How do I transfer tons of old email from Outlook Express to Gmail?

Question

I use Outlook Express (V6) with several POP3 email accounts on my aging Windows XP laptop. Yes, I know I must be among the last dozen people using it in the world but I've never had cause to change as it's never caused me a single problem (is it the most reliable software Microsoft has ever produced?)

Anyway, I've had my laptop since 2002 and so have accumulated a ton of emails on it. I realise that my laptop (as reliable as it is) won't last forever but I'd like to keep my old emails 'live' and to hand in the future.

So, is there some (easy) way to transfer my old emails (sent and received in various folders) from Outlook Express to, say, Gmail?

Answer 1

Step 1: Make a backup of your emails.

Step 2: Add your GMail account to Outolook as an IMAP mailbox (not POP) and drag 'n drop the mails from your local mailfolders into the remote IMAP folders. I would not recommend to transfer all mails at once because the amount of data could be huge and I also don't know if Outlook can handle this. Better try this first with an few mails (e.g. 50) and if Outlook doesn't hang you can try more and more.

Answer 2

This guy answered a question almost identical to what you're asking.