Reading Microsoft Outlook Express .dbx files

[Tim Peters]

[posted & mailed]

[Steve Holden]
> In my trek through the various mail packages the Windoze user may be
> confronted with I am currently battling with Outlook Express.
> It's actually rather better than I feared.

Hint:  The undocumented Ctrl+F3 brings up a box with the actual raw email,
headers and MIME separators and all (only in OE; Outlook doesn't support
this, and AFAICT Outlook doesn't even save the original stream).

> Its native folder format appears to be a ".dbx" file, about which
> I have no information.

Also undocumented.

> Does any reader have experience with either reading these files, or
> automating OEx to provide them to a Python program in RFC822-style
> formats?

Check out this pragmatic reverse-engineering:

    http://sourceforge.net/projects/mbx2mbox/

    Converts Outlook .mbx and .dbx files into standard RFC822
    mail files.  Mailboxes from newer versions of Outlook and
    Outlook express may not be supported.

If you ever have to deal with Outlook .pst format, though, that's black
magic at a whole 'nother level, using both undocumented compression and
undocumented encryption schemes.  Never found anything that understands
.pst.  Best way to convert Outlook msgs to std form I ever found was to
*mail* Outlook msgs, as attachments, from Outlook to a Unixish client, and
pick them apart on the receiving end.

no-actual-need-to-break-the-code-ly y'rs  - tim