How to convert Lotus Notes mailbox to Outlook? Get an efficient solution to transfer Lotus Notes emails to Outlook by converting Notes NSF Folder to Outlook PST
Convert Lotus Notes Mailbox to Outlook
In this article, we will discuss the challenges people are facing to migrate the data of IBM Notes to Outlook. As Lotus Notes is a popular email client by IBM. It provides business collaborative features like emails, calendars, team rooms, journals, instant messaging, blogs, etc. Whereas Outlook is another email application by Microsoft. It also supports almost same functions but with some different functions. But due to business requirements, users want to convert Lotus Notes mailbox to Outlook.
User Query
“Hey! I am a Lotus Notes user but due to my company’s collaboration with any other company, I have multiple accounts to get access to. In Notes, I can’t access my multiple accounts at the same time. So I found that I can switch to MS Outlook as it is one of the easiest email clients and it can handle many accounts at the same time. So, I need to move my entire Lotus Notes mailbox to MS Outlook. Please suggest!”
Brief Introduction
It is decided that a user needs to convert Lotus Notes email database to Outlook. But it is important to know about the different file formats these email clients support.
NSF: It stands for Notes Storage Facility which is basically a database file to keep the data like emails, calendars, contacts, etc in the form of notes in IBM Lotus Notes proprietary application.
PST: It stands for Personal Storage Table. It is also a data storage file which is used to store the personal information in Outlook and Exchange like emails, calendars, contacts, etc.
Reasons for Lotus Notes to Outlook migration
There are many reasons that one want to export Lotus Notes emails to Outlook:
- Maintenance Cost: It is expensive to repair the general issues in Lotus Notes. There are some inbuilt utilities in Outlook that even a non-technical person can run to fix the basic errors.
- User Interface: The interface of the Outlook is quite easy and simple to use as compared to Lotus Notes. Anyone can use his/her mailbox data in Outlook.
- Complexity: Complexity is one of the reason to convert Lotus Notes mailbox to Outlook. As there are many features in Lotus Notes but a user cannot use or access such features due to its complexity. The interface is too difficult to understand that a user finds it a bit complex to handle the mailbox items.
- Errors: Sometimes, due to some reasons NSF files get corrupted like Power Failure, abrupt shutdown, header corruption, checksum mismatch, etc. If any user tries to reach the file, one can get error messages and he is unable to open his data.
Manual Approach to Export Lotus Notes Folders to Outlook
There is a two-step method to execute the conversion process. You can use and migrate Lotus Notes mailbox to Outlook by the following method.
1. Export Lotus Notes Database
- Open IBM Notes Application.
- Click on the Mail tab.
- Go to the File option from the menu bar.
- Now click on the Export option to proceed.
- In Export wizard, you will get various options to choose the file format in which you want to export the data items from Lotus Notes.
- Now choose the Tabular Text or Structured Text. Both of these formats are supported by Outlook.
- Click on Continue to proceed with the export process.
- Click on Export button and move the data items of the mailbox.
2. Import data in Outlook
- Open MS Outlook email application to convert Lotus Notes mailbox to Outlook
- Go to File menu and click on Import and Export option.
- Click on Next to proceed. Now Import and Export Wizard gets opened.
- Now select the format to export the file. Choose either Comma Separated Values (CSV) (Windows) or Tab Separated Values (Windows).
- Click on Next. Select and browse the file that you have exported from Lotus Notes.
- At last, Click on Finish.
Contents
Drawbacks of Manual Approach
There is a possibility that above method may confuse any non-technical users. They can face challenges in moving their Lotus Notes database to Outlook. If any user is trying to migrate multiple NSF files then he may lose some data. If the data in Lotus Notes mailbox is corrupted then it is difficult to recover and convert. But you can try an inbuilt utility fixup-f command to repair the damaged NSF file.
Expertise Solution
For every user, data is very important and he cannot afford to lose his valuable data. So, keeping the priority to keep the data safe, a user needs a better solution to export Lotus Notes email to OutlookYou can opt for an automated solution to convert Lotus Notes mailbox to Outlook in an easy way. The application is so simple to use that even a non-technical person can also understand the tool. It is a trouble-free solution for all the users looking for the perfect solution.
Conclusion
In this article, all the relevant details have been discussed and a convenient method to export Lotus Notes mail file to Outlook. One can follow above manual approach to convert Lotus Notes mailbox to Outlook. But an easy and efficient third-party solution is also mentioned which is a hassle free solution and one can move his mailbox without any data loss.
