Moving Local Folders to Google Apps Mail

Local Folders are a set of mail folders that provides a convenient place to store messages locally to your hard drive. Some people use local folders to archive old messages freeing up space on thier active mail folders. The drawback of using local folder is you cannot access those messages unless you are using the computer that your messages are stored locally.

To move your local folders to Google Apps Mail:

You must first create Google Apps Mail IMAP account in Thunderbird. To do this, click here

If you use Outlook, click here

Once you have create a Google Apps Mail Account in Thunderbird/Outlook, you can either,

• Drag and Drop
  • Drag your folders to your Inbox and Google Apps Mail will create a label with your messages. OR
  • Re-create the folders in Google Apps Mail by:
• Right-Click on Google Apps Mail account. Choose New Folder
• In the New Folder window, type the name of the Folder. Make sure the Create as a subfolder of: drop-down menu is pointing at your Google Apps mail.
• Click OK
• Drag and Drop your messages from your local folder to Google Apps Mail account.
• Use Google Email Uploader.
  • Google Email Uploader is a desktop utility that will upload your email and contacts from desktop email clients such as Thunderbird and Outlook into your Google Apps Account. If you are planning to use the this tool, you will not be able to use your email until the upload is complete.
    Note: If Google Email Uploader failed to install, you will need to uninstall and reinstall Microsoft's .NET - you can get the installer here

Important Pointers

• Upload emails in small bunchess since this process can be slow and can limit the bandwidth. Upload about 40 messages at the time.(This is true ONLY if you are using Thunderbird/Outlook for moving your local folders)
  
• Messages that exceed Google Apps Mail size limit will not upload.
• Some messages cannot currently be uploaded due to formatting incompatibilites. If you received a message Unable to append message to folder, skip that message and continue uploading others.