How To - Moving Google AppSync Outlook Mailbox Data

Posted Tue, 11/03/2009 - 15:16 by MWalker

With the release of Google's Outlook AppSync Connector, many users and organizations have used this tool to connect Microsoft Outlook to GoogleApps email.  One of the most painful parts of the AppSync Connector is the initial synchronization process.  Having a large mailbox means this process could take quite a long time.

Recently, a user with a 6+ GB mailbox had a major system crash.  The harddrive was fine but the system was not bootable.  It was important to get the user restored ASAP.  It was also critical to retrieve the data in Outlook "notes" and "tasks" .  Unfortunately that data is NOT sync'd via the AppSync Connector to GoogleApps so it was not available via the GoogleApps Gmail interface.

I grabbed a freshly built laptop and created a new profile.  I then rebooted in safe mode and logged in as Administrator.  Using a USB sled, I connected the old harddrive and copied the profile data over from the original harddrive. 

I thought I was golden when I saw the mail profile for GoogleApps listed there, but when I launched Outlook it complained it could not open my default folders.  Next I used the GoogleAppSync "Setup a New User" Start Menu item to create a new mail profile.  There is no need to "import" any data from any existing profile or PST.  After launching Outlook and watching it start the synchronizationprocess, I shutdown Outlook.  

I then opened the "C:\Documents and Settings\username\Local Settings\Application Data\Google\Google Apps Sync" folder and created a "backup" folder.  Sorting by date, you should see the "sets" of data files for each mail profile, one "new" set created a few minutes ago and the older set with larger file sizes.  Move the "new" data files in backup folder and you may also want to create a "copy" of the old files to put into the folder as well.

Now the trick... Copy the magic ID code that is part of the NEW file names.  Then replace the old ID code in the OLD files with this new code.  The file names will look like one of these...

Just replace the "01ca17ad-a586e986" string from the old files with the string from the NEW files.  Essentially renaming the old files to the new file names. 

Now simply cross your fingers and open the appropriate Outlook profile.  The old profile will have to synchronize the latest updates, but that is 6GB less of data to download from GoogleApps.  I verified the task and note data from old profile is present.

End result was ~1 hour to get the mail profile back to good working order instead of several days of synchronizing 6GB of mail and importing tasks and notes from the PST file and/or restoring from backup.