How to Transfer Mail From Microsoft Entourage on a Macintosh
Microsoft Entourage saves email messages in an .eml format and exports email to an .mbox folder. Other Mac email applications (such as Apple Mail) can import MBOX folders and EML messages. When migrating to another platform, such as Windows, some email programs can also import MBOX folders such as Mozilla Thunderbird. However, the Windows counterpart to Entourage, Microsoft Outlook, cannot import MBOX files. Instead, users can create a folder containing EML messages and then drop these files directly into an Outlook inbox.
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Instructions
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Export to MBOX Format
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1
Launch Microsoft Entourage and select the "Inbox" folder in the "Mail" module.
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2
Select and drag the desired email folders to your Finder desktop. Repeat for any desired sub-folders, including the "Sent" folder and "Drafts" if desired.
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3
Connect the USB drive to the Mac if you are transferring emails to another computer and drag the MBOX folders created in Step 2 to this device. Safely eject and remove the USB drive when the copying process is complete. Otherwise, skip this step.
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4
Launch the desired target email application.
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5
Select "Import" under "File" in the top menu bar and select the MBOX folders created in Step 2 for import into the application's inbox. Note: if transferring emails to another computer, make sure that the USB drive is connected so that you can select the MBOX files.
If necessary, repeat this step to import sub-folders to the email application.
Folder of EML
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6
Create a new folder on the Finder desktop and name it "Entourage_eml." If desired, double-click this folder to open and create and name new sub-folders.
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7
Launch Entourage and select the "Inbox" folder in the "Mail" module.
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8
Click the main frame in the window on the right containing a list of email messages in the inbox.
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9
Press and hold the "Command" key (with the Apple logo) and press the "A" key to select all messages in the inbox. Release both keys.
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10
Select the block of highlighted messages in the main directory by pressing the mouse button and hold the mouse button while dragging this block of messages to the "Entourage_eml" folder created in Step 1. Release the mouse button to drop the block of messages into the folder.
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11
Repeat steps 2 to 5 if desired for each mail folder and drop the messages into the corresponding sub-folders created in step 1.
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12
Connect the USB drive to the Mac if you are transferring emails to another computer and drag the "Entourage_eml" folder created in Step 1 to this device. Safely eject and remove the USB drive when the copying process is complete. Otherwise, skip this step.
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13
Launch the desired target application and click the "Inbox" email directory. Connect the USB drive to the computer if the target computer is different from the source Mac computer.
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14
Open the "Entourage_eml" folder and select all email messages only (do not select sub-folders). To select only the email messages, press and hold the "Control" key (Windows) or the "Command" key (Mac) and press the "A" key; continue holding down the "Control" or "Command" key and click the sub-folders to deselect that item.
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15
Release both keys and then click the highlighted block of emails and hold the mouse button to drag the messages to the application's inbox directory window.
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16
Create a sub-folder in the application's email inbox corresponding to the names of the sub-folders in the "Entourage_eml" folder.
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17
Open each sub-folder in the "Entourage_eml" folder in a new window, select all messages and then drag these items to the corresponding sub-folder in the email application.
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1
Tips & Warnings
Reduce the size of the email application window so that you have easy access to the computer desktop for dragging items.
If you are sure that your target email application can import EML and/or MBOX files, use the "Import" function to launch a wizard.
Do not export Entourage emails to an archive because a consolidated file with the extension ".rge" is created which requires conversion to an MBOX format.
