[sf-lug] Outlook pop3->IMAP migration?

[Jason Turner]

Hello Lx,

As much as I would like to volunteer the perfect solution, I must  
admit I've yet to perform this task to 100% satisfaction for myself  
or others.

I'd like to hear more from others so I'll begin by offering up a  
couple suggestions from my experiences...

1st -- Be sure you've got safe backups of your .pst file(s)

2nd -- Yep, I've seen similar behavior with Outlook.  The key is  
probably patience though.  Perform the drag/drop copy SLOWLY(small  
directory chunks).  Depending upon the amount of mail, over days if  
you have the patience -- just something you do while taking those  
15min breaks...

3rd -- Related to the above, perform this operation on the fattest  
network pipe you have access to.

4th -- If that just doesn't work... Outlook ends up copying over too  
few of the msgs or just plain balks(timeouts) at most of the  
importing and copying, then go ahead and try to use Thunderbird.   
Same suggestions as 2 and 3 above once you have the pst file imported  
into local folders.  Some would say to do this first and ditch  
Outlook completely -- Thunderbird's IMAP implementation has seemed a  
bit more stable to me.

5th -- Enlist someone with excellent search engine skills to find the  
mystery perl script I've heard about through the years that  
essentially does the above for you and smartly recognizes/manages  
your bandwidth and remote dir copies.

Sorry, I know these probably aren't hugely helpful.  Maintaining  
correct timestamps and other meta-info has also been problematic  
depending upon what method you use.

Please don't recoil in horror but do you think these folks would/ 
should consider GoogleApps for their mail processing?  Their current  
data needs would put them in the "free" category.  I admit I raise  
this possibility, in part, to solicit opinions from others on the  
list...  Presumably fewer downtime headaches enjoyed by others with  
cheap hosting plans from the likes of GoDaddy, DH, BH, etc...  And  
they seem to offer a few programs of their own for .pst import.

If you'll be up for the next group meeting or perhaps LinuxWorld, I'm  
curious to hear more about GH and how their mail change works out.


--
jt


On Jul 24, 2007, at 6:01 PM, Lx Rudis wrote:

> hello luggers.
>
> attached is email from the guy i recently assisted.
> anyone here had experience with this sort of work?
> got any advice?  comments?
>
> thx!
>
> lx
>
>
>
> --- Lawrence Comras <axil at greenhome.com> wrote:
>
>> Hey people who know I've been trying to migrate mail
>> (or who would care if
>> they did know):
>>
>> So I created a new account, sales at greenhome.com,
>> made it IMAP, hung the old
>> Green Home email account name, green at greenhome.com
>> as an alias off it,
>> migrated the directories from the POP3 to the IMAP,
>> and it works (sort of).
>> Copying the directories is a hit or miss affair, it
>> times out, sometimes it
>> deletes the dirs from the source .pst (POP3) file as
>> it should, sometimes
>> not, just copies contents and leaves the dirs. But
>> it's kinda workin'.
>>
>> But sometimes it times out. Or what looks like that.
>> When trying to copy
>> emails, sometimes I get the attached warning. And
>> sometimes trying to
>> send/receive mail, get the other. Looked it up, and
>> this is what I learned:
>>
>>
> http://weblogs.asp.net/kdente/archive/2006/07/13/Avoiding-the- 
> dreaded-_2200_unable-to-download-folder-_2800_null_29002200_-error- 
> with-Outlook-2003_2F00_IMAP.aspx
>>
>> My theories are:
>> Outlook is a bad client (theory of above article)
>> Too complex a folder hierarchy and Outlook not happy
>> with
>> Bad filenames for Unix and Outlook and me in turn
>> being punished
>> Firewall
>>
>> Plus it is slow. I know I have hundreds of
>> directories, but I am on a pretty
>> fast box at Go Daddy (they configure the box but I
>> have root and manage it).
>> Size of the email cluster on server is prolly ~1GB.
>> I have about 4 boxes
>> accessing the account right now. Would like to up
>> that, but wondering which
>> of these factoids present walls I might hit (# of
>> users, files size,
>> directory amount, and even stuff I don't know how to
>> check like any config
>> files on the sendmail side, or how to check
>> available space on the server
>> and shite like that).
>>
>> ~ Axil
>>
>>
>
>
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