tanstaafl wrote:"Forgot: Are Contacts and Calendar retained?"
Yes. They're global, so they are unaffected by deleting an account.
Yes and no. If you delete an email account but the old server stays online, then your contacts and calendar will be saved. But if your contacts and calendar are hosted online, then they will be removed when your company pulls the plug on the Google at work server. And if they do it the typical way (i.e. changing DNS so that mail.yourcompany.com points to Microsoft Office instead of Google), then you won't have access to both platforms at the same time.
What would be an appropriate way to transfer your corporate accounts
If they have hired a reputable IT firm, they should transfer all your data (emails, calendars, contacts, tasks) from Google to Microsoft Office. If they do that correctly, then all your information will be accessible via the new servers. But if they don't do that and simply "pull the plug" on the old server, then it's your responsibility to download everything
before they pull the plug. And even if they do it correctly, then you'll be safe as you will have a backup.
Being safe and downloading copies
The following will work whether your company transfers your old information or not.
Emails
The easiest way to do so is to stay online, but copy all messages to local folders.
1. In the "Local Folders" hierarchy, you may create folders such as "Company's Google–Inbox", "Company's Google- Sent mail", etc., for all the folders you currently have under your Google account hierarchy.
2. One folder at a time (starting with Inbox), select all messages, right-click on them
and select "Copy to –> Local Folders –> Company's Google–Inbox"
3. Depending on the amount of stuff you have (incl. attachment size) and your connection speed, stay connected a long time to make sure all data is transferred. Why not keep Thunderbird open all night?
4. When the new account is open on Microsoft, you might elect to transfer your messages back from the local folders hierarchy to their various respective folders.
Contacts
The same general approach applies.
– If you are using the regular Address Book and your contacts are local, then you are OK.
– If you are using the regular Address Book with gContactsSync, then your contacts are on Google.
Either export them in a CSV file in Thunderbird or do the same in the browser by connecting to Gmail.
(You may also export contacts using vCards, but I'm not sure it works as well.
– If you are using Cardbook and connecting to your contacts on Google, then right-click on the name of the contact list and select "Export".
When you have access to your new server, then import your contacts in your new system.
Calendar(s)
– Export each online calendar as an "ics" file.
– When you have access to your new server, then import your calendars in your new system.
Other info
Depending on how your Microsoft Outlook server is configured, you may need a few different extensions.
– For email, you should be OK. For some private Exchange servers you might need "Owl for Exchange" (a paid but affordable extension).
– For Calendars and Contacts, you might need TbSync (with the 2 associated extensions: Provider for CalDAV and CardDAV, and Provider for Exhange ActiveSync) to connect to your online contacts and calendars.
