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.
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You said that Outlook isn’t your main email client, so which is your main one?
I think its thunderbird
It is Mozilla Thunderbird.
Awesome! This actually solved my problem… what a stupid bug.
If this is the same bug that I’ve encountered, there may be another fix: (1) hover over open Outlook item in Taskbar, cursor up to hover over Outlook window item, and right-click; (2) this should give you Restore / Move / Size / Minimize / Maximize — choose Move or Size; (3) use your cursor keys, going arbitrarily N/S/E/W, to try to move or size the Outlook window back into view. Basically, the app behaves as though it were open in a 0x0 window, or at a location that’s offscreen, and this will frequently work to resize and/or move the window. Don’t forget to close while resized/moved, so that Outlook remembers the size/position for next time.
THANK YOU Claude!!! I could get the main window to launch but could not get any other message window to show on the desktop. You are my hero!!!!
Solved my issue! 6 years later and this is still problem…
Fantastic. Thank you. Size did the trick.
This solved my Outlook problem, too. Thank you. :)
Thank you so much, this started happening to me today and was causing big problems. You are a life saver, I hope I can help you in some way some day.
You are a god – thank you!
thanks a lot…. work like charm.. :-)
Yah…thanks Claude. I’ve been having the same problem and tried all the suggestions…your solution was the answer. It had resized itself to a 0/0 box. Cheers
Excellent post. This had me baffled even trying to accurately describe the problem. This fixed it for me.
Thank you
Thanks a lot for the article. Don’t know why it happenend, don’t know how it got fixed, but it was really annoying and now it works :-)
Thanks a lot. I was facing this issue from past 3 week. I tried everything but no resolution. The issue was happening intermittently and mainly when I was changing the display of screen ( as i use 2 monitors). The only option i had was to do system restore. But thanks to you.
I’ve been tried to sole this problem for 12hours. Your comment about changing the display of screen helped me a lot!! Thanks!!
Thank you…don’t know why this happened but your instructions helped me fix it. Running Windows 10 and office pro 2007
Great tip! Thanks!
Worked for me, too – thank you!!!
It’s Worked for me, too
thank you very much!
I had a similar issue with Outlook 2013 on Windows 10 and this helped me to fix it. Thank you very much!
Thank you so much. Solved!
Considering you published this in 2012, incredible not been debugged by Microsoft.
Thank you again. M
This problem was faced by only one user logging to TS 2008 r2 using outlook 2010.The issue was resolved.
Thanks.
Great tip. Thank you!!!! If it helps, I had to use the Control Key and the arrow keys at the same time to bring my window back into view. Worked like a charm.
Thank you, this worked !!!!
Man, you are a fucking god. Thanks a lot, what an annoying bug!!
Awesome, this post solved the issue. Many thanks!