Title: outlook express backup and restore Subject: what a joke. How do I back up and restore messages, Address Book, mail accounts, and news accounts in Outlook Express 5 and later? Microsoft Knowledge Base article Q270670 contains: For information about differences between Microsoft Outlook Express and Microsoft Outlook e-mail clients, click the article number below to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: Q257824 OL2000: Differences Between Outlook and Outlook Express SUMMARY This article describes how to back up and restore your messages, Address Book, mail accounts, and news accounts in Outlook Express 5 and later. If multiple Identities are in use for Outlook Express, these steps should be repeated for each Identity and the backup data segregated accordingly. This will facilitate restoration of each Identity. MORE INFORMATION Summery: To backup Outlook Express data: Copy mail files to a backup folder Export the Address Book to a file Export the mail account to a file Export the news account to a file Summery: To restore or import Outlook Express data: Import messages from the backup folder Import the Address Book file Import the mail account file Import the news account file ------------------------------------------ To backup Outlook Express data: ------------------------------------------ 1. Copy Mail Files to a Backup Folder To make a backup copy of your Outlook Express e-mail message files: Start Outlook Express. On the Tools menu, click Options. On the Maintenance tab, click Store Folder. Highlight the displayed folder location, and then press CTRL+C to copy the location. Click Cancel, and then click Cancel again to close the dialog box. (i.e. at the time of these notes, the path was: C:\WINDOWS\Application Data\Identities\{AB424120-712D-11D4-8C95-4C9405C10000}\Microsoft\Outlook Express ) Use explorer to brows to the directory above. On the Edit menu, click Select All. On the Edit menu, click Copy, and then close the window. Use explorer to brows to your D:, and create a new directory. Call it outlook_express_backup_20030511 (or what ever the date is). Brows into this directory. On the Edit menu, click Paste. Close the window. 2. Export the Address Book to a File NOTE: This step is very important when multiple Identities are in use. A .WAB (Windows Address Book) file is used by Outlook Express 5.x versions, even if multiple Identities are used. The individual data for each Identity is stored in a folder, by user name, within the .WAB file in use. Exporting this data, while logged in to a specific Identity, is the only means of segregating the Address Book data. If the .WAB file becomes dissociated from the user Identities, the data can only be exported in total - not folder by folder. To export your Outlook Express address book: Start Outlook Express. On the File menu, click Export, and then click Address Book. Click Text File (Comma Separated Values), and then click Export. Click Browse. Locate the Mail Backup folder that you created. (i.e. D:\outlook_express_backup_20030511 ) In the File Name box, type address_book_backup.csv Then click Save. Click Next. Click to select the check boxes for the fields that you want to export, Click Finish. Click OK and then click Close. 3. Export the Mail Account to a File To make a backup copy of your Outlook Express mail account: On the Tools menu, click Accounts. On the Mail tab, click the mail account that you want to export, Click Export. In the Save In box, locate the Mail Backup folder that you created. (i.e. D:\outlook_express_backup_20030511 ) Click Save. Click Close. 4. Export the Newsgroup Account to a File To make a backup copy of your Outlook Express news accounts: On the Tools menu, click Accounts. On the News tab, click the news account that you want to export Click Export. In the Save In box, use locate the Mail Backup folder on your desktop. Click Save. Repeat these steps for each news account that you want to export. Click Close. ------------------------------------------ To restore or import Outlook Express data: ------------------------------------------ i. Importing Outlook Express data To restore data, you may need to re-create the Identities for each user, prior to using the following steps. 1. Import Messages from the Backup Folder On the File menu, point to Import, and then click Messages. In the Select an e-mail program to import from box, click Microsoft Outlook Express 5 Click Next. Click Import mail from an OE5 store directory Click OK. Click Browse, and then click on the Mail Backup folder. (i.e. D:\outlook_express_backup_20030511 ) Click OK, and then click Next. Click All folders, click Next, and then click Finish. 2. Import the Address Book File To import your Outlook Express address book: On the File menu, click Import. Click Other Address Book. Click Text File (Comma Separated Values), and then click Import. Click Browse. Locate the Mail Backup folder (i.e. D:\outlook_express_backup_20030511 ) Click the address book Backup.csv file. Click Open. Click Next, and then click Finish. Click OK, Click Close. 3. Import the Mail Account File On the Tools menu, click Accounts. On the Mail tab, click Import. In the Look In box, locate the Mail Backup folder. (i.e. D:\outlook_express_backup_20030511 ) Click the mail account that you want to import, and then click Open. Click Close. 3. Import the Newsgroup Account File On the Tools menu, click Accounts. On the News tab, click Import. In the Look In box, locate the Mail Backup folder. (i.e. D:\outlook_express_backup_20030511 ) Click the news account that you want to import Click Open. Click Close. Preserving Blocked Senders List and/or Other Mail Rules The procedure to preserve the blocked senders list and other mail rules is detailed in Microsoft Knowledge Base article: Q276511 How to Backup and Restore Outlook Express Blocked Senders List and Other Mail Rules