Alumni who had an Exchange Online (i.e. not Hermes) email account during their time at Cambridge should follow these instructions for transferring the contents of their CRSid@cam.ac.uk mailbox into their new ID@cantab.ac.uk alumni mailbox if they want to keep their student emails.
Note: These instructions assume you are using Outlook for Mac desktop email client. Other clients may offer a similar path to transfer objects between mailboxes.
What options do I have?
There are two methods you can use, but we advise deciding which is best depending on how big your mailbox is (or how much of it you want to keep):
- Export/import – this is recommended for moving large amounts of data, e.g. the entire contents of your mailbox
- Drag-and-drop/Move to folder – this is easier if you only want to keep a small amounts of data, e.g. just your most important emails.
Method 1: Export/import by creating an Outlook Data File (.olm)
- Set up the Outlook client to connect to both the source and target mailboxes.
- You will need enough space on your hard disk to export your mailbox file – this file will be a bit bigger than the size of your mailbox.
Optional check:
The easiest way to check the size of your mailbox is to log in to the Outlook web app (https://outlook.office.com) and choose Settings (cog icon) > View all Outlook settings > General > Storage
- Select the source mailbox from which you want to export (e.g. CRSid@cam.ac.uk)
- Click File > Export and select the items you want to export:
- Choose a destination to save the Outlook for Mac Archive.olm export file to, e.g. the Desktop:
- Outlook will export your data into a file called Outlook for Mac Archive.olm. This may take a while depending on the size of your mailbox.
- Select the mailbox you want to import the data into (e.g. ID@cantab.ac.uk):
- From the main menu, select File > Import:
- Choose Outlook for Mac archive file (.olm) and click Continue:
- Browse to the Outlook for Mac Archive.olm file you exported and click Import:
- Check that the data will be imported into your target mailbox. It may take a while for it to import if there is a lot of data.
Method 2: Drag-and-drop/Move to Folder
If the above export/import process is unavailable or the source mailbox is not very large, it is always possible to connect to both mailboxes and manually copy items between them either by:
- using drag-and-drop to move items between your two Exchange Online mailboxes in Outlook
or - using the Move option.
Using the Move option in the Outlook for Mac desktop client
- Select the individual items you want to move from your source inbox (e.g. CRSid@cam.ac.uk) – use the Cmd+A keyboard shortcut to select everything in your mailbox, or hold Cmd and click to select individual items.
- From the main menu select Message and either choose the target mailbox (e.g.ID@cantab.ac.uk)
or use either Choose folder (to move items) or Copy to Folder (to make a copy of the items):
- Your messages will be moved to the target mailbox/folder.
Cleaning up afterwards
Removing your old Cambridge student mailbox
Once the export and import is completed, you may wish to remove your CRSid@cam.ac.uk mailboxfrom Outlook as it will be decommissioned when you leave Cambridge.
Adding an auto-reply message for your old CRSid@cam.ac.uk email account
We cannot forward email sent to your CRSid@cam.ac.uk email account after you leave, but you can set up an auto-reply in which you can include your new email address. See: Leaving the University.