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OLMExport

Move an .olm archive into Apple Mail

Apple Mail will not open an .olm. It will import mbox, which is two steps away: convert the archive here, then use Mail's own import. This is the usual path for someone leaving Outlook for Mac and staying on the Mac, the mail ends up in Mail.app with its folders, dates and attachments, and you can stop paying for Outlook.

The file you get

A .zip of .mbox files, one per Outlook folder. Unzip it and point Mail's import wizard at the resulting folder; Mail reads the whole tree in one pass.

Steps

  1. Get the .olm out of Outlook for Mac first: Tools tab → Export, tick what you want, Continue, save the file. If Export is greyed out you are in the new Outlook; switch the New Outlook toggle off, top right, and it comes back.
  2. Drop the .olm on this page. It is read by JavaScript in your browser tab; the file never leaves your machine.
  3. Download the zip and unzip it. Keep the unzipped folder somewhere stable, such as ~/Documents/olm-mbox/.
  4. In Mail, choose File → Import Mailboxes.
  5. Select Files in mbox format, click Continue, choose the unzipped folder and confirm.
  6. The messages appear in a new Import mailbox in the sidebar. Drag the folders out of it into On My Mac or an account, then delete the empty Import mailbox.

What carries over

  • Every message with sender, recipients, subject and its original date
  • HTML formatting as Outlook stored it
  • Attachments, opened from the message the same way as any other mail
  • One mailbox per Outlook folder, so Inbox and Sent Items stay apart
  • Mail's search indexes the imported messages like the rest of your mail

Good to know

  • Imported mail lands under Import in the sidebar, not in your Inbox. Mail always does this; move the folders yourself afterwards.
  • Messages import into the local store on your Mac. If you want them on a server too, drag them into an IMAP account after the import and let Mail upload them.
  • Outlook writes times in UTC but leaves the time zone off the timestamp. Every date here is read as UTC, so nothing shifts by your offset, a common fault in other converters.
  • Microsoft has never published the .olm format. Mail, attachments, contacts and calendar entries are read from the XML Outlook writes; unusual items (notes, tasks, journal entries) are skipped in this version.
  • Contacts and calendar entries do not come across in mbox. Export those separately as a .vcf and an .ics.

Questions

Do I need Outlook installed to do this?
No. You need the .olm file. If you do not have it yet and Outlook still runs on some machine, produce it there first; the export steps are on the Outlook for Mac page.
Mail's import finished but I cannot find the messages.
Look for a mailbox named Import at the bottom of the sidebar. If the sidebar is hidden, View → Show Mailbox List. Large imports can take a few minutes to finish indexing before search finds them.
Will this duplicate mail I already have in Mail?
Import adds a separate mailbox rather than merging, so nothing is overwritten. If the same messages already exist in an account, you will see them twice until you delete the imported copy.
What about my Outlook rules, signatures and categories?
They are not part of a mail message and do not transfer. The archive holds mail, contacts and calendar items only.

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