When we talk about email & email handling applications, we cannot deny the presence of Outlook - it's one of the famous and highly preferred emails clients for Windows as well as Mac. Besides, it is considered as the best email client for businesses, corporates, organizations, individuals who handle more than 100 emails a day.

Although MS Outlook is also versioned for the Mac platform, sometimes Mac users need to convert their PST file to MBOX. But, what makes Mac users convert their Outlook PST file into MBOX?

Reasons Why You Need to Convert PST to MBOX

Given below are most common reasons to state why you may need to convert Outlook PST files to MBOX file format supported by different email clients like Apple Mail, Mozilla Thunderbird, Eudora, SeaMonkey, Netscape, Evolution, Spice bird and more.

  • MS Outlook becomes expensive for many normal users in long run as after a point of time they need to buy the licensed version of MS Office. You can download MS Outlook and register to evaluate the product within the trial period but afterward, purchasing a license is necessary. Therefore, they feel the need to migrate to MBOX supporting email clients free of cost. Desktop email clients that are available either as open source or for free on the web are quite preferred by single users.
  • PST files become corrupt and may become inaccessible in MS Outlook. When we speak on Microsoft products, the native methods to fix the issues of file corruption or damage lacks the ability, and PSTs are bound to work only with Outlook. Thus, if the file corrupts for once and you"ll be stuck for long.
  • Outlook users have to stick with Windows OS, whereas MBOX files can be accessed on any OS. For example, Windows, MacOS, Linux, etc.
Features PST (Personal Storage Table) MBOX (MailBox File)
Operating System It's accessible on all versions of the Windows operating system. You can open it on any system running Windows, MacOS, and even Linux (including distros).
Application(s)
  • PST files are accessible only in MS Outlook. Also, you can import these files to Microsoft platforms like MS Exchange Server, Office 365, and Outlook for Mac.
  • Also, you can use free applications like Kernel PST Viewer to view PST emails.
  • MBOX format is used by email clients such as Thunderbird, Apple Mail, Eudora, Entourage, Postbox, PocoMail, Netscape, Spicebird, Claws Mail, Opera, PowerMail, Sylpheed, Evolution, SeaMonkey, Mulberry, GyazMail, Sparrow, Gnu, and The Bat!. Also, Gmail creates email backups in MBOX format.
  • Also, you can use free applications like Kernel MBOX Viewer to view MBOX emails.
Cost Outlook is not made available for free. You have to buy it.

You can download any Linux distro and install Mozilla Thunderbird on your system to open the MBOX file, without really spending anything.

Now, that you know and understand why and when someone might need to convert the Outlook PST data file to MBOX (MailBox file), and the basic differentiation between the two file formats, next comes, how you can convert the PST file to MBOX?

To perform Outlook PST to MBOX (Mozilla Thunderbird) file conversion, we'd suggest using Kernel for Outlook PST Repair, an advanced tool created to handle all sorts of issues or needs associated with Outlook PST data file.

The tool is specially designed to scan and repair the damaged/corrupt PST file. Also, it allows users to convert the repaired PST files into MBOX and other different file formats. Here, we'll show you how to convert a PST file to MBOX with Kernel for Outlook PST tool.

  1. Download PST to MBOX converter tool and install on your system.
  2. On launching the tool, a welcome window will appear on the screen. launching the tool
  3. Browse the file that you want to recover/repair and click "Next," click Next Note: From this section, you can also add multiple PST files.
  4. In the next step, read the information and click "Finish" to start the repairing process. start the repairing process
  5. Once the repairing process is complete, you'll be able to see the folders of the file. Click any folder to preview its emails/items in the tool. Click any folder to preview its emails/items in the tool Note: You can also preview email attachments from here by double-clicking the attachment.
  6. Now, to save this file into MBOX format, click the Save button from the upper left corner of the tool. Select "MBOX file" from the opened window and click "Next". click Next
  7. In the next step, select the specific filters that you want to apply to the PST file and click "Next." apply to the PST file
  8. Now, select the Email client for the MBOX file, and specify the location where you want to save the MBOX file. Click "Finish" to complete the process, Click Finish Note: If you want to exclude the deleted items from the file, then check the checkbox "Exclude deleted items."
  9. A notification wizard will appear on your screen displaying "Items has been saved successfully," click "Ok" to close the process. click Ok to close the process This way you can quickly repair a PST file and convert PST to MBOX file.

Final Words

Converting PST to MBOX might become a necessity when you want to access your Outlook data with Mac email clients. But, the conversion process will take you through a lot of obstacles if the PST file is damaged and you don’t use the right technique for it. In this article, we discussed how you can export your Outlook PST data to MBOX file format with an alternative solution known as Kernel Outlook PST, which first repairs the corrupt PST file and then converts it to MBOX and other file formats.

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PST Repair

Kernel forOutlook PST

Repair PST files and save to PST, MBOX, Office 365 & Exchange.

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