From the KnowledgeBase
Outlook: How to download your e-mail to your computer when you leave Princeton
Solution:
Before your e-mail account at Princeton is closed, be sure to copy your e-mail
messages from the mail server to the Personal Folder of your own computer,
as you will not have access to your mail on the server after your account
is closed. To find out when your OIT accounts will be terminated after leaving
the University, see Solution 5855.
OIT provides an online suite of tools called the Digital Student Suitcase that can pack up and archive your personal intellectual property, including your e-mail, for you to take with you when you leave. If you are an Outlook user and you use the Digital Student Suitcase tool to zip your mail, be aware that the output is in the form of an "mbox" file that is not recognized by Outlook. You can use the Suitcase to archive your messages and take the zipped file with you, but you cannot open it up again for viewing in Outlook. The zipped "mbox" file of your archived messages can only be imported into Mac OS X Mail, Netscape, Mozilla Thunderbird or SeaMonkey. Use the instructions below to manually move the messages from the server to your local computer without compressing them.
How to move e-mail messages from the mail server to the local folders
of your computer
Outlook users should take their e-mail with them in the Personal folders on their own computers using the instructions below.
-
Create a new folder to store your Princeton e-mail messages in the Personal
Folders section of your Outlook application. Under the File pull-down
menu, select New, and choose Folder.
-
In the Name: field, call your new folder something identifiable -
for this example the folder is called My Princeton Mail. Be sure that
the Folder contains: field shows Mail and Post Items. In the
Select where to place the folder: box, be sure to select Personal
Folders.
-
Click on your Inbox in the Navigation pane under the
imap.princeton.edu hierarchy ( if you are an Exchange user, the
Inbox is under Mailbox - Your Full Name) as shown below.
-
Under the Edit pulldown menu, select Copy to Folder....
-
Be sure to select your newly created folder My Princeton Mail under
your Personal Folders. Click the OK button to begin the copy
process from the IMAP server to the Personal Folders on your own computer.
Copy Folder dialog box
-
Follow these steps for other e-mail folders in your account, such as your
Sent folder, your Deleted Items folder, and any others you
created for mail storage on the server.
-
Make sure to click on your new folders to be certain all the messages copied
to your computer! Make sure all your mail is in your Personal Folders section of Outlook. Don't forget this step!
- Depending on the slowness of your Internet connection or the number of e-mail messages you are copying, this may take a long time. Be patient if you have hundreds or thousands of messages in any of your folders.
Related Links:
