backing up Outlook Express

How Can I Back Up the Outlook Express Address Book?

QUESTION: What is the easiest way to back up the address book in Outlook Express? - Henry P.

ANSWER: Outlook Express v6 uses the Windows Address Book (a .WAB file) to store address information. If there is more than one identity set up, the info for all identities is stored within the same .WAB file. If you want to save just the address book information for your identity, you can do so by exporting it to a file. See this site for instructions:http://www.winxpnews.com/rd/rd.cfm?id=041116QC-Backup

The easiest way is to back up the entire .WAB file for all identities. Just copy it to an alternate location. Here's how:

1. In OE, click the Address Book button on the main tool bar or click Tools, Address Book
   
2. In the Address Book window, click Help, About Address Book to see the full path to your .WAB file
   
3. Navigate to the .WAB file in Windows Explorer
   
4. Copy the .WAB file to your backup location
   

To restore the data, in OE click File, Import and select the backup .WAB file to import.

-- WinXPnews #151

[9/28/05] I couldn't find the WAB file location today when trying to transfer the address book to a new computer (I should have looked here). But I found all I had to do is import the WAB file into the address book. So now that I think about it, it seems the easiest way to transfer an address file might be to export from the old computer to a file, then import it into the Outlook Express on the new computer.

[12/19/05] Checking my computer (Windows ME), the address book is at
C:\Windows\application data\microsoft\address book.

The email is at
C:\Windows\application data\identities\{someoddballnumber}\microsoft\Outlook Express.

Hint: do a search for *.wab to find the address book. Do a search for *.dbx to find the email.

[9/20/07 frwr-news] Outlook Express Backup is the most popular backup software to create backup copies of Outlook Express email database. This tool can save emails, address book, settings, mail and news accounts, message rules, blocked senders lists, signatures, IE Settings and Outlook Express Settings to a single, compact, encrypted, compressed backup file that can be easily restored when necessary. The email database can be saved on one computer and restored to another, thus making Outlook Express Backup not just a backup utility but also a synchronization tool.

[10/23/07 frwr-news] Genie Outlook Express Backup is designed to easily create a backup or archive file of your Mail folders from Microsoft Outlook Express which may easily be restored when necessary.

[11/18/08 frwr-news] KLS Mail Backup is an easy to use backup program that allows you to back up and restore your Windows Mail, Outlook Express, Mozilla Thunderbird, Firefox profile files.