Gmail is a popular email service that provides a seamless
way to send & receive emails, create contacts, schedule calendar events,
and more. Yet, a lot of users prefer to use Outlook for hosting their inboxes.
That’s because Outlook provides the flexibility of using
both web-based service (Outlook.com) and the Outlook desktop app. Using the
Outlook desktop application allows users to access their emails even when their
system is not connected to the internet. In the case of Gmail, this is not
possible as there is no desktop application.
Outlook is a part of Microsoft 365 suite, which offers
several advantages over Google Workplace (formerly known as G Suite) like –
- Advanced data security & countermeasures safeguard
against cyber attacks
- User accounts are managed by the organization or the
person in-charge
- Access to other Microsoft applications like Contacts,
Skype, One Note, etc.
These reasons are enough for many users to migrate their
emails from Gmail to Outlook. Also, managing multiple inboxes is difficult.
Hence, users look for ways to export their mailboxes from Gmail to Outlook.
What are the Ways to Migrate from Gmail to Outlook?
There are two ways to migrate your Gmail emails to Outlook.
These are –
- Manually migrate from Gmail to Outlook
- Use Google Takeout to create a backup
Method 1: Migrate Gmail Account to Outlook via Outlook
If you plan to delete or shut your old Gmail account, you
can import a copy of your Gmail emails to Outlook by adding your Gmail account
to your Outlook mailbox.
Though this manual migration is a time-consuming process,
once connected, you will be able to send, receive, and read emails from your
Gmail account using the Outlook desktop application.
Before proceeding, make sure that –
- You have added your Microsoft 365 mailbox to Outlook.
After this, you will need to prepare your Gmail or Google
Workspace account for syncing your Gmail emails with Outlook. For this, you
will have to enable 2-step verification and configure IMAP for Gmail. You will
also need to create an app password to be used with Microsoft 365 to access
your Gmail emails. Here is what to do –
To configure IMAP on Gmail –
- Sign-in to your Gmail account.
- Click on the Gear icon and then click on See all settings.
- Click on the Forwarding and POP/IMAP tab.
- Scroll down to IMAP access. Select the Enable IMAP option.
- If you see a verification screen, type in your Gmail
password and proceed.
After this, enable 2-step verification. Follow the steps
mentioned below –
- While in your Google account, click on the Google apps
waffle icon at the top right corner.
- Click on Account.
- Click on Security in the left pane.
- Navigate to 2-step verification and see if it is enabled.
- If not, enable it.
- It will prompt you to re-enter your password for
verification.
Once you have enabled the 2sv, it is time for you to generate
an App password. This password will be used by the application in which you are
trying to login using the Gmail address. Here are the steps for this –
- While in Google Account settings, search for App passwords.
- Add the name of the app for which you will be creating the
password and click Generate.
- It will show you a password on the screen. Save it.
Once you have performed the above steps, carefully follow
the instructions below to connect your Gmail account to Outlook.
- Launch the Outlook desktop app.
- Click on File in the ribbon.
- In the Account Information window, click on Add Account.
- In the Auto Account Setup window, add your name, your
Gmail address, and password in the respective fields.
- Click Next.
- The wizard will show you a dialog box asking for IMAP
password. Enter it and click OK.
- Wait for the wizard to configure your Gmail account with
Outlook.
- Once completed, click Finish.
The Outlook will sync Gmail account. You will be able to
access, read, and send emails from your Gmail account using Outlook. The
migrated Gmail mailbox will appear below your Outlook mailbox. Doing this will
help you work on multiple email clients on a single platform.
Method 2: Use Google Takeout to Create a Copy of your Mailbox
Manually syncing your Gmail with Outlook is a lengthy
process. However, there is another method that you can use to skip the
configurational steps. For this, you can use Google Takeout.
Google Takeout
is a Google service that allows users to export a copy of their complete data
associated with a Google account. You can create a copy of various types of
data like emails, Drive, YouTube activity, etc., and export it to your PC in a
ZIP file. You can also use the exported data with other email clients like
Outlook to access your emails.
The steps are as follows –
- Go to the following URL - https://takeout.google.com/?hl=en-GB
to open Google Takeout in your web browser.
- Sign in using your Gmail credentials.
- It will bring up a list of all the data associated with
your Google account, including emails, contacts, YouTube watch history, browser
history, etc. By default everything is selected. You can uncheck the items that
are not required.
Note – Make sure to select Mail.
- Scroll down and click on Next Step.
- Choose the delivery method and customize the export
settings.
- Once you have selected the desired export settings, click
on Create Export.
- It will take some time to create the data export. Once it
has finished creating the export, it will notify you via email.
- You can open the email and click on the provided download
link.
- It will create & download a .zip file on your PC.
- Extract the .zip file to get the all your Gmail data
including emails in an MBOX file.
Google Takeout is a time consuming but straight-forward way
to create a downloadable archive of your Gmail emails other Google data.
However, the only limitation of this tool is that it creates an MBOX file that
cannot be directly synced with an Outlook mailbox. You would first need to use
an MBOX to .PST converter to convert the Gmail (Google Takeout) emails to PST.
Migrate your Gmail Mailbox (MBOX) Directly to Outlook
To use the MBOX file with outlook, you would first need to
convert it into a .PST file. For this, you can use an advanced MBOX to PST like Steller Converter for MBOX. It is powerful utility that allows
users to easily convert any supported MBOX file to .PST file. It supports 15+
email clients like Thunderbird, Apple Mail, Google Takeout, Entourage, and
more.
However, using the upgraded Technician edition of Stellar
Converter for MBOX, you can directly export MBOX data to Outlook/Microsoft 365
without any hassle.
Here are the steps to use Stellar Converter for MBOX –
- Download and install Stellar Converter for MBOX on your
computer.
- Launch it.
- On the Home screen, click on Select Mail Client.
- The Select MBOX window will appear. Use the drop down list
to select the mail client.
- Click on the Select Identity button to choose the identity
folder for the selected mail client.
- Click Convert.
- Once the scan is complete, preview the MBOX data.
- If you are satisfied with the conversion, click on the Save
Converted File button.
- Choose the Export to Existing Outlook Profile option in
the Save As window. Click Next.
- You will see the Select Outlook Profile and PST window.
Choose the Save to MS Outlook Profile option and select the outlook profile in
which you want to migrate your Gmail emails.
Note – If the selected Outlook profile is password
protected, you will see an Enter Password prompt. Enter the password and click OK.
- Once everything is done, click Save to start the email
migration process.
- Once the software has successfully migrated Gmail email to
Outlook, you will see dialog box. Click on Open Containing Folder link to open
the location where the emails are saved. You can also click OK to close the
dialog box.
So whether you are trying to migrate from any email client
like Apple Mail or Gmail to Outlook, this software swiftly converts MBOX files
to .PST in a matter of a few clicks. Users can use this utility to create a new
.PST file or add (append) items to an existing .PST file. Additionally, the
advanced MBOX to .PST file converter provides a filter option to convert
selective items from an MBOX file.
Conclusion
Migrating Gmail emails to Outlook offers various benefits to
users including advanced data safeguarding measures, collaborative tools, and
more.
Google Takeout is the preferred online utility for migrating
Gmail emails to Outbox. It allows users to download an archive of their
complete data associated like emails, contacts, etc. with their Google account.
However, it is a time consuming task and creates an MBOX file, which cannot be
directly accessed by Outlook.
Therefore, to simplify the mailbox migration process, users
can leverage Stellar Converter for MBOX. It is an advanced MBOX to .PST
converter that makes it easier for anyone to not only convert existing MBOX
files to .PST, but also migrate from a supported email client to Outlook
automatically without the need for converting and saving an MBOX file to .PST.
