Convert Outlook Express mails from DBX to MBX format

Microsoft does not use standard formats where often when it comes to its products. This is for example the case when you take a look at how Outlook Express saves mails that you have received in the email client.

Outlook Express saves mails by default in dbx files instead of saving them in the wildly used mbx format which is being used by Thunderbird, Opera and most other email clients.

If you ever wanted to migrate away from Outlook Express to another email client, you would have to find a way to convert the format first before you can do so.Depending on the mail client you want to move to, you may either be able to import Outlook Express emails directly, or need a third-party program to do so before emails can be imported. Thunderbird can import Outlook emails directly, while other programs may not be able to do so.

DbxConv is a command line utility that you can use to convert Outlook Express dbx files to the mbx mailbox file format.The easiest way of using this tool is to copy the dbx mails from Outlook Express into the directory of DbxConv and use the command DbxConv *.dbx to convert all files with the .dbx extension to mbx. It is alternatively possible to convert the dbx file into mboxo, mbxrd or eml format instead of mbx format if you prefer that.

I would suggest to search for all files with the .dbx extension on your hard drive and copy those to the DbxConv folder before you run the command. To run the command, press Windows-R, type cmd and hit enter. This brings you to the Windows command line. Here you need to navigate to the DbxConv folder before you can run the command, or reference it directly by adding its path to its command.

Update: You can alternatively use a program like Mailstore Home which supports all recent versions of Outlook Express. It backs up all emails of the Outlook program and provides you with the means to import those emails into another mail program that it supports. It supports a lot, from generic pop3 and smtp mailboxes over all Outlook, Outlook Express, Windows Mail and Microsoft Exchange mailboxes to Thunderbird, Seamonkey, and Internet mailboxes such as Gmail or Yahoo Mail.