Outlook 2003 to Windows Live Mail Using Hotmail – Should Not Have Been This Difficult

Setting up a new Windows 7 machine, the challenge is to get the email from the old computer to the new.  SHOULD  have been easy since the email provider is Hotmail and using Outlook 2003 with Outlook Connector on an Windows XP machine.   In theory the email is stored in Hotmail so one would think that all I needed to do was add the Hotmail account to Windows Live Mail on the Windows 7 machine.

I discovered that some email was being stored locally.  Not a big deal, just drag the local folders to Hotmail thus now storing all email in Hotmail.  This is when the fun begins….

In Outlook 2003 I can see all the folders that one would expect to be in Hotmail.  I configure the Hotmail account on the Windows 7 Machine.  But, all of the messages are not showing up.  All folders are there but some folders contain no message.

I logon to Hotmail, via a web browser, and verify that the folders in question are indeed there and that the folders have no messages.  This leads me to believe that the Outlook 2003 machine did not finish syncing the messages to Hotmail.  Problem is, don’t know why they are not synching.

Instead of wasting time figuring out why the messages would not sync with Hotmail I decided to just export the Outlook mailbox to a PST file.  I was feeling pretty smart at this point..but…you cannot import a PST file into Windows Live Mail!

I then did a Google Search….one suggestion was to install a trial of Outlook on the Windows 7 machine and import the PST.   Then start up Windows Live Mail and tell it to import from Outlook…yea that didn’t work.  No option in Windows Live Mail to import from Outlook.

Another search result suggested to import form Outlook 2003 into Outlook Express.  What the heck I thought, couldn’t hurt to try this.  Well this worked, I was able to import the folders that had the missing email messages!  Great, now to get the Outlook Express folders/messages into Windows Live Mail.

This step, bringing the messages from Outlook Express 6 to Windows Live Mail, was pretty simple.  Just copied the Outlook Express folder from the XP machine to the Windows 7 machine and did an import with Windows Live Mail.

After the import the missing folders appeared under the “Storage” folder in Windows Live Mail.  I decided to drag the messages from inside these folders to their “empty” folders in Hotmail.  This seemed to work ok.  Until, Windows Live Mail tells me that it cannot send or receive email.

I did see an error message and I did a search on the message id, the resolution is  “check your internet connection”.

This gave me a little chuckle since I was connected to the Windows 7 machine via Team Viewer, over the internet….

Since I had a copy of the messages I opted to removed the Hotmail account from Windows Live Mail, and then add it back.  This corrected the issue of not being able to send or receive email from within Windows Live Mail.

I then started to copy the email messages again.  After each copy I would perform a send and receive.  First few folders worked fine.  Then I copied 24 messages from the local folder to the Hotmail folder.  After doing this, Windows Live Mail started to show the same error message about not being able to send and/or receive email.

At this point I decided that it’s best to just keep the missing email messages in the local Storage group as it appears Windows Live Mail and/or Hotmail has an issue with copying email messages in bulk.

Again, this should not have been this difficult.

Two Device Situation

I was reading a blog post by Seth Godin the other day, http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2011/03/are-you-making-something.html , and it really got me thinking about the “two device situation”.

So after reading the post from Seth i decided that I would only read my RSS feeds on my iPad using Reeder.  Two things have happened.

1.  I have become less distracted by the unread items in Reeder that is installed on my MacBook.  In fact, I  am seriously thinking of uninstalling it.

2. When I have checked Reeder on my MacBook I have found that I cannot stand reading RSS feeds on anything but the iPad.

Next up is Twitter.  This weekend I cleaned up the people I follow on Twitter….I am thinking of only checking Twitter on the iPad or iPhone.

Back To WordPress

Well I have decided to go back to using WordPress.  I did switch over to SquareSpace for a bit, almost a year, and it just didn’t fit my style of blogging.  Nothing against SquareSpace, it’s a nice product but I just prefer WordPress.

I also started posting to Tumblr, again I found myself more wanting the WordPress feel.  Nothing against Tumblr, again just prefer WordPress.

I was on iPad Today!

Well sort of,  I sent an email in and Leo read it during the show.

It’s episode 15, http://twit.tv/ipt15

The prior week Leo and Sarah talked about the proper way to hold the iPad in landscape mode.  Should the home button be on the left or right?  I offered that the button should be on the left since you are forced to use it that way when using the iPad case offered by Apple.

What side do you prefer the home button on?  Does it matter?

 

 

 

Moving!

I am moving my blog to SquareSpace. Best way to get there is to use http://www.jdoublea.me

See you over there!

-James

UPDATE – NO MORE SquareSpace for me! Bringing this blog back to life!

Another Reason I enjoy working on a MAC

I have started using the application Things for Task Management. It has been AWESOME at helping me stay on top of projects at work and the tasks associated with them as well as managing those ad-hoc requests that we all get through out the day.

I am not only using Things for work but also at home. In other words I am using Things for pretty much everything!

One of the challenges I have is that I want to synch both my iPhone and iPod touch with Things. As far as I can tell Things only lets you synch one device.

I use a MacPro at work and a MacBook at home, both with Things installed. At home I synch with my iPod Touch, at work I synch my iPhone. But I want them both to have the same information so I needed a way to synch Things on my MacPro and MacBook.

The MAC has an AWESOME application called Automator. Automator allows you to create workflows to Automate tasks. Using Automator I created a workflow that creates an archive of my Things folder on my MacPro at work and then saves the Archive to my iDisk. Using iCal I scheduled the automator application to run daily at the end of the business day. At home I pretty much created the same script that Archives the Things folder on my MacBook and sends that to my iDisk at the start of the day. This, I think, will help keep my Things library synchronized between my two machines. If this works as well as I think it will then I am going to create another automator application to copy Things from my iDisk to each machine on a schedule this way I don’t have to do that manually.

Not to mention, this also creates a backup of Things. An added bonus!

After setting this up I began thinking of what it would of took to do this on a PC. Yes it is possible and not difficult to do. However these Automator scripts I created on the MAC took less then a minute to put together. On a PC I don’t think the same could be said. That’s why this is just another reason why I enjoy working on a MAC.

Twitter – I can’t Tweet it Anymore!

I think I am given up on Twitter, I just can’t deal with it anymore. I really got into it when it first came out but lately I just can’t deal with it any longer.

The reasons are pretty much the same as everyone else who is giving it up.

– not enough real news, I find myself staying updated just by using my RSS feeds. Yes maybe on twitter, if you catch it, you will know about something right away but I don’t keep after it enough to even worry about that.

– I have gone nearly 3 weeks if not more without starting up TweetDeck and I can honestly say I do not miss it at all.

– It started to get very overwhelming when logging on, I just don’t have the time or desire to keep up with it.

– Twitter is becoming more of marketing tool then what I originally was using it for, a news source. This probably works well for some, not me.

– People are just following to get more followers!

I began to think that I need to be more selective in who I follow. I don’t follow everyone that follows me. I really only follow technology, nascar and the outdoors. I probably need to narrow that down to just news sources and tweets that I find valuable and stop following everyone and everything that has to do with the topics I listed. However, don’t RSS feeds really accomplish this as well? And aren’t a lot of tweets links to websites? Don’t RSS feeds accomplish this?

Also it seems that those who are on twitter are also on Facebook and post the same thing to both sites. I don’t find Facebook as overwhelming as Twitter and Facebook provides a better venue for discussing a topic with others who are also interested in the same topic.

How do you feel about twitter?

Staying In The Loop – How I Do It

I am often asked the question of how do I stay “in the loop” or rather up to date with technology. While my method may not work for you it definitely is the best method for me. With that said I have come up with a list of “how I stay in the loop”.

It’s rare for me to surf the web. I subscribe to RSS Feeds. If a web site doesn’t provide an RSS feed then I don’t consider that site a valuable resource and I will probably never visit it again. I normally do not bookmark web sites. It comes down to me not having the time or no real desire to go looking for the latest and greatest in technology by surfing web sites, I prefer it to come to me. This is done of course with RSS feeds.

1. I manage my RSS feeds using NetNewsWire on my MacBook, and I synchronize my feeds with NewsGator. Could be via a web browser or the NetNewsWire application on my MacBook or iPod Touch. My feeds are synchronized. NewsGator also has a Windows client called FeedDemon.

2. My process for sorting through the new posts is pretty simple. Again this is what works for me. In the morning over a cup of coffee I go through my RSS subscriptions on my iPod Touch. What I am doing is filtering out the posts that don’t interest me, if something interests me I use the “add to clippings” option in NetNewsWire.

3. After I am done with that I then fire up Twitterrific on my iPod Touch. I read through the tweets and the ones that interest me I add to my favorites. Usually I am just finishing up my morning coffee when I finish with Twitterrific.

4. When I get to the office I open up NetNewsWire on my MacBook and it synchronizes with NewsGator thus getting the new postings I clipped using my iPod Touch.
I will also open up TweetDeck on my MacBook, this of course gets the tweets I added to my favorites when using Twitterrific.

5. Throughout the day I am reading the newest posts that show up in NetNewsWire as well the tweets in TweetDeck. I read some of them right away, others I add to the clippings folder in NetNewsWire or add to my Twitter favorites using TweetDeck.

6. Typically at lunch time I catch up on all that I have clipped in NetNewsWire or what I have added to my favorites on Twitter. I will also do this again later in the afternoon.

7. I also subscribe to a few podcasts via iTunes. The shorter podcasts, like GeekBrief, I watch/listen to right away. The longer podcasts, like MacBreak Weekly or BowCast, I will listen to while working. I like using the Notes application on the iPod Touch if I hear something of interest while I am listening to a podcast.

8. During the evening at home I am constantly checking NetNewsWire and Twitterrific on my iPod Touch for new information. When something catches my eye I clip it or favorite it for later.

9. I am also a big user of Evernote, if I find a product or solution that I like I will add it to Evernote. This keeps everything in one place and organized. Not to mention, Evernote is synchronized on every device I use!. I am going to a separate blog posting on how I use Evernote.

On weekends and holidays this all goes out the window. If we are home I may have my MacBook turned on so throughout the day I go and check NetNewsWire and TweetDeck. Typically I just leave them both running. If I know I may not be using the MacBook much then I don’t leave NetNewsWire or TweetDeck open and do the clip and favorite thing on my iPod touch.

Of course all my RSS feeds are not technology related. I do have a few NASCAR and Outdoor feeds I subscribe too!

Like I said this way may not be perfect, may not be ideal but it’s what works best for me.

How do you stay “in the loop” with technology or any other interest you may have?

How to Space Your Sight Pins

How to Space Your Sight Pins

(Via NYBowhunter.com.)

NASCAR moving year-end awards banquet to Vegas

NASCAR moving year-end awards banquet to Vegas: “NASCAR is trading the Christmas lights of New York for the neon of Las Vegas.“

(Via NASCAR.COM – NEXTEL Cup Series Headlines.)