Basic Question about Outlook PST Files & IMAP

Question

Greetings,

I have used Outlook for my PC email program since 1999 and I have about 26GB of data in my PST file. I have always used POP3 for my email server but my new server also supports IMAP.
My question is, if I switch to an IMAP server, will Outlook automatically export all of my PST data into the IMAP server so that I can access them, along with sent emails, using a smartphone or other devices?
Thanks,

Tom

Answer 1

Hi @Tom,

My question is, if I switch to an IMAP server, will Outlook automatically export all of my PST data into the IMAP server so that I can access them, along with sent emails, using a smartphone or other devices?

The PST data needs to be imported manually and then yes, you would be able to access them across different devices.

POP3 works by contacting your email service and downloading all of your new messages from it. Once downloaded, they are deleted from the email service. IMAP works by reading data from the email service, so you would need to import the local PST file back to your mailbox so that they can be accessed when your account is configured using IMAP.

Regarding your concern about Sent Items, by default, the checkbox of "Do not save copies of sent items" is not selected when an IMAP account is added, which means sent items can be accessed on other devices as well. So, you can rest assured about it.

Below are two official documents for reference. One is about import PST files in Outlook, the other is about the difference between IMAP and POP3:

• Import email, contacts, and calendar from an Outlook .pst file
• What are IMAP and POP?

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Answer 2

No, switching to an IMAP server in Outlook will not automatically export all of your PST data into the IMAP server. IMAP and PST are two different methods of storing email data. IMAP allows you to access your emails from multiple devices and keeps them synchronized with the server, while PST is a local data file used by Outlook to store emails.

To access your existing emails from the PST file on other devices via IMAP, you will need to manually move or copy the emails from the PST folders to the corresponding IMAP folders in Outlook. Once you have done this, the emails will be synchronized with the IMAP server, and you can access them from your smartphone or other devices.

To move the PST Data from POP to IMAP follow the steps below

Open Outlook on your PC and ensure you have configured your IMAP account.

1. Go to "File" and select "Open & Export," then click on "Import/Export."
2. Choose "Export to a file" and click "Next."
3. Select "Outlook Data File (.pst)" and click "Next."
4. Choose the folders you want to export (e.g., Inbox, Sent Items) and select the IMAP account as the destination.
5. Click "Finish" to export the selected folders to the IMAP account.
6. On your other devices (e.g., smartphone, tablet), configure the same IMAP account.
7. Allow some time for the devices to sync with the IMAP server.
8. Once synced, you should see your previously exported emails in the corresponding folders on all devices.