Title
Converting PST & OST files to MBOX format
Detailed description
The challenge for many collecting institutions is that they acquire email archives in various formats, one of these is the proprietary MS Outlook PST & OST.
The challenge is the convert off-line .OST or .PST files into MBox format. Most of our attention focused on MBox, but we also did a quick evaluation of EML conversion tools.
Solution Champion
"
donald mennerich
Corresponding Issue(s)
"Apprasing OST file for restricted data
Tool/code link
LibPST
- a linux library to convert PST files to mbox
Evaluation
There are both open source linux tools and several commercial solutions. The right fit will depend upon the workflow. The linux solution is easily integrated into scripts. We recommend the commercial solutions, with caution, if a conversion to MBox (or EML) format is required and the user needs a friendly GUI or doesn't have access to linux.
5 Comments
comments.show.hideJun 04, 2013
Maurice de Rooij
I want to suggest converting the PST and OST to EML files (RFC 2822) http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc2822
(if you are interested have a prototype available written in VBS to convert to EML)
Reason: MBOX comes in many flavors. It is hard to parse in a straightforward way. It is also not ACID compliant and there are potential file locking problems when reading/writing simultaneously.
Jun 04, 2013
Kari Smith
Thanks! Will take this option under consideration.
Jun 04, 2013
Bill LeFurgy
Will your VBS prototype work with an OST file? We don't have a PST export.
Jun 05, 2013
Maurice de Rooij
I haven't tried that, but you can probably convert it to a pst with scanpst.exe (Microsoft tool).
This seems to be a useful link:
Also found this (haven't tried that as well):
I read you are looking for an Open Source solution, there is one, though it is from a commercial company: Aspose
HTH,
Maurice
Jun 05, 2013
Bill LeFurgy
Thanks for these links--will check them out.