Upgrading to Latest Outlook Express

Hi

I wonder if you can help. I need to upgrade Outlook Epress to the latest version on an old iMac. The iMac is running MacOS 8.5 and I think it has version 4 (or 4.5?) of Outlook Express, which I want to upgrade to version 5. It's a friend's iMac, and I am reluctant to perform this upgrade in case I lose all his emails, which he does not have backed up. I have already upgraded his iMac to the latest version of Internet Explorer, which was simple enough.

Can you tell me whether it is possible to upgrade Outlook Express without losing existing emails or, if not, how emails can be archived from an old version and then imported into the new version. This is easy enough on a PC (drag and drop email icons from Outlook Express to the hard disk) but doesn't seem possible on a Mac!

Any help would be very much appreciated.

Regards

Daniel Salter

The e-mail and all info for each user's account is stored in individual folders in the folder "identities" inside the OE folder. This is the only thing you need to preserve when you update. My suggestion is:

Go to the existing OE folder and rename it as something like oldOE or OE4. Leave this renamed folder on the hard drive. Now install the new version of OE (I think the latest is version 5.06). This is simply a drag-and-drop install. Because you changed the name of the old OE folder you should have both versions on the hard disk now. Before you do anything with OE5 copy-drag the identities folder from the old version to the new version (Hold the option key down when you drag the folder. That will keep the original intact and create a copy.) It should ask you if you want to replace the folder in OE5 with the other one. Go ahead. Now launch OE 5 and it will use the preferences from the old OE version and it will use the accounts in the identities folder that you moved. All of the e-mail from the old user accounts will appear in the new version.

Because you kept a copy of the identities folder in the old OE folder you can store that as a backup.
Badger

Thanks very much indeed for your help Badger. I shall give that a go, and see what happens! I am always a bit anxious about upgrading people's software for them, in case anything goes wrong, and because they generally have no backups! I managed to lose all the emails, contact details and Internet Explorer preferences of the last Mac user friend I 'helped' out, so I am determined not to make the same mistake again!

Also, I thought I should leave this chap with a copy of Internet Explorer and Outlook Express on CD ROM, just in case he ever needs to reinstall them. I can let him have one of many free CD ROMs from Internet Service Providers (e.g. Tiscali) but I am not sure whether those copies are heavily customised. What do you reckon? (I shall use a cover disk from Mac Format to perform the upgrade, but don't want to leave the disk with him).

Thanks again.

Regards

Daniel

dsalter said:

Thanks very much indeed for your help Badger. I shall give that a go, and see what happens! I am always a bit anxious about upgrading people's software for them, in case anything goes wrong, and because they generally have no backups! I managed to lose all the emails, contact details and Internet Explorer preferences of the last Mac user friend I 'helped' out, so I am determined not to make the same mistake again!

Also, I thought I should leave this chap with a copy of Internet Explorer and Outlook Express on CD ROM, just in case he ever needs to reinstall them. I can let him have one of many free CD ROMs from Internet Service Providers (e.g. Tiscali) but I am not sure whether those copies are heavily customised. What do you reckon? (I shall use a cover disk from Mac Format to perform the upgrade, but don't want to leave the disk with him).

Thanks again.

Regards

Daniel

Click to expand...

You're welcome Daniel.

If you want to leave backups I would go to the Microsoft site and download new copies (or copy them from the MacFormat disk). You'll get versions that have not been modified and you can leave them in compressed format until they are needed. Personally, it is so easy to download these apps from Microsoft that I would not bother with backups.
Badger