Outlook 2003 Import/Export - Export feature does not work properly

[Another IT Admin]

We have Exchange Server 2003 and all our clients (200) are using Office 2003
Profession.

All our users rely on Outlook 2003 heavily. Many have subs and subs of subs
of folders in their inbox.

Due to our expansion, our company has a new server where our new Exchange
server is going be. Therefore, we are migrating users from one Exchange
Server to another.

Before the migration we would prep our user's mailbox.

1.) We would save the user's emails to a local PST file first using Outlook
2003's Import/Export feature to export the current mailbox to a local PST.
2.) Change the domain
3.) Login to the new domain to create the profile folder.
4.) Profile copied over and configure the Outlook 2003.
5.) After Outlook 2003 is configured for the new profile and for the new
Exchange Server, we would use Outlook 2003's Import/Export feature to import
the local PST that was exported out earlier to and bring back all the
contents of the old mailbox.

Very straightforward right?

HOWEVER, not all the contents were exported out in the first place!!!

In the first step, instead of using the Outlook 2003 Import/Export feature,
I manually created a new PST file and copy each item from the old mailbox
down to the local PST file.

THEN in the last step, I would use the Outlook 2003 Import/Export feature to
import the the PST contents into the new mailbox.

This was the only way it will bring back EVERYTHING the user had from the
old mailbox.

I've searched everywhere on the net and on Microsoft and there's no issue of
this.

Has anyone else had similar problems like this?

It would appear that there is a bug in the Outlook 2003 Import/Export
feature where the Export function does not export everything.

I have done this numerous times and the problem is pointing to the export
feature.

I've even did comparisons between manual export and using the automated
export feature in Outlook 2003.

The results are staggering. The Import/Export feature way shows only 200mb
on the PST.

The manual method showed that the PST file at 800mb. Now that's a lot of
emails not being brought over. That is a major @#$% up by Microsoft.

Again, our users rely on Outlook 2003 quite heavily and to have all their
emails wiped is a death sentence. Especially from our Executives.

 

[Russ Valentine [MVP-Outlook]]

You will find countless posts in these groups where we strongly recommend
against ever using Outlook's Import/Exports functions for transferring
Outlook data. They should be used only for converting Outlook data to
another format.
I have never seen Microsoft admit there is a problem with their
import/export functions, but the rest of us know better and you are proving
our point yet again. I hope you open an incident with Microsoft and provide
them the exact steps to repro your problem. There's no excuse for this.