How to Extract Outlook Emails to MBOX Format with MessageExport

If you are migrating away from Microsoft Outlook, you may want to bring all or some of your Outlook messages to your new email client.   MBOX (RFC-4155) is an open email file format and is compatible with most Outlook alternative clients.  

Outlook emails are stored as PST/OST files. The MBOX email storage format is not natively supported by Outlook, which makes migrating your emails to Thunderbird or other email clients nearly impossible.

MessageExport is an Outlook add-in by Encryptomatic LLC that vastly expands Outlook's ability to save emails in different formats. Among the many new formats that MessageExport adds to Outlook is MBOX.  

Using MessageExport

MessageExport add-in works with Outlook 365/2019/2016/2013/2010.  A free trial is available that will allow you to use the add-in free for 15 days.  Following the free trial, MessageExport will continue working, allowing individual email exports.

You can use MessageExport to select multiple emails, or even an Outlook folder, and then export those emails to a single MBOX file.

To use MessageExport, first choose MBOX from the drop down list.

Next, select the emails you want to export to MBOX.

Now click the "Export" button.

 

Select Emails to Export, Choose MBOX, and Click Export Button

The result is that your chosen Outlook emails have been saved to a single MBOX file which you can now import to another email client.

Other Formats Added to Outlook

In addition to MBOX, MessageExport brings other new formats to Microsoft Outlook, including:

PDF, PDF/A, Single PDF, MSG, EML, HTML, MHT, TXT, JPG, GIF, TIF, CSV, and bulk exporting to printers, exporting email file attachments, zip, and more.

If you have any questions about using MessageExport to save Outlook email to MBOX, please post them in the comments or email us at supportline@encryptomatic.com

For more information on MessageExport including pricing, visit the official MessageExport home page.

Saving Outlook Emails to a Single PDF File

Very few software applications will allow you to export multiple Outlook email messages directly to a single PDF file.  MessageExport is an add-in for Outlook that performs this task easily. Although this capability is not unlimited, since PDF files have a hard cap on file size, MessageExport is able to meet the 'single pdf' needs of most of its users.

First, why would anyone want to export multiple emails into one very large PDF file?  When working with a quantity of emails, preparing email for a special purpose such as litigation, or archiving emails, a single pdf offers the convenience of transportability and organization when compared to managing multiple smaller PDF files.  Organizing emails into a single PDF file makes it easy to share and store messages.

Using MessageExport is straightforward. Just select your email messages from the Outlook mail list, choose the "export profile" you want such as "Export to Single PDF," and then click the blue Export button.

MessageExport Add-in installed for Outlook 2010

Encryptomatic LLC, the developers of MessageExport, have made the software very flexible. While it will likely accomplish 95% of what you need right out of the box, you can edit any of its operational settings.  As an example, the export profile called "Singe PDF - attachments saved to disk," can be edited, changed, or you can build your own export profile. This gives you a lot of flexibility to organize routine tasks and save time.

As another example, you could also choose to build a new export profile that runs at a regular interval to export new emails into a single pdf file, then adds it to a password protected zip file, gives it a special name, copies it to a Sharepoint library, and then executes a shell command. While most people will not need to do this, this powerful functionality is built into every copy of MessageExport.

Export profiles can also be saved to an xml file, and then imported into another copy of MessageExport. This makes it easy for an administrator or power user to design a complex profile and then share it with other users.

The best way to experience the power of MessageExport is to download a free trial and use it for 15 days. The only limitation of the trial is a 50-email batch processing limit.  After the trial is completed, don't uninstall MessageExport!  It will revert to "free" mode, and continue to let you to export individual email messages to PDF, GIF, TIF, PNG, BMP, MSG, EML and other formats

Outlook to PDF: Converting Office Document File Attachments Into PDF Files

PDF is a good format for archiving email as it can embed the original look and formatting of an email message.  However, correctly handling a wide range of email file attachments when converting Outlook email to PDF files can be a difficult challenge. 

MessageExport add-in for Microsoft Outlook helps you overcome this challenge by providing selectable pdf export methods that help you achieve the desired end result.

Let's look at the different ways that MessageExport processes emails and file attachments to PDF documents.

Converting Document Email Attachments to the PDF image.

Using the export profile called "Export to PDF - Attachments converted/included" causes MessageExport to create PDFs that embed email file attachments as images within the PDF document. Conversion of most image and document file attachment is supported.

The original name of the file is placed vertically along the left page margin so that it's easy to identify the name of the file.  This is a method that is often used when preparing email for legal purposes. It's very convenient, as the documents are easily visible within the PDF, and no software other than a PDF viewer is needed to view the documents. The documents are "frozen" in their original state and cannot be readily altered.

What happens if an attachment is unable to be converted?  MessageExport will default to embedding the file within the PDF to preserve it's context.  This means that the file can later be extracted from the PDF and separately analyzed.

Embedding Outlook Email Attachments within a PDF

When it is necessary to keep all email file attachments as separate documents so that they may be extracted and later edited or manipulated with their native software application, MessageExport provides a profile called, "Export to PDF - Attachments Embedded." 

This profile will cause MessageExport to create PDF files that are not part of the PDF image, but rather embedded within the PDF document as separate files.  Using any standard PDF viewer, the documents can be later extracted and used.

This method works very well for personal email archiving, where it may be desirable to be able to have full access to the original documents  for editing or to continue working on them.

Extracting Outlook File Attachments

MessageExport makes it easy to save Outlook email file attachments to a Windows 10 folder, in bulk.  This process involves selecting the appropriate email messages in Outlook's message list (Control-A will select all emails in the list), then choosing the profile called, "Export to PDF - Attachments saved to disk."

MessageExport will leave the original email attachment within Outlook, so nothing is altered in Outlook's pst file.  A copy of the original file attachment is placed in the selected Windows folder, where it can be easily accessed. 


A free 15 trial of MessageExport for Outlook can be downloaded from the product home page.