Mac PST converter tool to convert Windows Outlook data files on macOS and export them to eleven formats. Supports six item types: mail, contacts, calendars, tasks, notes and journals. Nothing from Microsoft has to be installed.
No registration and no upload. The source file stays on the local disk. See the screens first.
It reads healthy PST files. If Outlook itself already refuses to open the file, no converter will get past that and this one does not claim to. Repair comes first and conversion second, which is work for Mac Outlook Recovery rather than this tool. Corrupt file support is commonly a Windows side feature listed on a Mac page, so it is worth confirming before buying anything for a Mac.
Screenshots of the Mac PST Converter, covering the screen where an archive is chosen and queued.
The details that decide whether the exported Mac Outlook PST data is usable or merely readable.
Metadata survives untouched, from headers and timestamps through to read status, priority flags and categories. Hash the PST before and after conversion where the handling has to be defensible later.
Leave Maintain Folder Hierarchy ticked and Inbox, Sent Items, Deleted Items and every custom folder are rebuilt nested exactly as Outlook had them. Switch it off when the destination expects a single level instead.
Spreadsheets, photographs and embedded graphics are written out as separate openable files. Four attachment placements are on offer when the destination is PDF and the reviewer wants them inline.
Distribution lists export as groups to PDF, HTML, CSV, MSG or TXT rather than being broken into individual records, which is a common casualty when an address book moves.
A weekly meeting stays a weekly meeting. Recurring calendar entries and recurring tasks both keep their pattern rather than arriving as a single orphaned instance.
Three versions of the vCard format are available for contact output. The receiving system usually dictates which one. Getting it wrong is why an import can silently drop fields it does not recognise.
Each transfer leaves behind a CSV report listing where the data came from, where it went, how many items succeeded and how many did not. That file is the record of what the conversion moved.
Nothing in the tool caps how large a PST can be. A multi gigabyte archive takes longer to index before the tree becomes browsable.
The software runs alone. Outlook can be absent from the Mac entirely, as can Office, any helper application and the Windows machine the file came from.
Conversion runs on local hardware. No upload step, no account to create and no server involved at any point.
Five naming patterns govern how output files are titled, running from the plain subject line up to date, sender and subject together. Auto increment handles a folder holding several thousand.
Internet headers can be written into the output alongside the visible fields. Anyone examining provenance will ask for it. Adding it afterwards is not possible.
Three screens carry most of the settings in the Mac PST Converter.
Two buttons fill the load list. Nothing below them is clickable until the list holds an entry.
The macOS picker opens with a File Format setting that changes with the mode chosen.
The load list records what has been accepted, with the figures that matter before conversion is started.
The Mac PST Converter tool writes eleven output types. The recipient dictates which one is right.
| Format | Read by | The case for it |
|---|---|---|
| Preview, Acrobat, every disclosure platform | The output has to be paginated, numbered and readable in ten years | |
| MBOX | Apple Mail, Thunderbird, Postbox, Eudora | The person has moved to a Mac and wants a working mailbox again |
| EMLX | Apple Mail | Messages are being dropped into the Mail store on another Mac |
| EML | eM Client, Windows Live Mail, Thunderbird | One MIME message per file, which a script or an indexer can process |
| MSG | Outlook on either platform and Exchange mailboxes | A handful of messages must stay openable inside Outlook itself |
| HTML | Any browser | The recipient has no mail client and never will |
| MHT | Any browser | Images must stay sealed inside each file rather than sitting alongside |
| TXT | Any text editor | Only the words matter, because search is what happens next |
| VCF | Contacts, iOS, Android, any mail client | The address book is moving to another client or phone |
| CSV | Numbers, Excel, any CRM importer | Contacts are becoming rows in a spreadsheet or a database |
| ICS | Apple Calendar, Google Calendar, Outlook | Appointments must carry their recurrence patterns unbroken |
| Any printer or a print to PDF driver | A few pages are needed on paper and nothing more |
Six kinds of buyer, each dependent on a different part of the Mac PST Converter.
Volume first. One pass has to take a whole directory of archives. The tool also has to run on a Mac with no Outlook licence anywhere near it.
PDF settings are the entire requirement. Numbering that runs unbroken across thousands of pages. Paper size and margins fixed. Four choices for where attachments are written.
Proof matters more than speed. The CSV export report gives counts to reconcile against. Nothing is written back, so the original still hashes the same afterwards.
Separation matters. Every archive writes to a destination of its own, so one client handover cannot mix with another.
vCard version is selectable. The choice determines whether an import keeps every field or discards the ones it cannot parse. Group entries stay grouped.
Nothing to configure. Add the file, then pick MBOX for Apple Mail or PDF for reading. The trial shows the result before any money moves.
A hundred emails per file, every output format available, no registration. A file that will not open shows up at this stage rather than after payment.
They kept their mail and now need to convert Mac Outlook PST file data they cannot open. macOS has no handler for the format and Apple Mail offers no import path for it. The guide OLM vs PST vs OST and what each file is for sets out how the Windows format differs from the Mac one.
The mailbox was exported at handover and the Windows machine decommissioned. The archive now has to migrate onto whatever hardware the company still runs. That work often falls to an IT administrator with no Outlook licence to spare. It ends with verifying the archive before anything is deleted.
An eDiscovery request, a compliance audit or an internal investigation turns a mailbox into an exhibit. Exhibits need sequential numbering, a date stamp and routing information attached, which is more than any print dialogue offers. Chain of custody has to hold up alongside the output.
A CRM migration needs the contacts and none of the mail. Converting contacts on their own, in the vCard version the receiving system expects, is faster and cleaner than exporting the whole archive and extracting them afterwards.
On a Windows machine Outlook keeps its data file in the Documents folder, inside a subfolder named Outlook Files. Archive copies are stored wherever the person running the export placed them. On a Mac the file will be wherever it was copied to, most often Downloads or Desktop, because macOS has nowhere it belongs. Where an archive is supplied on an external drive with no path given, searching the whole volume for the extension in Finder is faster than asking.
Add File takes a single PST, Add Folder takes a directory of them. The Mac PST Converter scans what it finds and builds a browsable folder tree before anything else happens.
Tick the PST folders that matter. Restrict to a date window where only some of the mail is wanted, then choose which item types travel. Advance Settings carries the naming pattern and the PDF controls.
Pick one of the eleven output types, keep or flatten the folder tree, then point the export somewhere. Counts in the closing report are the figures to reconcile against the source.
What the Mac PST Converter tool requires, plus the one file type it will not open.
Three causes account for nearly all of them. None needs a support ticket.
The build is Apple notarized, so Gatekeeper should let it through. If a security prompt appears anyway, open System Settings, then Privacy & Security, then approve it there. Nothing needs to be disabled permanently.
Run the conversion against a local disk. A source or destination on a network share, whether NAS, SAN or a mounted server volume, can drop mid write and leave the output incomplete. Copy the PST to the Mac first, convert, then move the result.
Check the date filter and the folder selection before assuming the archive is empty. A window set to the wrong year produces a clean run with zero items and no error. So does a tree with everything unticked.
No. That is worth being clear about before you buy. This build reads healthy PST files. A file that Outlook itself calls damaged needs repairing first, which is a different tool.
No. A standalone Mac PST converter tool parses the container itself, which is the entire reason it exists. No Office licence and no Windows machine either.
A hundred emails per PST file, plus twenty five items from each other category. Enough to run the Mac PST Converter on a real archive, export a sample and judge the output.
They come out as their own formats rather than as messages. Contacts go to VCF in vCard 2.1, 3.0 or 4.0. CSV is the other option. Calendars go to ICS with recurrence rules attached.
Yes. Contacts and calendars can be converted on their own without touching the mail, which is the usual request when somebody is changing CRM rather than changing mail client.
No. A 40 GB file behaves the same as a small one. The only difference is how long the opening scan runs before you can browse anything.
No. The source is opened for reading only. Output lands wherever you nominate. The PST keeps its bytes and its modified date.
Yes. Add Folder queues every PST in a directory and the tool will convert PST files one after another. Each writes its own output folder, so files belonging to different people never get mixed.
Not in one step. This build writes files rather than uploading to a server. Export MBOX and import that into Gmail or Apple Mail. For Office 365 the route runs through a PST import on the Microsoft side. Tools advertising a direct upload are doing the same two stages behind one button.
No, this is a macOS build. Where the archive has not yet left the Windows machine, converting it there is the shorter route. Copying a large PST between machines is the step most likely to truncate it.
Journals are the activity log older Outlook versions kept against contacts and documents. Most people have never opened one. They are held inside the PST and are exported alongside everything else.
A hundred emails per PST is enough to prove that the PST converter for Mac parses the archive and that the export is produced in a form the recipient can use. Every output format and every filter is in the trial, so the result at this stage matches what the full licence produces.