Jan from Missouri writes: I need to know how to import my e-mail messages from Yahoo into Hotmail. I’d like to close my Yahoo account after importation is finished. Thanks
Note: Since I wrote this article a few days back, Microsoft has closed down the service and posted the following message: Thank you for using TrueSwitch. After over ten years of servicing hundreds of millions of users , we have decided to focus our efforts on the development of new technologies that will directly power the services of our global partners. We apologize for any inconvenience this shutdown may cause and should you have any questions, please contact support@trueswitch.com
Outlook.com (All Hotmail accounts have been switched to Outlook.com) makes it simple. They have a free tool called Trueswitch. Here’s how it works.
You click https://secure5trueswitch.com/hotmail/ to fill out the form. The link still has Hotmail in the title even though all Hotmail accounts have been switched over to Outlook.com.
You would fill out the address and password of your Yahoo! Mail account and the address and password for the account you wish to copy the messages to.
This will not delete your emails and contacts from your Yahoo! Mail account. You also select what you wish to copy. You can take your messages, address book or calendar.
You can choose to send a message to your contacts informing them about the change in your e-mail address.
You can choose to personalize the message and also select which contacts you wish to send the information to. If you choose personalize, a window will open to let you compose your own message.
There’s also the option to have your Yahoo! messages forwarded to your Outlook.com account for 90 days.
When you have everything set up the way you like, hit the copy to Outlook.com button.
This could take awhile to finish. You should receive e-mail messages updating you on the progress of the import and an message to let you now when the process is complete. Once you’re sure that your Yahoo! e-mails have successfully copied to Outlook.com, you can shut down your Yahoo! Mail account.
~ Cynthia
My advice – don’t do it. Outlook is absolutely noting like the old outlook express, and isn’t worth the time setting up. I’ve dumped Hotmail for the very reason that it has become a part of Outlook.
That doesn’t imply that your folders will be imported as well which could be a problem. I moved from one Yahoo address to another a few years ago, found a program that did move all of my data, including a 300 folders and 3000, roughly archived messages acquired over a 10 year span with the old address. If your questioner has folders, it might be well to find out if the Microsoft tool will bring them over too. My process did take nearly 24 hours to complete.