Email is the most widely accepted medium of communication among personal & business domains. We are fortunate to have plenty of Email clients such as Exchange Server, Outlook, Outlook Express, Lotus Notes, Windows Live Mail and Entourage etc. Each mail client uses a specific file format to store its mailbox data. These Email formats and file extensions differ from client to client.
Why Need for Email Client Migration Software Arises?
The user tends to migrate from one email client to another that offers better messaging, collaboration and extended features. Client migration also depends upon personal preferences, organisational needs & other factors such as cost or training needs.
Below are the common factors responsible for user’s migration from one email client to another:
• Search for better, widened characteristics & feature set.
• Enhanced email management and processing speed.
• Technical advancement and perfection.
• More interactive user interface.
• Ease of data access & use.
• Change in Job/Company location.
• Opting for increased number of inbuilt tools & add-ons.
• Larger mailbox storage capacity.
• Easy archiving, increased throughput, maintenance of data fidelity, portability, cross integration features, adaptability mobility and migration support etc.
• Migrating from one email application to another.
• Unfamiliar Email file format: User prefers to convert to an email format which is most suited to his/her needs.
• Cross-platform portability like switching to another OS/Hardware makes the user to transform the file to another format to avoid any non-compatibility. When user migrates from one platform to another or changes his OS then, he needs email conversion for wider accessibility on different platforms such as: various versions of Windows, Mac and Linux etc.
• Better data encryption, compression and interactive features supported by a format.
• Selecting a format that proposes efficient email management, access and transmission.
• Prevent Email file from corruption: Some file formats offers better security and encryption mechanisms thus, they are less prone to corruption. So, the user chooses to convert their Email formats to some standard & less corruption susceptible formats.
•Mail Archiving and Backup: Some user prefers to convert the current file format to the standard file formats as a mean of backup or archive.
•E-discovery, forensics analysis, database entry are some secondary factors that give rise to the need of Email conversion so that, the user can easily search, filter, collect, extract data and analyze the data from the desired Mail file format to create a custom output.
The email client can itself incorporate some conversion mechanisms or you may require installing a separate software to convert one email format to another.
Some programs provide inbuilt conversion options:
• ‘ File|Save As’ option
• Import / Export wizard
• Inbuilt conversion tool or command
‘File|Save As’: Some email clients offers a native ‘Save As’ option for saving the file to a particular format. You can choose the ‘Save As’ option if your desired format is listed there. It is the easiest and simplest way for file conversion.
Import /Export Wizard: The native Import/ Export wizard of the email clients provides some specific list of file formats to which the mailbox data that can be exported. Thus, it offers interoperability and compatibility with other Email applications.
P.S: Changing the file extension has nothing to do with the file format. If you think that merely changing the file extension could change the Email file format then, you are wrong. If you would change the .file extension it will just change its name.
If the email application itself has no such inbuilt Email conversion mechanism then, you will require an external email converter software that can magnificently cater your conversion needs.
Types of Email Migration Software for File Conversion:
• Web-based/Online: You can locate the different type of email converter software over the Internet. Some converter sites offer online conversion mechanisms and you don’t require downloading or purchasing the software. Upload your file, they will do the conversion at their end and return the converted Email file to you.
• Downloadable and Installable Converter Software:
You can also find downloadable versions of different Email Converter Tools. Run the software demo and evaluate the output to decide its efficacy/accuracy and later go on to purchase.
Let’s have a look at the second category of Email converters.
Features of Email Converter software:
• Converter tools overcome the limitations of inbuilt conversion utilities.
• Some Email Converter software allows you to repair your corrupt email file and then convert your Mailbox data.
• Scan feature: The converter software offers efficient scanning techniques that let you scan entire mailbox data items such as attachments, journals, draft, appointments, journals, tasks, notes etc. or selected items only.
• Preview: It shows a preview of the recovered and converted mailboxes before saving them.
• Simple and interactive GUI Interface: These tools being self-explanatory & user-friendly allows even a non-technical user to perform conversion without many efforts.
• It let the user perform selected mailbox recovery.
• Deleted mail recovery: Some converters software converts the mailbox data and performs deleted item recovery.
• File hierarchy is preserved: It keeps the file hierarchy intact after conversion. All email properties and other credentials are maintained as they were before conversion.
• It performs the quick and easy conversion.
• It offers a simple workflow so that, no technical assistance is required while performing the conversion.
• It offers custom settings so that, the user can choose desired options while conversion.
• It preserves the text formatting, multimedia or graphics inside the emails.
• It is easily downloadable and installable.
• A single tool can offer the option to convert the mail file to multiple formats.
• It let the user choose the location for saving the converted file. As well as user can change its default name.
• Some tools can perform the conversion for unmounted and mounted mail files.
• It let you choose the file to be imported from any location on the system or from an external storage device.
• It maintains data integrity and consistency of file after conversion
• It can also convert encrypted or password-protected files.
• It let the user perform batch conversion i.e. convert multiple files simultaneously.
• It supports Unicode and ANSI files encoding.
• It offers a wide range of compatibility and portability by providing support for multiple versions of the OS and Email application.
• It let the user save the LOG file or entire history of the e-mail conversion process.
The Email converter software is of great use to a user for performing an efficient Email conversion.
However, the converter software also possesses few limitations.
Some limitations of Email Converter software are:
• A single tool doesn’t support all mail file formats.
• While migrating to another format, some converter tools may skip the corrupted data.
• There is a limited and predefined limit on the number of files to be selected and converted.
• Some tools couldn’t perform an efficient conversion and user may face problems while opening converted files.
• There is a limited and predefined limit on the size of a file to be selected and converted.
• The processing gets slow with increasing number of files and file size thus takes more time for conversion.
• Some tools may cause Data loss after conversion.
• A user must match the specification of the converter software with his/her system; else he/she might buy a wrong tool & loose money.
• Some tools offer additional options and complex features that might be difficult for a naive user to understand.
• Some tools that don’t support both ASCII & UNICODE may cause a disturbed formatting of the converted mails. It can make the user lose data such as Diacritical marks (like é, è, ç), Non-Latin characters and signed MIME etc.
• Some tool fails to convert the file if special mail file properties are missing or corrupted.
• Some tools incorporate poor conversion mechanism that can turn the emails unreadable. Also, they can make the user lose mail information such as attachments, status information (read, replied, and flagged etc.) and folder hierarchy etc.
So, before buying any converter software, go through the following checklist:
Is it easy to use for naive users?
Are you getting any technical support service for resolving the software related queries?
Is the company offering a secure and easy purchase mechanism?
Does the company offer any Money Back Guarantee?
Is the vendor offering any additional help & user manual for an easy description of the working of the software?
Does the converter software possess all the desired features at a reasonable price?
Beside all these, carefully read all product specifications, the supported OS versions, and other hardware and software support. Any wrong purchase could lead you to drastic money and data loss situations. So, be wise and carefully select an efficient Email converter software that meets all your needs.
Was this article helpful?
