Import Emails from Outlook to Windows Live Mail Without Data Loss

Approved By Aswin Vijayan

Published On September 8th, 2021

Reading Time 5 Minutes Reading

Microsoft Outlook and Windows Live Mail both are the email applications of Microsoft. MS Outlook comes in a bundle with Office Suite and it is a paid application. Whereas, WLM which was earlier known as Windows Live Mail Desktop is a part of Windows Essentials and comes free of cost with Windows 8 and its previous versions. Microsoft Outlook supports PST file as its native file format, on the other side, WLM uses EML format for its email files. So, in situations where users want to import outlook emails to Widows Live Mail, they have to convert PST to EML format as they have to face certain problems as PST files cannot be accessed in WLM. So, a tried and trusted solution is provided to import emails from Outlook to Windows Live Mail.

User Query – “I was using Outlook from the last couple of years but now I switched to Windows Mail. Before moving, I archived its entire mailbox data in PST file. Everything was going well until I urgently required to access my old emails which were stored in Outlook data file. As I am not using Outlook nowadays and I can’t access PST file in WLM. So, can anyone please help to import PST to Windows Live Mail? I will be really thankful.”

Need to Transfer Outlook Emails to WLM

There can be many reasons which can be possible for migrating Microsoft Outlook to WLM but the most common reasons are specified in the following section:

EML files can be stored at any location of your choice.
Changing the name of EML file does not cause any impact to the stationary of the file.
EML files can be accessed anywhere whereas using other file formats on various systems can cause problems for the users.

Expert Solution to Import Emails from Outlook to Windows Live Mail

The manual method has some limitations as Mozilla Thunderbird is required to perform the migration process. The users have to configure their email id in it which will consume so much time. So, to overcome such issues, it is suggested to use a third party application i.e. SysTools Best PST File Converter for Windows and Mac which you can use to easily export PST files to WLM EML files. The software is a quick and easy solution to which makes it simpler for the users to perform migration without any data loss.

Steps to Import Outlook Emails to Window Live Mai via EML are:

Step 1. Install the software and add PST file which you want to convert.

Step 2. Preview all added emails along with attached details.

Step 3, Select EML file format from the Export options.

Step 4. Choose location to save EML files and click Export.

After conversion, you can easily import resultant EML files into Windows Live Mail application.

Transfer Emails from Outlook to Windows Live Mail Manually

While converting Outlook emails to WLM, you have to use Mozilla Thunderbird as a mediator. First, you have to install Thunderbird on your system and import entire Outlook mailbox items into it and then export emails from it in EML format. After that, you can import all EML files into WLM. Let us first discuss the steps to add items into Thunderbird:

Run Mozilla Thunderbird.
Go to Tools option and click on Import.
A window will appear from where you can choose two options i.e. Import Everything or Select the type of material to import.
You can select your desired option and then click on Next button.
Now, select Outlook and press Next.
The import process will start.
After the completion of the process, the entire mailbox data will be imported.
Now, go to Inbox Folder and select the emails which you want to convert into EML file extension.
Then, right-click and select Save as option.
A window will appear from where you can select the storage location. Save the files in the desired folder.

The next step to transfer emails from Outlook to Windows Live Mail is to import saved EML files into WLM. Perform the steps mentioned in the following section to complete the conversion process:

Run WLM email client and go to File option.
Then, click on Import and the press Messages.
Here, select Windows Mail or Windows Live Mail.
Finally, mention the root directory where the folder and message structure is located and the import process will begin.

Note – You should launch WLM with administrative rights.

Author Suggestion

Many users have to face several problems when trying to import emails from Outlook to Windows Live Mail client. These problems may arise due to lack of knowledge when they don’t know how to perform the entire conversion process in a proper way. So, after understanding the issues and queries, we have discussed both manual and automated solution so that users can easily transfer emails from Outlook to Windows Live Mail. Users can select the solution which suits their requirements the most.