How to convert .nsf (IBM Lotus Notes) to .pst (MS Outlook) or other mail client format

Question

I have a user who would like to make a local archive of his Lotus Notes mail file (we use Lotus Notes where I work) and then open it in another mail client, such as Outlook or Thunderbird.

IMAP is a last resort since that requires switching mail servers (which for us involves other prep to reduce the mail file size), but it is not out of the question (that is the suggestion here: How to export mails from Lotus Notes into another mail client?). To clarify, we have IMAP disabled on most of our mail servers (for information security or stability reasons, I'm assuming, though I would need to check the exact reasons with our mail admins), and so if someone wants to use IMAP we move them to the one server reserved for that. However, since we've had stability issues transferring large mail files (I'm talking of 15GB mail files with tens of thousands of emails), we require that people reduce the mail file to under 2GB and the inbox to 1,000 messages. In this particular case the user was wondering if there was some other way to archive his file for later use on other clients, without having to clean up his mail file.

Ideally, I would take the mail replica which is in .nsf format, and convert it to .pst format or some other format. The forums I have found seem to all have posts by people plugging their own dubious converters, so I am wondering if anyone has had any success with a particular converter (if they even exist). Others say it can't really be done easily.

It would also be possible for my customer to keep a copy of Lotus Notes installed solely for opening his mail file, but it would be easier to keep it in another mail client. There is a similar question asked here, but the answers point back to using an IBM product (https://stackoverflow.com/questions/1927655/how-to-read-lotus-notes-mail-archives-nsf).

There are paid converters, such as Stellar NSF to PST Converter, but I'm not sure if they are any good, and this isn't really something worth paying for since the archive would only be needed occasionally and there are other free workarounds (although, as mentioned, not ideal)

Solution

I found one other way to make an archive of emails is to drag and drop the email out of Lotus Notes and into a folder in Windows Explorer. Doing this automatically saves them in .eml format, and is basically just a copy of the email headers. You can then open those in another email client. The benefit is that this can be done on a larger scale than saving email headers one at a time, though it's obviously more work than converting a replica. There should be a way to automate this too, I would think. As I explained in another comment, the most common situation we have this is where people are leaving our organization and want an archive of their mail. In some cases, all they want to copy is a few emails and so this solution makes sense. So in summary, these are the options:

1) IMAP (we only allow IMAP on one server so this involves a move, and to move we require people to reduce their mail file. Also, if this request is just a few days before their last day, a move might not be feasible)

2) Save a replica to be used only in Lotus Notes

3) Drag and drop to a folder to create .eml files that can be opened in any mail client. When I have tested this also includes attachments

One other note: When dragging and dropping, if it saves them as a shortcut make sure you have this setting correct (note, if you drag and drop a folder from Lotus Notes it will not save a file but rather a shortcut, no matter the settings):

FILE > PREFERENCES > BASIC NOTES CLIENT CONFIGURATION > Drag and drop saves as eml file

Comments

[rhsatrhs]

Is this a one-off request, or is the customer undergoing a migration? Also, why does IMAP require switching mail servers? Any Domino server should be able to support IMAP. Finally, have you talked to IBM. They have something they called "Project Hawthorne" and I think the formal name is "IBM mail support for Microsoft Outlook 2013". I think it is only in limited release, so it might require getting in touch with IBM's product managers in order to get it, but if the customer is big enough it could be what you want.

[rhsatrhs]

That all makes sense. I don't know what those various tools that show up with the obvious google search cost, and I've always been very suspicious of them myself. If you're going through a full migration, there's a good chance you'll be talking to Binary Tree or Dell (they acquired Quest a few years ago) about their migration tools. Maybe they would have a demo/trial toolkit that you could try for this one user's mailbox, so you could try contacting them in the name of "research" for your future migration. Their tools will be much more industrial-strength than anything else.

[John]

I think your point about Notes being far removed from other email standards is useful to keep in mind, meaning that any conversion is pretty imprecise anyway. I put more info about our IMAP situation in the question. I think I'll probably just go with IMAP in this particular case, but I might test some converters and post what I find

[Julian Knight]

IMAP has its own issues that I think are being compounded by Notes from your description. One thing to keep in mind, you should get users to clear out both their inbox and their sent items folders, having these too big has been known to cause issues for a number of IMAP mail servers. Other large folders should be OK.