How to Convert Lotus Notes NSF Files into PST with free Techniques

Ankit Kumar Sinha
3 min readApr 16, 2021

Lotus Notes from IBM is a popular email client used by professionals worldwide. Lotus Notes uses NSF File format to store the email. PST is the file format of Outlook, where all the emails of Outlook are stored in the PST file format. As compared to Lotus Notes and Outlook, users generally prefer Microsoft Outlook. So in this blog, I will try to explain how to convert Lotus Notes NSF Files into PST, including reasons, limitations, and methods to convert the files.

The reason why we are getting into this conversation is, there is always the need of exchanging the files into different file formats and email clients. Therefore users need to convert their files.

Why to Convert NSF to PST Email File?

There are several reasons to convert NSF Files to PST Files, some of the basic reasons are as follows.

  • Converting NSF files into Outlook PST takes less cost maintenance.
  • Lotus Notes is less user-friendly as compared to MS Outlook.
  • Outlook is suitable for both technical and non-technical users. Non-technical users find it difficult to work on Lotus Notes.
  • Lotus Notes has fewer security features as compared to Microsoft Outlook.
  • Lotus notes don’t provide offline accessibility of mailboxes, But Microsoft Outlook does have this feature.
  • Outlook also allows users to configure multiple accounts at a time.

The above points show the importance of converting NSF Files. There are many methods to convert Lotus Notes NSF Files. In the next context, we will know some methods of it.

Free Techniques to Convert NSF to PST File

There are some methods to convert NSF Files to PST Files. Some of the methods are as follows.

This method includes 2 stages

  • Export The NSF files to a CSV file
  • Import CSV File to Outlook

Stage: 1

Export The NSF files to a CSV file

  1. Start IBM Lotus Notes
  2. Click and open the NSF database and select the NSF Files that users want to export.
  3. Now, Go to the Menu option, and then need to click the Export option.
  4. A pop-up will appear on the screen. A folder selection option will appear. Select the folder location according to your desire to save the NSF Files.
  5. The next process includes the file type in which users have to select the Save as type field and then select the Comma Separated Value (CSV) option and click OK.
  6. Users also have the option to select the Structured Text and click OK.

After completing all the above processes users' NSF files will be converted into CSV format. After that Files ready to import in the Outlook PST file.

Stage 2

Import CSV File to Outlook

  1. Launch MS Outlook Software
  2. Open the File menu, and drag to Open the tab, Now click on the Import button.
  3. The Import Wizard Option will appear, select the option Import from another program or file and then click on the Next button.
  4. Now, select Comma Separated Value (CSV) or Structured Text option which was chosen earlier to save the file, and click on next.
  5. Next, we have to select the file from the location you have saved it in the previous steps and select the folder in your MS Outlook Mailbox.
  6. At last, click On Finish.

After pursuing all the above processes, users can convert their NSF file into a PST file.

Limitations

As we can see the process was pursued with the manual method, Although it’s free therefore it has some limitations, some of the limitations are as follows.

  1. The manual method is a very lengthy and time taking process.
  2. It can cause the loss of data integrity while Converting NSF files to PST free.
  3. Multiple files cannot be converted at a time.
  4. Loss of data thread can take place while performing the task
  5. To Convert NSF files using lotus notes, users have to take care of its security also.

The above points show the limitation of free techniques to convert Lotus Notes NSF Files into PST files. Therefore users generally opt for third-party software to Convert NSF files to PST files. Cigati NSF Converter Tool is one of the best NSF to PST converters. It saves time and exports the file with security by maintaining the data integrity.

Conclusion

In the blog as you can see I have mentioned the methods of Converting NSF files to PST free. Some limitations of it and learned how to Convert Lotus Notes NSF Files. Hope you must have found it interesting and have cleared your doubts. Thank you for reading this blog.

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