19/05/2026
When four different tech companies tell you your business data is trapped, you start to panic. 🛑
We recently had a client come to us with a massive headache. They had an older iMac running Microsoft Outlook, containing their entire historical archive stretching all the way back to the day they opened their doors.
Before reaching out to us, they had plenty of companies look at the computer. Some even took it away to their shops. They tried updating Outlook, they tried downgrading Outlook, and they kept hitting a brick wall with error messages every time they tried to export the data into standard mbox files. They couldn't get the data out, and the client was left stranded, wanting to move everything to a modern, reliable online IMAP account.
That’s when they brought it to us.
We don't shy away from a challenge. We plugged the iMac into our server, and went to work. Instead of fighting with the broken built in export tools, we extracted the raw .olm file (Mac Outlook's native format) and carefully converted it into a .pst file that a modern Windows based Outlook could read perfectly.
Once the data was safely imported into our server side Outlook, the real test of patience began:
The Payload: 249.7 GB of critical business emails.
The Mission: Migrate every single byte up to their new online IMAP account.
The Time: It took two full evenings of continuous data uploading, but we monitored it every step of the way to ensure not a single email was lost.
Data migrations like this don’t have to be an impossible puzzle, but it seems like a lot of places these days are only looking for the easy work.
The best part? We only charged the client for two hours of labour.
This client has been incredibly supportive of us, buying their business laptops from us. For us, this wasn’t just a tech support ticket, it was the perfect opportunity to give back to someone who supports our local business.
Your data is your history. If you're being told it can't be saved, give us a call. We like the "hard" jobs. 💪👨💻
