How to Migrate Entourage to Outlook Mac? Reliable Solution

Entourage is an email client application which was developed by Microsoft for Mac operating systems. It used to be a popular choice among the users working as a personal information manager. However, it was discontinued after the 2008 version in favor of Outlook for Mac. Because of that, it has simply become outdated compared to the current email platform standards. So, Entourage users have been migrating to other email clients till date. One such sought-after email application is the Outlook platform also developed by Microsoft. Therefore, this blog will take you through multiple solutions to migrate Entourage to Outlook Mac conveniently. Manual, as well as automated MBOX to PST conversion for both MS Outlook 2011 and 2016, will be covered in the article. Also, we will find out about the various reasons and challenges associated with this conversion.

Why Export from Entourage to Outlook Mac

“Hi, I have been using Entourage as my email client for nearly 8 years now. But this new MacBook that I bought this week doesn’t support Entourage. So, I decided to shift towards MS Outlook and would like to transfer all my data files across. Kindly suggest me a solution for the same!”

Behind every email migration are a variety of reasons which could have caused it. Same is the case with switching to MS Outlook from Entourage. It may vary from user to user. Some of the possible reasons to migrate Entourage to Outlook Mac are as follows:

• The major cause is the discontinuation of Entourage from Microsoft.
• Also, it is outdated and cannot match the advanced features of Outlook.
• It is highly inferior to current email clients in both reliability and security.
• Also, new MacBook versions don’t support Entourage which may force the user to shift towards MS Outlook.

Manual ways to Migrate Entourage to Outlook Mac

Since both Entourage and Outlook email applications are developed by Microsoft, ways were provided to directly import Entourage 2008 emails to Outlook 2011. Although no such direct option is available for the later versions of OTLK, some workarounds can still be found. In this section, we will cover these direct and workaround manual methods to perform the conversion:

Locate Entourage MBOX file on your local Mac machine:

This is the first phase that must be completed before moving onto the next process.

1. Open MS Entourage on your local Mac machine.
2. Go to File >> Export and select Items to an Entourage Archive radio button
3. Choose the desired content to extract and then, click the right arrow to continue
4. Here, select Yes, Delete Items From Entourage After They Are Archived and click the right arrow again
5. Finally, click on Save button to export the archive to your desktop

Note: The default location of the mailbox file for Entourage 2008 is as follows:

Name/Users/username/Documents/Microsoft User Data/Office 2008 Identities/Main Identity

Migrate Entourage to Outlook 2011 Mac

Once you have the archive, you can import Entourage mailbox data to Outlook 2011 for Mac easily using the following instructions:

1. Launch MS Outlook for Mac 2011 on your local system
2. Go to menu and select File >> Import
3. Select the option Entourage Archive(.rge) and click right arrow to continue
4. Locate the previously exported Entourage data file on the desktop and click on Import button
5. Wait for the process to complete and then click Done
6. Go to menu, then click Tools >> Account and enter account information to restore your Outlook accounts.

Import Entourage to Outlook 2016 Mac

As already informed, any direct method(as implemented above) is not available for the later versions of OTLK for Mac. However, manual workarounds such as using MS Outlook 2011 as an intermediate email client to successfully migrate Entourage to Outlook Mac. The procedure to perform the same is given below:

1. Firstly, you have to move the data to Outlook 2011. Perform the procedure given in the previous section to do so.
2. Now, in Outlook 2016 go to Tools >> Import
3. Next, select the Outlook 2011 data on this computer option and click Continue
4. An Import dialog box will open with default location selected. Here, simply press Continue
5. All items including accounts, emails, calendars, tasks, etc. will be present at the same location as they were in Outlook 2011.

Challenges of Manual process

• Lengthy & time consuming: The manual ways are lengthy and require a lot of patience. On top of that, it does not guarantee the successful results.
• Complex and Confusing: Technical knowledge is required to perform these steps. It may be a bit too complex for average users to follow. Hence, an expert guidance is required to export mail from Entourage to Outlook Mac.
• Chances of data loss: Users have to constantly deal with minimal to severe data loss issues with the manual ways. It is known to even cause complete data file corruption. Due to this, it is advised to always have the backup of the mailbox data.
• Requires installation of multiple email clients: For conversion to Outlook 2016, the installation of Outlook 2011 for Mac is also required. But these are only available in Office suites. That would mean, the users have to purchase two different Office packages just to migrate and use one of them.

All these major shortcomings make manual procedures highly unreliable. They are known to waste the efforts of users without generating fruitful results. Hence, professional experts advise the usage of third-party solutions to successfully migrate Entourage to Outlook Mac.

One-Stop Automated solution

We now know that using an automated professional solution is the way to go here. However, which one to use? Well, there is nothing to worry about since we have it covered here too. We are introducing the best and the most effective software to export Entourage mailbox data to Outlook for Mac.

SysTools Mac MBOX Converter is a one-stop comprehensive and stand-alone solution to achieve all your email migration requirements. It can easily convert MBOX files supported by 20+ email clients including Entourage to PST format(supported by all Outlook versions). From a user-friendly interface to generating perfect results. This tool is filled with remarkable features to cater to all the needs of the users. Let’s have a look at some of its benefits:

• Exports multiple Entourage MBOX files to Outlook PST with attachments
• Capable of performing both selective and bulk conversion
• Auto-scans complete data from installed Entourage application
• Preserves the data integrity including folder structure, properties, header information etc
• Includes the options of Date filter and Naming Conventions
• The output file is compatible with all MS Outlook versions
• Freeware demo version also available for users to export 25 items/folder. You have the option to purchase the licensed product only when the trial version meets your needs.

Wrapping Up

Lack of updates leads to lack of features which means Mac users looking for alternatives. That’s exactly the case with Entourage email client. And the alternative which attracts them the most is a feature-rich Outlook developed by the same enterprise, Microsoft. Therefore, in this blog, we provided users with the manual methods to migrate Entourage to Outlook Mac. But knowing their limitations, a much better solution in the form of a third-party solution is also provided. It is extremely effective and guarantees risk-free output results quickly on every use.