad. I can’t test the free software to merge PST files via my iPad.

Edit: I might wait till my wife is asleep tonight and test using her Lenovo.

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And you will be dead the minute she finds out you screwed up her computer too! You know better . . .

The biggest one is the one from just before I built this PC. I renamed it to 040124, but its date is 5/19/23. It's big because it had everything for a decade or so. When I built this computer, Outlook changed me to IMAP, and started synching with the Earthlink server. I want to get rid of that feature and start keeping everything again..

Dave in Houston said:

The biggest one is the one from just before I built this PC. I renamed it to 040124, but its date is 5/19/23. It's big because it had everything for a decade or so. When I built this computer, Outlook changed me to IMAP, and started synching with the Earthlink server. I want to get rid of that feature and start keeping everything again..

Click to expand...

IMAP file extensions are .OST not .PST.
If you believe you are currently using IMAP, they aren’t saved in the same place as the PST files

If your email is currently using IMAP you will have remove your email address to re-add it as a POP3 and tell it to use 040124 if that’s the one you want, or 031724 or whatever PST you like.

You can do this using the tutorial in the link I gave you in post #21 remember step 8 & 9 which is where you tell Outlook to use the PST of your choice. Scroll down to Outlook – Microsoft 365 subscription start from step 1

Here:


You can do this through Outlook or Control panel.

Did you try the regedit thing -- simple. From old computer export the .reg files. On new computer create a new .pst file and import the .reg file. For each account you'll be prompted for the passwprd -- otherwise all your stuff should be restored, Even simpler if using IMAP.

Cheers
jimbo

But Dave wants to use an old PST he has saved from however long ago, pre reinstalls of Outlook I believe. According to Dave. Not sure how the profile registry entries are any good in this instance?
I’m just trying to show him how to change his email from IMAP to POP3 (OST to PST as requested), and use the old backed up PST with it. But it seems to be proving complicated.

I do it according to the Tutorial above.

I do indeed want to change from IMAP back to POP, which I was using before I built this computer and installed Outlook. The reason I don't want to use IMAP is because IMAP seems to delete old emails to keep in synch with what's on the Earthlink server. (I guess they do this so you can use Outlook on more than one computer?)

I want to keep emails forever. Or at least for much, much longer than the Earthlink server allows me to keep them.

I can't do the regedit thing Jimbo suggested, because that computer no longer exists. Parts were scavenged to build my current computer.

Now I'm going to study a few of the other posts and see if I can figure out how to proceed.

Thanks again for all the help.

Edit: I'm reading through the tutorial. Should I delete Outlook before doing this?