BackupTool for Outlook Express

FAQs - Frequently Asked Questions

Here you will find a list of Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) and our answers/suggestions to these questions:
  1. After importing a backup, my Address Book in Outlook Express is empty? What should I do?
  2. After importing a backup into another PC, why must I enter new passwords for my E-mail and News accounts?
  3. After importing a single folder, it is not displayed in Outlook Express. Why?
After importing a backup, my Address Book in Outlook Express is empty? What should I do?

This problem arises when, you have different Identities on your PC and you save the backup of a particular Identity under a different name and then import it.

The addresses of all identities are backed up under a single WAB file and Outlook Express ® distinguishes the addresses based on the Identity it belongs to. On importing an Identity to a new PC (not the one you created the backup on), if you want the address book to be loaded correctly, the Identities on the new and the old PC must necessarily have the same names.

To overcome this problem, try the following:
  • Close Outlook Express ® , even if it is active or running correctly.
  • On importing the Address Book, the old WAB file is not deleted or overwritten. It is preserved under the name"[User name] ALT.WAB" ("[user name]" is the name by which you registered under Windows ®).
  • Click on Start/Search/ File or folder and search for the file "[User name] ALT.WAB"
  • Proceed to the folder under which the file was found
  • Right beside the file "[User name] ALT.WAB" there is another file with the same name but without the extension "ALT".
  • Name the file "[User name].WAB" as "Backup.WAB".
  • Name the file "[User name] ALT.WAB" , remembering to delete the extension "ALT". This file is your "old" Address Book that existed before the import took place.
  • Start Outlook Express again and choose File/Import/Address Book.
  • In the dialog box that appears next choose "Backup.WAB"

Now the old addresses from this Address Book are imported into the Address Book of your identity and can be used like normal.

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After importing a backup into another PC, why must I enter new passwords for my E-mail and News accounts?

The passwords from your E-mail accounts are encrypted and stored in the data registry of Windows. This encryption depends on the Windows version that you are using and also on the PC that is being used.

On importing your account to a new PC, if the windows registry does not decrypt the password correctly then the passwords must be entered again.

This is done deliberately, so that a third party does not gain access to your account data and hence misuse it.

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After importing a single folder, it is not displayed in Outlook Express. Why?

To be able to import single folders from your backup into an existing Outlook Express ® folder structure you must remember the following two points:

  1. On the Options page, in the import dialog box, choose the option " Replace only selected E-mail folders".
  2. Note that for every folder which you import in this manner a folder with the same name must exist in the corresponding Outlook Express® folder structure.
Example:
If the folder structure of the folder looks like this:

   Private
   Firm
   Association

and you have choosen to import the folder "Association" and "Others" under the Option " Replace only selected E-mail folders". The folder "Association" is over written by the import ( old contents are lost!) and the folder "Others" will not appear in the folder structure. For the folder "Others" to appear in the folder structure, you must have a folder by the name "Others" already existing in the folder structure into which you wish to import the folder.
Private or   Private
Firm      Others ( under the folder Private
Association   Firm
Others   Association

Now the contents of "Others" is correctly imported into the folder "Others".

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