Hello. I just began using KDE (with Debian 7) 5 days ago after using Windows XP for nearly 10 years and am still trying to set it up. One item on my list is setting up KMail. I really need to import all of my email, contacts, calendar, rules, etc from my Outlook.pst file. I have readpst installed, however, I am not exactly sure where email is stored on my system. I think I have the correct output-directory. Would someone please verify the location and the use of readpst for me? I am very anxious to get this right the first time. I have over 15 years of stored email in my Outlook.pst file and don't want to lose any of them. If there is a better way to extract the data from my Outlook.pst file, I would love to know about it.

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readpst -k -o ~/.locat/share/local_mail /mnt/backup/application\ data/Outlook/Outlook.pst

Thank you in advance.
LA

I would suggest setting up a different local folder for the imported mail first to ensure that everything is migrated correctly. Does readpst output in Maildir format? That would be the best for KMail.

I agree with output into another directory first.

From the readpst man page
readpst is a program that can read an Outlook PST (Personal Folders)
file and convert it into an mbox file, a format suitable for KMail, a
recursive mbox structure, or separate emails.

mbox structure? Older software?

You can import mbox format using kmailcvt though.

scarlettclark ... so run 'readpst -k' then run 'kmailcvt'?

Lady Aleena wrote:scarlettclark ... so run 'readpst -k' then run 'kmailcvt'?

yes I would run readpst -k -o /home/myhome/myoldmail /path to pst

Then run kmailcvt on that output.

In theory that should work!

scarlettclark ... when I went to install 'kmailcvt', the following was returned.

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Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
Package kmailcvt is not available, but is referred to by another package.
This may mean that the package is missing, has been obsoleted, or
is only available from another source
However the following packages replace it:
  kmail

E: Package 'kmailcvt' has no installation candidate


Should I just go with 'kmail' or start searching for 'kmailcvt'?

In kmail go to File->Import Messages...

This will bring up kmailcvt.

You should also be able to get there by typing kmailcvt into krunner.

face palms

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Opening PST file and indexes...
Error opening File


I ran debug, and got the following. I do not know what it means, any ideas?

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032504 main readpst.c(606) Entering function
032504     pst_open libpst.c(298) Entering function
032504         pst_getAtPos libpst.c(3855) Entering function
032504         pst_getAtPos libpst.c(3883) Leaving function
032504     pst_open libpst.c(317) cannot read signature from PST file. Closing with error
032504     pst_open libpst.c(318) Leaving function
032504 main readpst.c(609) Error opening File


This whole thread may be for naught.

I have not personally used readpst, but I found this:

"readpst --S --D <mailbox directory> <name of PST file>"

where mailbox directory is where you want the output files to go, and <name of PST file> is the full path and file name of the PST file. The mailbox directory must exist before the program is run. The --S and --D flags will move each email message into its own subdirectory and retain any email attachments in the same directory.

Did you create the new directory?

also you can trying copying the .pst into your home directory.

Apparently .pst files are proprietary and it is an issue across many email programs.

I tried one more thing ... using 'sudo'. It looks like 'sudo' was the key to get the file to process, however, the output is confusing, especially attachments such as pictures which are now big blocks of numbers and letters. I can handle all of the emails from a folder being put into one file, however, I don't think the attachments survived as is.

I would try different switches.

The -M option tells readpst to include attachments in the mail-files and not as separate files in the file system

Also did you try to use kmailcvt to import the output?

Seems like you are getting closer though

Just an update, I still haven't got it yet.

Update: I give up.

Update 2: I tried one more time to get the file burst, however, it put all the emails from each folder into one file. So, is there a way to get the importer to recursively import the emails from ALL of the folders all at once? I have 100s of folders. Here is the top folder and the file created.

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total 16K
drwxr-xr-x 10 root root 4.0K Dec 17 22:36 .Personal Folders.directory/
-rw-r--r--  1 root root 8.7K Dec 17 22:36 Personal Folders


In .Personal Folders.directory/ is ...

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total 38M
drwxr-xr-x  2 root root 4.0K Dec 17 22:36 .Calendar.directory/
drwxr-xr-x  2 root root 4.0K Dec 17 22:36 .Contacts.directory/
drwxr-xr-x  2 root root 4.0K Dec 17 22:36 .Deleted Items.directory/
drwxr-xr-x  2 root root 4.0K Dec 17 22:36 .Drafts.directory/
drwxr-xr-x 49 root root 4.0K Dec 17 22:41 .Inbox.directory/
drwxr-xr-x  2 root root 4.0K Dec 17 22:36 .Junk E-mail.directory/
drwxr-xr-x  2 root root 4.0K Dec 17 22:36 .Notes.directory/
drwxr-xr-x  2 root root 4.0K Dec 17 22:36 .Sent Items.directory/
-rw-r--r--  1 root root 1.8M Dec 17 22:36 Calendar
-rw-r--r--  1 root root  39K Dec 17 22:36 Contacts
-rw-r--r--  1 root root  22M Dec 17 22:42 Inbox
-rw-r--r--  1 root root  14M Dec 17 22:36 Sent Items


I also tried to import the Contacts file to KAddressBook, but since Contacts is one big file with VCards in it, KAddresbook won't read it.

What a mess, but it is finally done. I seriously suggest if you want other Outlook users to want to use KMail, you don't put them through the mess and trouble I went through. I lost my entire directory structure which I had to rebuild. My write is aching from that and renaming all of the direcctories which had MBOX prepended to them. Two hours on a mouse is not fun.

Please give future users a direct Outlook.pst to KMail conversion tool!

Lady Aleena wrote:I also tried to import the Contacts file to KAddressBook, but since Contacts is one big file with VCards in it, KAddresbook won't read it.

Of course it can.
Just select "New..."->"Add Addressbook" in the "File" menu, add a VCard file resource, and point it to your big file with VCards in it.
You can then move the contacts to the other addressbook if you want, or use that as is.