New Outlook Data Transfer to New Computer

Question

Comcast/Xfinity is my ISP. I sometimes use their email application but mostly use New Outlook. I am getting a new computer and don't want to lose the email, calendar and contact information in New Outlook. What do I need to do?

Richard

Answer 1

To keep email, calendar, and contacts when moving to a new computer while using new Outlook, handle each data type based on where it is stored.

1. Confirm where data is stored

• If the Comcast/Xfinity account in new Outlook is set up as IMAP (most common), email, calendar, and contacts that belong to that account are stored on the provider’s servers and will reappear when the same account is added to new Outlook on the new computer.
• Any data stored only locally (for example, from old Windows Mail/Calendar/People or POP accounts) must be exported and then imported.

2. If any data is in the old Windows Mail/Calendar/People apps If those apps were ever used on the old computer, export their local data before moving:

• Export local emails and events from Windows Mail/Calendar to .eml and .ics using the export process described in “Save and export emails and events from Windows Mail and Calendar.”
• Export contacts from the Windows People app to a .csv file using “Save and export contacts from the Windows People app.”

3. Move to the new computer On the new computer:
4. Install and open new Outlook for Windows.
5. Add the Comcast/Xfinity email account to new Outlook (see “Add an email account to Outlook” in the referenced article).
   • All server‑stored mail, calendar, and contacts for that account will sync down automatically.
6. Import any exported local data into new Outlook If step 2 was used:

• Import emails (.eml):
  1. In new Outlook, go to Settings > General > Import and select Start import.
  2. Browse to the folders containing the .eml files and upload them, choosing the account and folder to import into.
• Import calendar events (.ics):
  1. In new Outlook, go to Calendar.
  2. Select Add calendar > Upload from file > Browse.
  3. Choose the .ics file and select the calendar to import into.
• Import contacts (.csv):
  1. In new Outlook, go to People.
  2. Select the account, then Manage contacts > Import contacts.
  3. Browse to the .csv file and import.

Following these steps ensures that all server‑based data is resynced and any local‑only email, calendar, and contacts are preserved and brought into new Outlook on the new computer.

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References:

• Export emails, contacts, and calendar items to Outlook using a .pst file
• Import email, contacts, and calendar from an Outlook .pst file
• Find and transfer Outlook data files from one computer to another
• Export emails and contacts from Windows Mail or People and import to new Outlook
• Your account settings are out-of-date in Mail or Calendar for Windows 10