From the forums: How to completely switch from Gmail to Outlook

By Sam Sabri
last updated

As if you needed another reason why the Windows Phone Central forums are the best around. You can head there to find all sorts of information and perks. Sometimes developers will recruit users to test drive an upcoming app for them. You can also find the latest and greatest apps that nobody knows about or just kick it with like-minded smartphone users. Then there are times like today where you get awesome tutorials like this one to completely switch from Gmail to Outlook.

Forum member Jakeeeee has posted an easy to follow guide on migrating your life off Mountain Views servers to those in Redmond. The guide holds your hand as you transfer contacts, mail, calendar and documents to Microsoft’s services. Something we recommend doing if you’re using a Windows Phone. That way if Google pulls anymore stunts like dropping EAS support you won’t get stuck.

Hit up the thread right now in the forums to go through the process. While there be sure to poke around and check out other threads if you’re new.

90 Comments
  • Gmail what's that never heard of it , must be something laggy ,old looking and own by a company who steal technology from everywhere.
  • Apple didn't make Gmail lol
  • That's bad lol
  •   Love my job, since I've been bringing in $5600… I sit at home, music playing while I work in front of my new iMac that I got now that I'm making it online(Click on menu Home) https://goo.gl/69xst
  • LMAO You win the Internets today :-)
  • Man,, you people ar ejust crazy. Ok,
    NO.1 Gmail is the best email client out there right now. There is no arguing about that.
    NO.2 Why should we defend Microsoft? Either they push an update that supports the new protocols, or they biuld a gmail client from the ground up. Its that simple.
    N0. 3 Youtube. Biuld the app man, am sure if microsoft wanted the app out there, it would be. They are not short on expertise. P.S metrotube is awesome, but Microft should have something official
    NO.4 Hell No, am not moving to outlook
    Conclusion: Microsoft is just being lazy.
    P.S I have a samsung focus
  • "NO.1 Gmail is the best email client out there right now. There is no arguing about that."
    Well, that settles that, then.  Isn't it nice when differences of taste and/or differences in desired features are logically impossible?
  • I've used EAS for my Gmail for years. It has always been faster, more reliable, and used less data than googles crappy custom IMAP protocol. I refuse to use their crappy IMAP, and have added custom exchange accounts to Windows Phone, iPhone and Android. No EAS = Google can EAD.
     
    Oh and Youtube app? Why? The youtube web page is great, that's all I had pinned in iOS, why would I want more than the Microsoft youtube app that goes straight to the current youtube page?
  • Just to confirm,
     
    EAD = Eat a D**K, I presume?
  • What is the link between youtube and outlook? You are not stick to gmail if you want to have google account. I'm lucky to move to hotmail 2 years ago, after founding google messing up my search results by scanning my personal data in gmail inbox, that was not good at all.
  • Same for me... Google scan your entire email... Who knows what else they use it for... I'm keeping Gmail, but using it for nothing
  • MS would love to build a Youtube app, but Google have restricted the API. Go figure...
  • Do no evil, right, sure...
  • Do no evil, sure...
  • Troll!
  • My client who use gmail as his or her prim contact gain no repect for me, vice versa. Show yourselve in cooperate account or else. Personal use, I just dont see you no1 point. Easily one of the most complicated shit out there for sure
  • NO.1 Outlook is the best email client out right now. There is no arguing about that.
    NO.2 Why should we defend Google? Either they support the most popular email protocol or they build a Gmail app for WP from the ground up.
    NO.3 YouTube. No first party solution will be better than MetroTube(atleast not at launch). Either google builds a YouTube app or I use MetroTube. Google should have something official.
    NO.4 Hell no. I am not using Gmail.
    Conclusion: Google is just being lazy.
    P.S. I have a Lumia 710. See how that argument works.
    The only google product I now use is YouTube.
  • hehe, made my day :)
  • I used to use Gmail until they started auto-enrolling in their other crap and auto-sharing my friends and contacts. Now it is my spam account and I only check my Gmail In Private mode. I don't like Gmail's ads or it's business either. It wouldn't make my top 5 email clients.
  • Most people I know have completely switched to outlook.com already. And none of them are Windows Phone people. GMail just sucks nuts.
  • Not surprised, Outlook is so clean and organized...something I used to value in Gmail until they updated it and completely ruined the once-great layout.
  • It ticked me off when Google thought it was a good idea to use symbols instead of words for everything in Gmail...yeah, it's always a good thing to make it harder to use...
  • So true. I know Google Voice is great; but, other than that, Microsoft Office, Excel, and Skydrive are all much better than Google alternatives. Gmail vs Hotmail is about the same. Gmail is less glitchy; but Hotmail is mostly bug free. Yahoo and Aol are bad.
  • All I need now is something better than YouTube and I will be officially not using any Google products.
  • +1
  • Vimeo is pretty good, but not many videos.
  • 1
  • Dailymotion
  • Vimeo
  • Vimeo
  • Try #Waywie. You can "wire" videos from other sites and upload your own. It is still in alpha though
    .
  • This. Vimeo is great, but I wouldn't confuse it with a Youtube equivalent. It caters for more arty/creative users and doesn't feature many mainstream videos in comparison. It wouldn't surprise me if MS develop their own direct competitor once Bing prevails over Google search. I would love to see a video community across the MS services. There's quite a lot of things to share: Xbox, music, videos, smartphones, etc. :) "Xbox Tube" j/k :D
  • They could just call it xtube or something like that.
  • There's probably a p*rn site with that name already.
  • For majority of the professional to general videos, there has never been any or will never be any (atleast for the next 5 years) site that comes close to Youtube in content.
  • One could easily create a Microsoft account with the Gmail email address and "pop" into the outlook.com email system.
  • looks like it only uses POP3 though
  • I switched to outlook and so have some of my friends and coworkers for the same reason we switched to Gmail years ago... Hotmail was slow and cluttered. Now Gmail is getting very cluttered and inefficient. And outlook is so fresh and so clean.
  • Microsoft: Gmail, check mate
  • Don't see the big deal. Still using Gmail.
  • Since MSFT hasn't incorperated certain open protocals that Google uses, without Exhange, a Windows Phone can't sync Contacts and Calendars. No Push either. For some, Gmail is everything. So everything Gmail users on Windows Phone will need to switich.
  • I'm not switching. I'm too integrated using Gmail. So guess what, this is giving me reason to stop using ms. My 920 can't play music I have on my PC because it all on Zune, now this. What else, what effin else?
  • think you should go check out windowsphone help page to get that working
  • Pi: I did, the only way to move any of my music is to convert it to MP3. 920 doesnt support WAV or MP4 or anything else, except for MP3. Unless you have a newer pc(which I don't because there is no reason for me to pick up a new one since mine works as good as a new one with the exception that it doesn't run on 64-bit and it doesn't have win 7 or 8.).
  • Really? Because most of the music I got from Zune plays fine from the cloud on my 920.
  • Is the music on your zune saved as MP3? Because if it is not, then you are screwed. Are you cloud or skydrive? If you're using skydrive, then do you move your music to skydrive, then download it to you 920?
  • Actually if I recall, it was discussed that MS does support the protocols but Google implements their own Frankensteined version of it. Unless I'm missing something?
  • Can outlook.com use a different 'reply as' address when using the built in email client in WP7.x or WP8? Hope this makes sense.
  • Yes
  • When writing an email you can choose which email to use but I don't think you can change that in the reply step. For this reason I totally renamed my MSFT account to be @outlook.com. (in mail settings you can "rename your email address"; if you already own the alias you want to rename to, you have to first abandon it for some buggy reason. You do this in account details, notifications, email. Abandon it (won't lose any data!) then rename your email email address to the said alias. Voila! FYI you will have to reset your phone fully since it doesn't let you change your MSFT account name otherwise) hope that helps.
  • Thanks for the reply but just not worth it. Once you add a 'reply as' address in your Gmail account, you just visit  m.google.com/sync from your WP handset and enable the reply as address. Done.
  • Unfortunately no. No client on any platform can do it.
  • See also http://blogs.office.com/b/microsoft-outlook/archive/2012/08/09/upgrade-from-gmail-to-outlook-com-in-5-easy-steps.aspx (includes a way to copy over your email)
  • Gmail....sounds cheap.
  • Thanks Sammie.
  • I was chomping at the bit to get the new phone to switch to outlook.com on day one. Glad I did. Would've done it regardless but this slid the timing up. Simply tired of Google.
  • Made the switch from gmail to outlook when I got the 900. Not looking back or regretting.
  • My one remaining frustration with outlook.com is there is still no calendar search. I assume it's coming as will the suns eventual implossion, but when Microsoft??
  • If anyone of you wondering if this is just a quick fix for Google Users, no it isn't. It is a full transition that is going to work. I used to be a Gmail user and I can tell you they lack of quality control and require plugins from third parties etc. One example is their To-Do list. Microsoft has long having the To-Do in the Office Outlook and sync well since the Windows Mobile days. Google app does not sync this and it is not as robust a list management compared to WP. Labels are just categories in Outlook so it makes no difference. Enough said, I am for one a happier Outlook.com user than Gmail. Transition is smooth and complete.
  • I only use Gmail for junk nothing important goes there but I will make another outlook account for that
  • With WP8 do we still have the issue where you need to wipe the phone if you move your LiveID from @gmail.com to @outlook.com? That's about the only thing standing in my way right now. Thanks!
  • It is still the case but with with built in cloud backup it shouldn't be an issue anymore.
  • Cloud back-up for everything? Save data for games, even?
  • GMale
  • I'll stay with gmail. To many accounts on the net i've assigned to my google account. 
  • The only issue is if someone uses a Google Calendar for work. Is there any built-in or app solution for a shared Google Calendar?
  • i believe you can Subscribe to a calendar. Look up how to subscribe to Google calendar for Windows Live Calendar
  • I'd like to do this but there is no way to change my primary account from myname@gmail.com to myname@outlook.com. I have them linked but MS, really needs a way for us to change primary account.
  • Yep. This is my problem, too. I'd like to drop Gmail, but Microsoft won't let me.
  • Just switched to @outlook... already changed my email on ebay,paypal,fb and other networks.. just need to update my friends eek
  • One thing that bothers me for outlook is that you can't change or add profile pics to contacts
  • Absolutely agree!
  • Sorry, but until the "search" option in outlook  would be superior to gmail search engine, I am not going to make the switch. 
     
    And Microsoft for your information, even google drive search engine is better than your skydive, do something about it 
     
    Elkabungo
  • How so? SkyDrive is far superior to google drive.
  • I moved everything already. Now, if only Bing would get better, I could stop using Google. YouTube though, I doubt anyone comes close.
  • I don't really recommend bing; and as of now, google searches are getting worse with their personalized searches and content filtering. I'm weaning myself off google and changed my search engine to DuckDuckGo. It's a nice and customizable search engine that you can use to find webpages and answers. - Note this is not a spam I'm just recommending a search engine here.
  • I really like using Bing search. I've been using it for the past 3 years now. Never use Google search anymore.
  • Managed to do it successfully, but not without jumping through lots of hoops just to get it done. This tip helped, though I also have to rely on Outlook's guide as well because I have to configure GMail to forward its mail to another hotmail account in order for Outlook to send and receive mail from the former.
  • Try this: https://secure5.trueswitch.com/hotmail/
  • Bye bye Google...
    Now moving everything over to outlook, and everything Google is down the drain...
  • Transition of the calendar, and contacts: done. Contacts was a bit of a hassle. I removed,Facebook and twitter accounts, then deleted all contacts. Then imported the file. Then added fb and twitter again.
  • You'll be glad you switch to outlook. MS made it easier, cleaner, and more beautiful than ever. Everything is integrated including your cloud. Go ahead, switch. You'll thank yourself for it.
  • I'm going to switch contacts, calendar and mail to Outlook, Gmail will only be used for Youtube and Google Reader nothing more!
  • Does any one know how to transfer about 1800 contacts from Gmail to Outlook with all the contact pictures intact even when it exceeds the 500kb limit?
  • Been thinking of boycotting as many Google products as possible for a while now. And I realise I should have done this a long time ago, so thank you Google for dropping Exchange support, now I have one less reason to look your way. Thinking of deleting Chrome, too.
  • Should be a sticky.
  • Lucky for me, I've been a hotmail user since 2000, back when it was MSN Hotmail. I've seen it go through three iterations. GMail has its strengths but its advanced features like label, conversation view, etc. weren't that enticing to me. Google is just being plain evil by screwing over its users who just happen to prefer the Microsoft platforms and possibly forcing them to switch. They have always treated windows phone as a second class citizen by giving it an inferior page, but all these recent changes are pushing me off most of Google's ecosystem. Unfortunately there is no viable youtube alternative.
  • Gmail is hardly to log-in China! I've been using hotmail for 9 years.
  • I have add gmail account to outlook. However, the email sent to my gmail never got outlook inbox. I have enabled pop in gmail and disabled imap. Does anyone have the same problem?
  • I am so glad that I was slowly phasing away from gmail for a while anyway. Google has gone from Do No Evil to thermonuclear war upon Redmond. I think it is time to phase Google out of my life in general.