It is hard for basic users to get a simple utility to move Outlook 2011 folders to MBOX. It’s also hard for professionals to get an advanced utility with powerful features to move Outlook 2011 folders to MBOX. Because very few software apps exist that can mix sophistication with simplicity and offer an efficient way to move your emails, contacts, and calendar from Outlook 2011 into MBOX files.
How to Get Data from Outlook 2011 folders to MBOX
But here’s good news: You don’t need many apps to do the job correctly; you need just one. And now both basic users and experts can rely upon one single solution that works with all scenarios perfectly.
Before we reveal the app, let’s get some of the facts about Outlook 2011 to MBOX migration straight.
The Outlook 2011
Outlook 2011 is an email client by Microsoft that replaced Entourage. It is one of the most used email clients in Mac operating systems, secondly only to Mac Mail, which is the default email client by Apple itself. All of its features and interface when combined offers a seamless experience of dealing with emails.
It works almost all of the time for professionals and home users. But there comes a time when you may need to switch to other email clients, like Mac Mail or Mozilla Thunderbird. It may not necessarily be due to any shortcomings of Outlook 2011. It may be just a necessary work requirement to switch to other clients. Or there may be few features missing in Outlook that you are getting with Mac Mail/Thunderbird.
Why you are switching to another client is not important here, but how. And even if you are not switching to another client completely, the discussion here still relates to you if you have a lot of data to be shared with another user who doesn’t have Outlook.
The Challenges
The problems with Outlook 2011 is that it can only export data to OLM files. OLM is the native file for both exporting and importing data. Mac Mail or Thunderbird, on the other hand, can use MBOX format. Many programs in many operating systems are using the MBOX file format.
Therefore, the problem of getting your data moved from Outlook 2011 email client to any other client such as Mac Mail and Thunderbird can become a problem.
Ways to Move Outlook 2011 folders to MBOX
There are no default features officially supported in either of the client to import/export data correctly. Outlook 2011 can only export emails to OLM files, which you cannot use anywhere else. There is a way to get contacts exported by archiving them to comma separated values that can be used with other clients, but that leaves emails and calendar behind.
Drag and Drop
One common solution many users implement is this: drag each folder inside Outlook 2011 into Mac desktop. This automatically convert those folders into MBOX files. However, this does not apply to your contacts and calendar data. Another problem with this approach is that you have to drag each folder separately, giving you individual MBOX file for each folder. That makes the process painfully long and tedious, which would be fine for some users in the end if it didn’t produce defects in data integrity.
This drag-and-drop folders work to some extent if you only have one or two email folders to move to MBOX. For anything more than that, it can be impossible for any practical purpose.
By IMAP/POP
Second most common used method is not to deal with any files at all. This solution uses a dummy email account and its servers to move data internally through clients and bypassing any need of data files. Here, you first sync Outlook 2011 emails to the servers of an email client and then add the same email account to the client you want to move your data into and then sync back the data from the servers to the client. As you can see, this doesn’t involve any files or file conversion, and thus, many users assume this to be the best solution. It also doesn’t require any third-party software to do anything for you.
But the truth is that, it cannot be more inefficient, slow, and inaccurate way of data migration. First of all, you need an email service that lets you store data on the servers equal to the size of the data you want to migrate. So, if your Outlook 2011 database is huge, you cannot sync all of it into an email server (even Gmail allows only up to 15 GB). You can do it parts, but that would make an already long process longer.
Secondly, it is also terrible in terms of data precision. You are certain to miss many data elements like images or metadata or other complex information.
Once again, it can be used if you have only one or two folders to migrate. It will turn into a nightmare for anything larger than that.
Move Outlook 2011 folders to MBOX by converting OLM files
The only option left for you to is to convert the OLM files to MBOX. This can be done correctly given you know how or you have a professional tool to help you.
This brings us back to our original topic of the post. The tool revealed below will help you move Outlook 2011 folders to MBOX in the best possible manner, which also includes emails, contacts, and calendar.
This is “OLM Extractor Pro”. Everything you have ever wanted for this job is offered by this tool. Everything you ever hated about this job has been ridden by this tool.
The best way to find out more about it and how it actually works is by using it yourself. One can download the trial version using the link below. It gives you a perfect way to check out the entire application thoroughly without any locked features. It only converts ten items from each OLM file but other than that, you can evaluate its overall set of features, interface, and data precision freely.
Download Page: https://www.uslsoftware.com/download/olm-extractor-pro/
To move Outlook 2011 folders to MBOX (Mails), VCF (Contacts) and ICS (Calendars) file formats, get ‘OLM Extractor Pro‘ today.