Why & How to Migrate Emails from Lotus Notes to Outlook

An easy guide to make sure how to migrate emails from Lotus Notes to MS Outlook along with the email header without using any tool or application. 

 

Why User Requires Migrating Mail from Lotus Notes to MS Outlook?

 

Lotus Notes is a desktop email client generated by IBM and offers emailing as a part of its suite. Storage of all the data (emails,  calendars, journals and tasks, etc.) is done in an NSF (database.nsf) file while the contacts are stored separately as an address book file (names.nsf). It is considered as one of the most widely used email programs that is preferred particularly by professionals with need of a secure emailing environment with workflow provision.

On the other hand, MS Outlook is also a popular email application from the brand of Microsoft that offers similar set of features but on a less complicated UI compared to that of IBM Notes. MS Outlook saves the email data of a user profile in a PST file (Outlook.pst). Being the proprietary format of Outlookt and having an evidently different structure and extension, this file isn’t compatible/accessible on the platform of Lotus Notes or any other platform.

Both, PST as well as NSF files are distinct in their own respective ways and are not supported by desktop clients other than their own. This is probably one of the strongest reasons, that makes conversion of Lotus Notes NSF to MS Outlook PST format mandatory in order to switch between clients.

Know How to Export Lotus Notes Emails to MS Outlook Manually

 

Before applying these steps it is highly recommended that you backup your NSF file to avoid the loss of your precious data, in case anything happens.

The Entire Process is Divided into Two Phases

Phases 1: Exportation of Lotus Notes NSF Data

Step-1: In the first step, launch Lotus Notes application on your PC.

Step-2: Open your database.nsf on Lotus Notes client to start the export process.

Step-3: Go to File menu from the Menu bar and click on Export from the list of options.

Step-4: Provide a name to the output file and choose “Comma Separated Value” from the “save as type” or “Structured Text”. Then, click on the Export button.

Step-5: The given below dialog box will appear on selecting Comma Separated Value as the output file type. Select All Documents from “How Much To Export” option and Default Character Set from “Export Character Set”. Click on OK to finish the export process.

Or

 

If you chose the “Structured Text” option, then the following dialog box will appear.

Phases 2: Importing the Output CSV In MS Outlook

Step-1: Open your MS Outlook profile >> Click on File >> Select Import

Step-2: Select “Import from another program or file” option from the Import and Export Wizard >> Click on Next button.

Step-3: Now select the file type as Comma Separated Values (Windows) to import the file >> Click on the Next button.

Step-4: Click on Browse to choose the file path (path of the file created in the first part) >> Click Next.

Step-5: Now select a Destination Folder within MS Outlook to import the Lotus Notes data in >> Click Next.

NOTE: These steps help to export only header information of emails. Thus, to export email body as well, a commercial application has to be used.

There are many software programs that help to convert Lotus Notes NSF to MS Outlook PST file along with all mail components. Lotus Notes Mail to Outlook Conversion tool is one such tool that offers a lot of helpful features to proceed a safe and accurate migration as per the user’s requirement. Having a trial edition is an extra benefit provided by the tool for testing purpose.