Migrate Outlook for Mac 2011 Mailbox to Outlook 2010 on Windows

Outlook for Mac 2011 has been serving users in corporate and the individuals across the globe being the most recent version of the email client designed and marketed by Microsoft as part of Microsoft Office for Mac 2011. Prior to its commercial release, users have been waiting for this email client desperately, as it was going to kill Entourage – the famous email client that has been a part of Office for Mac suite for a long time (i.e. till 2008 version). Microsoft, though, officially released Outlook for Mac OS X; however, the company has not been successful to provide users the emailing services parallel to that Outlook for Windows offers.As you know that Microsoft’s motto behind launching Outlook for Mac was to provide Mac users an emailing platform full of features just like the product available for Windows, users are not much happy after switching to Outlook from their previous clients. In contrast, Windows users are quite happy to be blessed with such a fully-fledged email client. Consequently, many organizations nowadays are switching from Mac to Windows platform, as the emailing service is what they have their business-critical communication reliant on.

Outlook in Corporate

Outlook is an industry-preferred email client, which enables exchanging the business-critical information over emails in a secure emailing environment. Such high popularity of Outlook for Windows enforced Microsoft to develop a similar email client for Mac based computers. One of the key reasons behind using Outlook in corporate is the Outlook data file that is distinct for both of the platforms – PST for Windows and OLM for Mac. Since Outlook for Mac 2011 is not as efficient as Outlook for Windows version 2010 is, people are going for OLM to PST data transfer that enables them switch to Outlook for Windows, which ultimately is in favor of corporate users.

If you too have a desire for migrating from Mac to Windows for the sake of security of your Outlook mailbox, you can follow the steps to migrate from Outlook for Mac 2011 to Outlook 2010 for Windows.

Migrate Outlook Mailbox from Mac to Windows

The process of migrating Outlook for Mac 2011 mailbox to MS Outlook based on Windows platform requires you to export the Outlook mailbox located on Mac to an OLM file, convert the OLM file to its corresponding PST file, and then import the resulting PST file into Outlook client based on Windows platform. See how you can export Outlook for Mac 2011 mailbox to an OLM file:

Export Mailbox from Outlook for Mac 2011

This is the first step of the mailbox migration process, which you must follow-on carefully and make sure you export all required items to OLM file. Follow the steps under mentioned:

1. Launch Outlook for Mac 2011
2. Click the File menu and choose Export in the context menu
3. In the Export wizard, select the ‘Outlook for Mac data file (.olm)’ option and ‘Items of the following types under this’, and then select/deselect the mailbox items (i.e. Mails, Contacts, Calendar, Tasks, and Notes) that you want to export. Click the Next button to proceed
4. Select the ‘No, do not delete items’ if you do not want them to delete after export, and then click the Next button
5. On the save dialog, click the Where drop down menu to select a location on the Mac to save the OLM file, and then click the Save button
6. Now, you see the progress bar showing the mailbox export. Click Done when finished

With the export process finished, you are done with the first step of the process of migrating Outlook for Mac 2011 data file to Outlook for Windows platform. Now, you need to go for OLM to PST data transfer that requires converting the resultant OLM file to its corresponding PST (Outlook data file) with a commercial and reliable OLM to PST converter. Once the required PST file is ready, you can directly import it into MS Outlook on Windows platform.

Import Outlook Data File into Outlook 2010 on Windows

Importing the PST file into Outlook client on Windows based computer requires you to follow the steps mentioned below:

1. Open Outlook 2010 on your PC

(Navigate to Start > All Programs > Microsoft Office > Microsoft Outlook 2010)

2. In Outlook 2010 client, click File tab and drag the cursor to Open in the left pane
3. In the Open menu, click Import option in the right pane to launch Import and Export Wizard
4. In the Import and Export Wizard, select ‘Import from another program or file’ in the ‘Choose an action to perform field’, and then the click Next button
5. In the ‘Select file type to import from field’, choose ‘Outlook Data File (.pst)’, and then click the Next button
6. On the next screen, click Browse and select the PST file created earlier to import and choose an option out of the following, and then click the Next button:
   1. Replace duplicate files with items imported
   2. Allow duplicates to be created
   3. Do not import duplicates
7. Choose a location to import the PST file to and make sure you check the ‘Include Subfolders’ check box
8. Click Finish to end up importing the Outlook Data File into Outlook 2010 on Windows platform

Now, you can continue using the mailbox on your Windows-based PC, which used to be available on your Mac. Well, the biggest advantage of having Outlook data file is that you can keep it as a backup copy of your Outlook mailbox. The Outlook PST is portable and you can import it into Outlook installed on any computer and start using your mailbox. However, you must be careful while choosing the OLM to PST converter, as mailbox conversion is the crucial step in the overall migration process from Mac to Windows. Stellar Converter for OLM is best suited for the conversion for OLM to PST.

Note: To avoid data loss or similar issues while importing the PST file into Outlook, create a copy of the PST file and import it instead of the original PST file.