This last point has always been debatable as well. Apple tends to select higher-end x86 parts for their Macs and has led the way with innovative chassis, screen, and trackpad technology. But PC makers have quickly followed, offering part-for-part Apple clones at 80% of the cost. This week, however, I stumbled onto a concrete difference between Mac and PC hardware that has real-world impact: Across the board, Apple uses exclusive Intel CPUs with enhanced capabilities to support virtualization of 64-bit operating systems, including Windows 7′s special XP compatibility mode.

Virtualization-Ready

Virtualization hypervisors have become very widespread and popular, especially in the Apple world. Mac users regularly list Parallels Desktop and VMware Fusion among their favorite applications, since they open up the wide world of Windows applications running in a virtual machine. Although most daily tasks can be performed with native OS X applications, some apps just aren’t available.

Personally, I use Fusion on OS X with Windows Vista to occasionally run Microsoft’s Visio and Outlook, both of which aren’t available as native applications. I also use a 2009 Mac Mini as a server and virtual computer lab, mainly relying on Sun’s lightweight and free VirtualBox hypervisor. Although it isn’t impressive as the physical lab Dennis Martin described to me last week, I am able to run a variety of servers (Linux, Windows, and OS X) and other virtual gear (Windows Storage Server and FreeNAS) to simulate enterprise IT environments.

Windows users have less need to run virtualization applications: When your operating system commands over 90% of the market, a whole world of applications is at your fingertips! But enthusiasts and corporate IT types love virtualization, and VMware Server and Microsoft Hyper-V are commonly found on their Windows machines.

64-Bit Road Block

These popular virtualization packages support a wide range of modern hardware, but not everything works perfectly. Hypervisors had trouble with many tasks, particularly running 64-bit operating systems, until Intel and AMD introduced special hardware-assisted virtualization capabilities in their CPUs. The latest hypervisors and CPUs can now even virtualize 64-bit operating systems on top of 32-bit hosts!

But not all CPUs include this technology. Intel has a long history of artificially segmenting their product line by disabling certain features in low-end parts. For their Core 2 Duo “Merom” and “Penryn” lines, Intel decided that their VT virtualization technology would be the differentiator. Therefore, a lack of VT support is one of the main differences between low-end and high-end Intel Core 2 Duo CPUs.

Many of the latest portable and compact desktop systems use Intel’s Penryn-3M line, including Apple’s MacBook, MacBook Pro, and Mac Mini systems. See the issue here? Intel’s lower-end 2.0 GHz and 2.133 GHz CPUs (P7350 and P7450, respectively) don’t support VT, which means that systems using them don’t have the latest VT hardware virtualization capability and thus can’t run 64-bit virtual machines!

This is an issue for users of popular Sony Vaio, Dell Inspiron, and HP Pavilion PCs, and is likely to become much more important soon. See, Windows 7 includes a special XP compatibility mode, which is really just a virtual machine running XP under 7. But XP mode will not work without Intel VT or AMD-V. This means that XP mode in Windows 7 won’t work on the very mass-market machines that would benefit most from it!

Apple’s Different

This sounds terrible: The latest machines won’t run increasingly-popular virtualization software. But there is a very good reason that buyers of the latest Apple machines aren’t up in arms. It seems that Apple made a deal with Intel to get a special version of the Penryn-3M Core 2 Duo CPUs that do support Intel VT!

Apple’s latest Mac Mini, MacBook, and MacBook Pro all sport P7350 and P7450 CPUs, just like competing Dell, Sony, and HP machines. But the Apple CPUs have VT and the PCs lack it. The VT support is gone, and cannot be enabled in the PC BIOS.

So even a PC and Mac sporting the exact same CPU part numbers aren’t equal: Every recent Mac will run 64-bit Windows and XP mode in Windows 7 and many PCs won’t. And I can run anything I want on my Mac Mini virtual lab!

Update - Let me be very, very clear on the facts here:

• Most hypervisors now require Intel VT or AMD-V in order to virtualize 64-bit operating systems
• Microsoft requires this technology to use XP mode in Windows 7
• All current Apple Macs (including those that use P7350 and P7450 CPUs) have Intel VT support in their CPUs regardless of what Intel says on the model spec sheets
• Many PCs use high-end Intel and AMD CPUs that support VT or AMD-V, though some have this turned off in the BIOS
• No PC with an Intel P7350 or P7450 CPU has Intel VT support at all. It cannot be enabled in the BIOS because it does not exist.

I am not an Apple fanboy. I am a virtualization fanboy who is glad I bought a Mac Mini instead of a Dell Studio, HP TouchSmart, or Sony Vaio.

© sfoskett for Stephen Foskett, Pack Rat, 2009. | A Concrete Reason Macs Beat PCs: Intel VT
This post was categorized as Apple, Computer History, Terabyte home, Virtual Storage. Each of my categories has its own feed if you'd like to filter out or focus on posts like this.

This blog post is probably out of date. If you want to set up Exchange ActiveSync, you should instead consult one my guides:
	iPhone Exchange ActiveSync Setup		iPad Exchange ActiveSync Setup
	iPhone ActiveSync Troubleshooting		iPad ActiveSync Troubleshooting

I’ve been trying to work out how to sync my various data sources into a cohesive whole for a while now, and using the Mac has made it somewhat easier, since it supports a variety of data sources. For users of Microsoft Exchange, one of the most valuable sources for sync data is Outlook Web Access (OWA), because it uses the open(ish) WebDAV standard rather than the (closed) MAPI.

One thing that’s been getting in the way is the URL: You need to enter a correct, canonical URL to access OWA, and it can be tougher than expected to figure this out, since it has changed with newer versions of Exchange. But I’ve discovered some breadcrumbs that helped locate mine, and thought others might like to see these, too.

Logging In

Note that, for all of these services, you must first determine your OWA server name and login credentials.

• As I noted in another post, the server name can vary but often is “owa.example.com”
• You will probably use “https” instead of “http” to specify an SSL connection
• Your login name for OWA should be the same as the one you use in Outlook, and often includes your Active Directory group with a slash, as in “adgroup\yourname”
• Your password should also be the same as the one you use in Outlook

Once you figure out your correct URL (below), test it by logging in from Internet Explorer (if available). You may be able to get in from Firefox or Safari, but it probably won’t work perfectly. Whatever method you use, make sure you can log in correctly from a browser before trying to use the URL in OS X Address Book, iCal, or iSync.

The URL Problem

Exchange can contain many users, and people often have similar or duplicate names. For these people, accessing OWA can be tricky, since the server will just give up when presented with potentially ambiguous names. So you have to use a special canonical name formally known as the “Mailbox Name” but informally called the “Exchange Alias“ to tell the server who you are, or automated services won’t be able to access your data.

You can discover your canonical Mailbox Name by looking at your Active Directory entry.

In Outlook:

1. Click “Tools->Address Book”
2. Locate your entry in the “Global Address List”
3. Open your card – your Mailbox Name is listed in the box marked, “Alias”

The canonical Mailbox Name or Exchange Alias is listed in your Exchange Global Address List card under Alias

Entourage will actually show you the exact URL to use. If you already have it configured, look here:

1. Select the Address Book view
2. Right-click on “Contacts” and select “Folder Properties”
3. Look at the bottom of the window that pops up – there’s your URL!

Note that iSync refuses to work with this URL on my Mac, however. I had to use “http” instead of “https” for some crazy reason!

Entourage will show you the URL to use - just right-click on Contacts and select Folder Properties

Exchange 2003 and Earlier

Those stuck with the earliest versions of OWA must use their canonical Mailbox Name (see above) in the URL. The format is as follows:

https://server.example.com/exchange/mailboxname/inbox/

Put your Mailbox Name in place of “mailboxname”. You can substitute calendar and contacts for inbox, or omit it altogether.

Exchange 2003 SP2

In Exchange 2003 SP2, Microsoft added the option to use your canonical email address instead of the Mailbox Name for the OWA URL. If you have this version, use the same format but use your email address instead like so:

https://server.example.com/exchange/user@example.com/inbox/

Exchange 2007

If you’re using the newest version of Exchange, the old URLs have been replaced by a new format, and the email address is the best option. Now, the format looks like this:

https://server.example.com/owa/user@example.com/?cmd=contents&module=inbox

This should take you right to your inbox, and will not be fooled by multiple users with the same name, aliases, or any other nonsense. You can also specify “contacts” and “calendar” for the module to go right there.

What To Do Next

Now, you should be able to enter this URL into any third-party application that supports retrieving information from Exchange WebDAV servers, including Mac OS X 10.3 or greater Address Book. Enter this in the Address Book Exchange Server panel along with your username and password and it should work. More on this another time.

This article contains much more detailed information on locating a user’s correct OWA credentials.

© sfoskett for Stephen Foskett, Pack Rat, 2008. | Determine Your Outlook Web Access URL
This post was categorized as Apple. Each of my categories has its own feed if you'd like to filter out or focus on posts like this.

Update: Things have really changed regarding calendars in iPhone OS 3.0! They are much easier to understand, you can have multiple sources, including iTunes and over-the-air exchange, CalDAV, and ICS. Almost everything I complained about in this 2008 article has been fixed in OS 3.0!

One of the things that surprised me about iPhone 2.0 was the introduction of multiple calendars.  I figured that the device couldn’t handle more than one calendar, since syncing to Exchange meant you lost all other calendars.  But the exact opposite is true:  Everyone who uses Exchange ActiveSync will suddenly see a number of different calendars appear, and this can cause much confusion.

After experimenting with my iPhone, Outlook 2007, and Entourage, I think I’ve figured out how to work with these new mult-colored calendars.  Read on for the dirt!

For the most up-to-date information, see my iPhone Exchange ActiveSync Guide!

This post is part of my series focused on integrating the iPhone with Microsoft Exchange using ActiveSync:

• iPhone OS 3.0 information:
  1. First Look: iPhone 3.0 And Exchange ActiveSync Integration
  2. How To Subscribe To Internet Calendars In iPhone OS 3.0
  3. How To Access LDAP Directories In iPhone OS 3.0
  4. iPhone 3.0 Exchange ActiveSync: Better But Not Perfect
• How To Set Up iPhone Exchange ActiveSync
1. A Few iPhone Exchange ActiveSync Gotchas
2. Can the iPhone Sync With Multiple Exchange Servers?

First, the bad news:  You will not be happy with this feature, and it’s not entirely Apple’s fault.  In fact, you might just want to stop now and ignore the multi-colored calendars.

Scattergories!

Outlook supports multiple calendars (side by side) and a variety of flags and colors.

Still with me?  Here’s the deal:  Those calendars you are seeing really are different from each other.  Exchange 2007 (and perhaps 2003) allows users to have multiple distinct calendars, and Outlook, Entourage, and the iPhone (but not Windows Mobile) allow you to view them.  But it is extremely hard to actually use multiple calendars, and the benefits are debatable.

Note that Outlook also lets you flag events in other ways not related to multiple calendars:  With arbitrary color tags tenuously assigned to categories, as private, and as busy/free/etc.  It’s all very confusing!

Let’s boil it down.  Here are the different ways of organizing your calendar, and what the iPhone does with them.  I configured a number of appointments in Outlook to test this out (see above) and watched what they looked like in the iPhone (see at right) and Entourage:

The iPhone ignores all Outlook calendar item settings, only coloring based on which calendar an item is in.

• Free/Busy/Tentative/Out of Office – These flags affect the shading of an appointment in Outlook and can be seen by others.  The iPhone ignores them.
• Private/High Importance/Low Importance – These affect visibility to others and your own scheduling, but the iPhone ignores them, too.
• Color Category (Blue/ Red/ Green/ Orange/ Purple/ Yellow) – These are arbitrary labels in Outlook (you can name them anything you want), and the iPhone doesn’t show what you enter.  But neither does Entourage!
• Entourage Categories (Family/ Friends/ Holiday/ Junk/ Personal/ Recreation/ Travel/ Work) – Also arbitrary, also colored, and also ignored by the iPhone and Outlook.
• Calendar – This is what the iPhone uses.  Create multiple arbitrarily-named calendars (or “Folders”, as Outlook says) and the iPhone will color-code them and display them (or not).

This is terribly confusing, since the color categories have, you know, colors assigned to them in Outlook and Entourage but the iPhone doesn’t use them.  Instead it uses the more obnoxious (see below) multiple-calendar support to confuse us all.

It’s interesting, too, that the iPhone doesn’t show the other labels and categories like high/low importance or free/busy/tentative, and that Entourage and Outlook can’t even understand each other’s color categories!

Making It (Sort of) Work

If you still want to make use of multiple calendars, you can.  All you have to do is use Outlook or [ad#amazon-kindle] Entourage to create a new calendar (the iPhone apparently handily created three for me, “Calendar (backup)”, “Outlook Calendar”, and “Personal”).  Note that, in Outlook, you create calendars by right-clicking on an existing one and selecting “New Folder”, for no apparent reason.  Next, create a new appointment in one of those calendars and badabing badaboom, you’ll see it show up in the iPhone.

If you have “All” selected, that is.  If you left it in, say, “Calendar”, then you might not see it if you created it in “Home” or “Personal”.  And I have no idea what “Outlook Calendar” was supposed to be, since it’s not my Outlook calendar!!!

What’s that, you say?  You want to move an old appointment to a different calendar?  Well, Microsoft made it as hard as they could in Outlook, but here’s how to do it:

1. Open the calendar view in Outlook
2. Check the box next to both the source and target calendars and they will show up side by side (see above)
3. Now left click and drag an item to copy it, or right-click and drag and select move to move it.
4. You can not move repeating entries though!  Microsoft says you can navigate back to the original entry and move it as above, but it didn’t work for me when I tried.  I had to recreate them.

So moving items is a hassle.  And might not even work for the most useful set of items (those that repeat).  I’ve got more bad news, though…

You can only share your main calendar in Outlook.  So if you want to allow others to see that you’re busy on Thursday, the entry must be on your main Outlook calendar, not on your new Personal calendar.  And Entourage doesn’t seem to have a side-by-side view.  And the obnoxious “My Day” thingy in Office 2008 only seems to show your main calendar, too.

Let Me Sum Up

Here’s the summary of the iPhone’s multiple colored calendar support:

• It’s really really confusing
• It barely works
• None of the mail products seem to interoperate when it comes to this
• Don’t bother with it

Update: Things have really changed regarding calendars in iPhone OS 3.0! They are much easier to understand, you can have multiple sources, including iTunes and over-the-air exchange, CalDAV, and ICS. Almost everything I complained about in this 2008 article has been fixed in OS 3.0!

See also Scott Lowe’s articles about iCal, CalDAV, Google Calendar and the iPhone.

© sfoskett for Stephen Foskett, Pack Rat, 2008. | Don’t Bother With Multiple Colored iPhone and Exchange Calendars
This post was categorized as Apple, Personal. Each of my categories has its own feed if you'd like to filter out or focus on posts like this.

This blog post is probably out of date. If you want to set up Exchange ActiveSync, you should instead consult one my guides:
	iPhone Exchange ActiveSync Setup		iPad Exchange ActiveSync Setup
	iPhone ActiveSync Troubleshooting		iPad ActiveSync Troubleshooting

It’s finally here!  The iPhone now has most of the functions of the BlackBerry – over-the-air push and sync of Exchange email, contacts, and calendars!  Apple let the 2.0 OS out of the bag earlier today, and intrepid souls (and me) have taken the plunge and installed it.

While most people, including me, headed to the (also active) App Store to try out the native games, I quickly turned the other way – towards the new Microsoft Exchange integration.

Read on for my first impressions and instructions on getting it up and running.

For the most up-to-date information, see my iPhone Exchange ActiveSync Guide!

This post is part of my series focused on integrating the iPhone with Microsoft Exchange using ActiveSync:

• iPhone OS 3.0 information:
  1. First Look: iPhone 3.0 And Exchange ActiveSync Integration
  2. How To Subscribe To Internet Calendars In iPhone OS 3.0
  3. How To Access LDAP Directories In iPhone OS 3.0
  4. iPhone 3.0 Exchange ActiveSync: Better But Not Perfect
• How To Set Up iPhone Exchange ActiveSync
1. A Few iPhone Exchange ActiveSync Gotchas
2. Can the iPhone Sync With Multiple Exchange Servers?

By the way, the apps are great!  Sega’s Super Monkey Ball is touchy, but I think I’ll get the hang of it.  And my 4 year old loves Jirbo Match!  Too bad the Red Sox weren’t playing or my test of MLB At Bat would have been much more exciting!

Up and Running With Exchange

Seriously, why are you still reading? Head over to The iPhone Exchange ActiveSync Guide for current/useful information!

Here’s the quick how-to for getting Exchange up and running on your iPhone.  Note that this works on any iPhone with the version 2.0 software – the iPhone 3G comes with this out of the box, but original phones will need to be upgraded.  Update: You do not need to buy the Enterprise Data plan from AT&T in order for this to function – it will work with any plan, and even works on the iPod Touch! Update: The process is pretty much the same with iPhone OS 3.0!

We will set up the mail account first, then enable sync for Calendar and Contacts.

1. Install iTunes 7.7 and upgrade your phone to iPhone OS 2.0 if necessary
2. If you already have your Exchange server running with IMAP, disable the account in Mail Settings.  I left mine set up – no telling when or if I’ll need to revert!
3. Set up a new mail account, selecting Exchange as in the photo above.
   
4. Enter your email address (e.g. “billg@microsoft.com”) in the Email box.
5. Enter your Exchange domain and username (e.g. “msexec\billg.microsoft”) in the Username box and watch the text magically shrink to fit.
6. Enter your password (e.g. “OuttaHere!”) in the Password box and marvel at the nifty new “show the last letter entered” feature.
7. The iPhone will now try to automatically discover your Exchange server.  If you don’t have Exchange 2007 with Autodiscovery turned on, it will fail and warn you that it couldn’t validate your account.  You will have to manually enter your server name in the window.  Make sure you enter your ActiveSync server name, not the OWA server (as in Entourage) or the real Exchange server (as in Outlook).
8. Now tap the home button and go into Mail.  You should see your new account appear, and it should show your folders and email messages within a few moments.  Congratulations!  Email is now set up!
   

Next we will enable sync for Contacts and Calendars.

Note:  You can’t sync Contacts and Calendars from both Exchange and iTunes! You must choose one or the other! And the iPhone will delete your old entries when you enable this! Update: You can do both desktop and over-the-air calendars in iPhone OS 3.0!

Ok, enough shouting, on with the show!

1. Once you’re sure email is working, go back into the Exchange Account Settings tab (shown above) and tap Contacts to “ON”.
   
2. The iPhone will warn you about deleting your existing entries, just like I just did!  If you’re sure, tap “Sync”.
   
3. Now the iPhone will enable Sync.  Do not go running up to the Calendar or (new!) Contacts App and expect to see everything there immediately.  It took my phone about 5 minutes to populate these, and I was worried when I saw nothing there at first.
4. Do the same for Calendar and you’re all set.  Wait a few and you will have pretty much full over-the-air Email, Contacts, and Calendar integration!

Initial Impressions

Prepare to be confused by the new Calendar and Contacts apps.  They now include categories, and you can find yourself scratching your head at seeing no entries when you’re in the wrong category.  I left my calendar in “Home” and there were no entries.

I had to tap “Calendars” at the top to return to the screen at right and select “All”.  This could be really nice – I could organize multiple calendars here for work and home.  But it’ll take some getting used to.  Update: Don’t bother with multiple calendars! Update: Multiple calendars rock in iPhone OS 3.0!

Note that calendar entries are color-coded in the calendar, too, which is a nice touch.  I don’t remember any similar functionality on my BlackBerry, but it could be that I just never discovered it.  It took me about five years to figure out how to see missed calls, after all!

The same problem appears with the Contacts application.  Here again, we have groups of contacts, and what you see is dependent on which group you’re currently “in”.  I’ll have to work out how to manage these using Outlook or Entourage.

Thankfully, Apple finally includes a Contacts application on the home screen in OS 2.0.  It was always frustrating to have to go into the Phone app just to look at someone’s info!

The App Store is good, but a little perplexing.  There are about 500 applications up for sale right now, and not all are worthwhile.  There are three “flashlight” apps, for example, all at different prices.  I think the App Store will be quite a mess once all 25,000 or so applications have been added!  It’s already hard to locate anything.

Apple released just two native apps:  A $5 Texas Hold’em game, and a free remote control app for iTunes.  The latter is pretty nifty – it seems to use Bonjour in reverse to present itself to iTunes instances running on the network.  The iPhone shows up in the sidebar and you have to enter a PIN to activate it.  This would be much cooler with an AirTunes device – maybe I’ll have to snap up one of the old 802.11g AirPort Expresses currently offered at MacMall for $59!

There are some other worthwhile apps, too.  MLB At Bat is great – live game updates and video clips of major plays.  I think I’ll be using this a lot!  Definitely worth $5 to me.

I already mentioned a couple of games, but I was more interested in trying out the social networking applications.  AOL released a free version of Instant Messenger, but I’m not sure if it (yet) supports Apple’s always-on push service.  There’s a FaceBook app, too, but it doesn’t look much better than the web version.

This brings me to a major concern about the App Store.  Why make a native app to do something the web does just as well?  I can see where an offline book or map reader would be handy, but why MySpace?  There are lots of Bibles in there already, but where is the off-line/on-line version of Wikipedia that I had hoped for?

Google added a search app, covering both the web and local content on the phone.  But where’s Google Talk?  Shockingly, after literally sharing the stage with Google at the iPhone’s introduction, Yahoo! is entirely absent from the App Store.  Microsoft isn’t there, either.

But there were some nice surprises.  Yelp, Pandora, and Paypal all have free clients that look useful.  Time will tell which of these apps really get used!

© sfoskett for Stephen Foskett, Pack Rat, 2008. | How To Set Up iPhone Exchange ActiveSync
This post was categorized as Apple, Personal, Terabyte home. Each of my categories has its own feed if you'd like to filter out or focus on posts like this.

Without further ado:

The ten technical things some email archiving products do and others do not do*

1. Capture all messages – Can the archiving system really guarantee that every message is captured?  Really?  Even if a user does the old “double-delete” and gets rid of every copy on the system before the “archive sweep” happens?
2. Search and e-discovery – It’s amazing to me that some archiving systems have really terrible search capabilities.  But more important is whether they can handle real e-discovery requests from the legal department.
3. Record user metadata – Capturing what users do with a message (read, file, ignore, forward) is a tough nut to crack, and it might just be impossible with some archiving technologies!
4. Archive stuff other than email – Some are general archives that can take just about any content, while others are purpose-built for email.  I am hemming and hawing on whether this is critical in an email archiving product, and which is preferrable…
5. Security and chain of custody – How secure is the archive content?  If the answer is “kinda” then your legal department is not going to be happy!
6. Ingest an existing mail store or PST file – It’s great when an archiving system can capture every email once it’s installed, but it’s a whole other matter to be able to pull in pre-existing content.  But beware!  You have to flag this stuff as possibly incomplete and perhaps even unreliable!
7. Integrate with mail clients – What does the end user see?  Is it an unfamiliar web link or a reassuring Outlook window?  What about Outlook Web Access users?  Or the 8,000 other email clients?
8. Allow off-line access – Can a user access the archive when they’re on a plane?  Can they see it on the train?  Would they, could they in the park?  Will you, will you when your data center goes dark?
9. Integrate with third-party tools – How well will the archive really serve legal if it can’t export messages to their favorite search tool?  Note – some can even talk directly with these products!
10. Integrate with mobile users – Ok, I am on an iPhone in the enterprise crusade, but I’ll admit that lots of folks use BlackBerries and Windows Mobile (and Symbian) too.  How can they access the archive?

I’ve worked with most of the products out there, and know who can and can’t do these things.  But not all are important to everyone, so I just can’t say “this product is best.”  But I’m very interested in your opinion.  What key technical differentiators would you suggest?

* Not the actual article title!

© sfoskett for Stephen Foskett, Pack Rat, 2008. | Key Technical Differences Between Email Archiving Products?
This post was categorized as Enterprise storage, Personal. Each of my categories has its own feed if you'd like to filter out or focus on posts like this.

I love that Gmail keeps all of my email online and easily searchable – when I need to locate some old bit of information, I can usually find it by typing a couple of words into the Gmail search box, no matter where I am. Since I travel a lot, I’ll often log into Gmail from my work laptop, a hotel PC, or my iPhone just for this purpose.

But the other day, I remembered a message my dad sent me a few years ago and wanted to look it up. I was stuck, though, because the message was sitting in a PST on my (powered-off) desktop back at home. I was able to get to it from my laptop through a complicated process that involved ssh, my Tomato-powered router, wake-on-LAN, and remote desktop… Not something I wanted to go through again!

I got thinking that I’d love to have all of my mail in Gmail – even those messages from before I started using it. Turns out, lots of people were thinking about this way back when, but it’s always been difficult to import mail into Gmail, and lots of folks think it still is. But I found that, thanks to Gmail’s new IMAP feature, it’s now super easy to get your PST (and Thunderbird, etc) mail into Gmail! Read on for how I did it, and how you can too!

It used to be pretty difficult to get messages into Gmail, and most solutions revolved around re-mailing old messages to your new Gmail account, or having Gmail access a POP server and import messages for you. Neither of these effectively solved the problem of mail stored in Outlook PST files, though. If you had a PST, you needed to extract them into a standard format and (try to) use a Gmail mailer like GML to import them. This may work for you, but it didn’t work for me and I don’t suggest it.

The new (functional) method I used simply uses Outlook to move messages in bulk over an IMAP connection. IMAP lets the Outlook directly access folders on a remote mail server for drag and drop mail operations, and this is the functionality we’re leveraging with Gmail.

Gmail doesn’t have folders, of course, but it spoofs them with labels. So when you access a Gmail account with an IMAP server, your labels show up as folders, and when you drop a message into one of these “folders”, it simply gets that label in Gmail. Note that it does not get an “Inbox” label, however, so you won’t see the message in the Inbox, only when you click on the label or search with the search box. But this works pretty well, and allows you to neatly label old messages as being non-Gmail, which might be helpful.

So let’s say you’re using some version of Outlook (or Outlook Express). Here’s what to do:

1. Enable IMAP in your Gmail account settings
2. Configure Outlook to access Gmail per Google’s directions
3. Once you connect to Gmail’s IMAP, you should see all of your labels show up as folders – this is key!
4. In your Gmail account, create a new label for your migrated email – I called it “Old Mail”, clever eh?
5. Now just select all of the messages in each PST folder (control-A is your friend) and drag and drop them on the folder/label you just created
6. Moving messages takes a while – I let it run while I had dinner and found about 2000 messages moved over when I returned

You have now migrated your email to Gmail! Here are a few gotchas I noticed:

• As I mentioned above, the messages will not show up in the Inbox, but can be accessed by clicking on the label or through the search box Update: After a few days, my Gmail inbox does now include all of my “Old Mail”, even those without the “Inbox” label.  Weird.
• Native messages from or to an exchange account also configured in Outlook show up as “Unknown sender” and “No subject” because Gmail can’t figure out their headers. The data is there, and it’s searchable, but not all that readable.
• Gmail de-duplicates messages rather effectively – drag the same message in 12 times and it only shows up once! This is very cool, but can be frustrating if you trash a message and then try to copy it in again, as I did while trying to figure this all out! If it’s in Gmail’s trash, it will never show up in the desired folder!
• For some reason, my iPhone (which uses IMAP to connect) immediately downloaded all the old messages I just copied into my Inbox, bumping my real new mail from its list even though it supposedly sorts by date… So suddenly the top unread messages in my iPhone inbox were dated from 2001 and earlier! Pretty funny, really, but not at all as expected. Mail without the Inbox label (dragged to another folder/label) does not exhibit this problem, though.

Good luck with this, and I hope it helps! By the way, a similar process helped me migrate my even-older mail through Thunderbird…

Update: After others have tried this method, they have reported that Gmail is sorting the messages wrong in the main Inbox list – sorting by date of import rather than date of receipt.  I have no such problem, though Gmail did apparently rescan my “Old Mail” messages and add them to my Inbox at some point over the last few days.  So maybe you have to wait a while?  Also, I wanted to note that I did my import using Outlook 2002, so maybe there are weird effects of using other Outlook versions…

© sfoskett for Stephen Foskett, Pack Rat, 2007. | Import your old Outlook/Express PSTs to Gmail
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