Working Download Link For The Elusive gExodus Gmail Import Tool
After spending ages trying to find a working download link for gExodus which imports your old emails into GMail, and failing, I finally got someone who blogged about gExodus to email me the app.
Given that I’m certain that there are no other working links at the moment, I’ve created one here as I’m sure there are other people who would want to use this tool. I’m not hosting the file on this blog as I’m already way over my bandwidth allowance (the nice people at Blogware who are letting me have this blog for free haven’t told me off yet).
To use the tool you need to do the following:
- gExodus works with Mbox files, so if you are using Outlook or Outlook Express you need to convert your files to the Mbox format, which Thunderbird uses as a default:
- Outlook users: Download and install PST Reader. This will convert the Outlook messages database (with extension .pst) to the Mbox format. You can also use Thunderbird to import your account and convert it to Mbox. Your messages database can be found usually be found at C:\WINDOWS\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook\. If you can’t find it, do a search for outlook.pst.
- Outlook Express users: A different database format is used to Outlook ending in .dbx. To convert your
messages to Mbox use DBXConv. In order to find where your .dbx files are stored, open Outlook Express, then click on Tools -> Options, and then on the
Maintenance tab. Next, click on the Store Folder button, and you will see the full path. Please note that DBXConv is a command line utility. The best thing to do is copy your .dbx file into the folder where DBXConv is located, and drag and drop it into DBXConv. Your Hotmail database will be called something like Hotmail -Inbox.dbx. - Thunderbird Users: Thunderbird stores messages in the Profile Folder, in the ‘Mail’ and (if you use IMAP) ‘ImapMail’ folders. Each mail folder (Inbox, Sent, etc.) is stored as two files  one with no extension (e.g. INBOX), which is the mail file itself (in “mbox” format), and one with an .msf extension (e.g. INBOX.msf), which is the index (Mail Summary File) to the mail file.
(ii) Once you have located or created your Mbox file then run gExodus. Fill in all the necessary information, such as your username, and the path of your Mbox file. DO NOT ADD A LABEL - I found that this messes up the import. Then click on ‘Import into Gmail’ and away you go! Be patient - it’s not the fastest process.
Remember that each folder of your mailbox is in a seperate Mbox file so you will have to import each folder individually.
Within Gmail the emails are imported as unread and unfortunately, with the wrong date stamp. However, this isn’t a big issue and just create a filter to archive or to give them a label, say ‘imported email’.
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Comment by Anonymous on 28 August 2005:
Great Thanks
Comment by Anonymous on 28 August 2005:
Seems that this link is working again.
Comment by Anonymous on 28 August 2005:
“Within Gmail the emails are imported as unread and unfortunately, with the wrong date stamp.”
It IS a major issue. The search by date doesn't work either. I'm not willing just to give that up
Comment by Milan on 28 January 2007:
“Within Gmail the emails are imported as unread and unfortunately, with the wrong date stamp.â€
That’s clearly a bug in the program. I could make the same program without this bug for $20 only. Page me if you’re interested.
Comment by Pragmatopian on 25 February 2007:
If the displayed dates are important, you could (1) temporarily set up a mail server with POP3 and IMAP protocols (such as Macallan Mail Solution Mail Server) on your computer, (2) drag and drop mails from archive folders into the mailbox using any mail client that supports IMAP, and (3) connect to the mailbox from GMail using the POP3 protocol to download the mails. This will retain the date stamps, although it needs you to be a bit more tech savvy and have an ISP that will allow the traffic. Took me about twenty minutes to set up (most of that fiddling with the router config!).
Pingback by Geek Sanity Tip: Make Everyone Run the Same Software « // Internet Duct Tape on 1 September 2008:
[...] many instructions on switching from Outlook to Gmail using special software like Gmail Loader (or gExodus), by temporarily setting up a mail server to importing into Gmail using IMAP, or using POP. With [...]