Import of local email storage to gmail

Oct 21, 2019

Tony, Dana,

Thanks, I am sorted. I had given up on this after another "gold expert" assured me that what I was trying to do was impossible! IMAP setup was easy, and Dana's "less secure app" tip was the final piece of the jigsaw. It all seems so trivial now, amazing what happens when you talk to people who know what they are doing. My old MS machine is now sitting sync'ing 8 years worth of emails across my slow internet connection. Job almost done!

So to sum up for anyone else having this problem:

1) Go to your gmail.com account (web, not the app). Go to Settings>Forwarding and Pop/Imap, and enable IMAP

2) Go to https://myaccount.google.com/lesssecureapps and ensure "Allow less secure apps" is ON. (Otherwise gmail will block your legacy email program)

3) Log into your legacy email program (in my case Live Mail) and add your gmail account as a new email account, using IMAP. This will create a new folder called gmail.

4) Drag several years worth of emails from whatever storage folders you have, into the gmail folder. These will then be synchronised with your gmail web server, and be available to all your devices through your gmail app.

Last edited Oct 21, 2019

Original Poster Rick Eggleston marked this as an answer

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Oct 21, 2019

Dana,

You're correct about the "Less secure apps" requirement. So what else went wrong? This should take a few minutes, not a few weeks.

Original Poster Rick Eggleston marked this as an answer

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- Johnny -

Product Expert Alumni

Jul 19, 2019

Hi there,

Unfortunately there is no way to import folders from your PC to your Gmail account. However you can upload all files into your Google Drive account.

If you want to import emails from another account to your Gmail see information below.

Here are 3 ways to move email from other accounts to Gmail. Check out the options below to see which will work best for you.

Note: Keep on mind that options 2 and 3 may not be be supported by your email provider.

Option 1: Import only old emails from other account If you’re switching from another email provider to Gmail, this is an easy way to get all your old emails imported into Gmail.

Open Gmail.
In the top right, click gear icon.
Click Settings.
Click the Accounts and Import tab.
Click Import mail and contacts.
Follow the steps on the screen to import your old emails.
Click Start import.

New emails are forwarded to your Gmail account for 30 days to give you time to tell your friends about your new address. If you want to keep getting new emails from your old account sent to Gmail, try using one of the options below.

Option 2: Import old emails and get new emails from other account

Use this option If you’re switching from a different Gmail address or if you want to bring both old and new emails into your Gmail. Gmail will first import your old messages and then continue to bring in new messages sent to your other account. You can add up to 5 accounts.

To use this option your other email provider has to offer POP3 access. Go ahead and try setting up your account, but if you get an error you may want to visit your other email provider’s help center to see if they support POP3.

Your contacts won’t be imported automatically with this method, but you can still import contacts separately.

Learn how to check email from your other account.

Options 3: Forward new emails from other account

If you want to have new emails that are sent to your other address forwarded to Gmail, you can set up auto-forwarding. Keep in mind that not all email providers offer auto-forwarding.

To forward emails from another Gmail address, learn how to set up automatic forwarding in Gmail. Keep in mind that you should set up forwarding in the account you want to forward from, not the account you want to forward to.

To forward emails from another email provider, you’ll have to change your settings in the other account, not in Gmail. Visit your other email provider’s help center to find out if automatic forwarding is available and how to set it up.

Best,
Johnny..

Always have a willing hand to help someone, you might be the only one that does.

Jul 19, 2019

OK, thanks Johnny. I thought gmail would have been a bit smarter. There are other 3rd party apps out there that can read .pst files exported by microsoft apps, so I will look elsewhere.

- Johnny -

Product Expert Alumni

Jul 19, 2019

You are welcome Rick. I know it but unfortunately Gmail doesn't have such option. I really wish there is a way I can help you. Have a wonderful weekend.

Oct 20, 2019

Rick: Have you discovered anything?

I'm having this issue, too, and I can't believe there isn't more "cleverness" in this regard from Google.

I have 15 years' worth of mail in WLM, with hundreds of folders. I think WLM is a fine program. But, as you know, it's not native to Windows 10. I figured out a way to install WLM with W10, but almost immediately, W10 basically destroyed WLM during W10 updates.

I did manage to install Mailbird in my W7 and to import all the older WLM folders into Mailbird. Mailbird works much like WLM, but it is extremely clunky in many regards, and has been for more than a year, despite my frequent attempts to persuade its people to make obvious improvements.

Plus Mailbird stores all emails in one giant folder, on my hard drive, which frightens me much. Then, attachments are stored as separate files.

I don't think Mailbird will last for more than a few years. It's old-fashioned in the sense that it stores e-mail locally, so I'm not sure young users will find it comfortable.

A while ago today, I uploaded one of my many WLM folders from its location on the C drive to my Google drive. But the e-mails inside can be opened only with an app that requires me to disable ad blocking. And the list of e-mails is merely the list of dot-eml files that you would see in the C-drive directory. And inside the e-mail itself, at least with my reading of 10 of them, I don't always see the dates, though most of the time I do see dates.

I suppose I could move all my WLM e-mails back to their original POP3 server, but I'm not sure the dates would survive. Plus, because I put copies of my sent mail into folders with received mail, I don't know how that would work.

I'm surprised how difficult it is for people to grasp what you're seeking! I keep thinking that there's a way. I would be happy enough to have a WLM in W10 that I never used online, but I know that W10 once ate my WLM. A couple of years ago, but I bet it would happen again.

I'm still using W7, but know I have to move on.

Oct 20, 2019

Dana,

Please read my response to Rick higher up the page on July 19th. He never came back to say he was successful or not.

Oct 21, 2019

Yes. I was able to move a few e-mails from WLM to Gmail after setting up a Gmail account in WLM, using WLM settings. The procedure was nasty and will be nasty going forward, but it can be done.

I won't go into detail. I think Rick can probably hack through it once IMAP is set up -- AND AND AND once Gmail is set up so that nonsecure third-party apps are allowed to access one's Google account.

I don't think moving folders will work for me. It will be a matter, I think, of (a) establishing destination folders in Gmail at gmail.com, then (b) copying a few dozen messages at a time from WLM folders to the Gmail folders.

It's the usual nasty nasty Windows nastiness, but nothing new to veterans, ONCE the IMAP nastiness is effected.

Oct 21, 2019

Well, of course, it's a bit nastier than I indicated. In Gmail you got labels, not folders. So I guess you gotta go through some more gymnastics. I figure it will take me a couple of weeks to this.

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Oct 21, 2019

Dana,

You're correct about the "Less secure apps" requirement. So what else went wrong? This should take a few minutes, not a few weeks.

Original Poster Rick Eggleston marked this as an answer

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Oct 21, 2019

Tony, Dana,

So to sum up for anyone else having this problem:

1) Go to your gmail.com account (web, not the app). Go to Settings>Forwarding and Pop/Imap, and enable IMAP

2) Go to https://myaccount.google.com/lesssecureapps and ensure "Allow less secure apps" is ON. (Otherwise gmail will block your legacy email program)

3) Log into your legacy email program (in my case Live Mail) and add your gmail account as a new email account, using IMAP. This will create a new folder called gmail.

Last edited Oct 21, 2019

Original Poster Rick Eggleston marked this as an answer

Oct 21, 2019

But what about getting WLM folders to generate Gmail labels?

For example, I have a friend named Larry. For him I have 17 folders of emails by year from 2003, filled with hundreds of emails he send and hundreds of emails that I sent.

What I am doing is this:

1. In Gmail, I make labels for these 17 folders: Larry 2003, Larry 2004, etc.

2. When I go to WLM and point it to my Gmail account, I see the 17 Gmail labels looking like folders.

3. Then in WLM, I open Larry 2003 so that its list of emails shows.

4. I click to Select All.

5. I open the Gmail Larry 2003 "folder."

6. I click Paste.

7. When I go to Gmail, I see the familiar Inbox list, with a higher number of unread mails that matches the number of pastes in WLM.

8. When I search the Gmail Inbox for "From Larry 2003," I will see the list that I just saw in WLM.

------------

I have hundreds of folders, so this procedure will take time.

I do not see a way to copy entire folders "from above," nor do I know how else to get Gmail labels that match WLM folders.

But I think what I have will work.

I'll be pleased to hear of a speedier way!

I am SO grateful for the IMAP suggestion. It's almost psychotic what a relief and joy it is to think that I can save all that WLM mail in a way that is safe and that won't be mangled by Windows 10.

Oct 21, 2019

Dana,

It would be nice if Rick could stick with you on this, based on his recent and successful experience. I thought you'd drag the whole folder tree from your old account into the Gmail account, then leave it to synchronize. The WLM folders should transform into Gmail labels as part of the process. Rick could confirm if this is so.

Oct 22, 2019

Yes. I can't manage to drag folders. All I can do is

(a) open a folder (in the WLM program) I want to copy to Gmail

(b) click on the first e-mail in the list

(c) click Ctrl-A, to highlight all the e-mails

(d) click Copy To (at the top of the WLM program, on one of its tabs)

(e) select a folder in WLM's list of folders in Gmail

(f) wait for the copying to occur; this may take minutes, especially if large attachments are involved

(g) go to Gmail, find that Gmail folder used in step (e); possibly I will need to refresh and wait for all e-mails to arrive; note that the number may not match what came from WLM, if exact duplicates were in the WLM folder (Gmail deletes exact dupes)

(h) select all e-mails in the folder (tricky if the number of e-mails exceeds the maximum number that a list can contain

(i) click Labels

(j) click the name of the label that I want, which may involve creating a new label and might involve unselecting the label of the current Gmail folder

One thing I have found is that when I look at an e-mail in a Gmail list, I cannot find a way to go to the next e-mail from the current e-mail. It seems that I must go back to the list. Yikes!