The DbxConv program was designed to be a small tool that will extract the messages from an Outlook Express (5.0 - 6.0) mailbox and convert it either to the standard mbox or the Outlook Express eml format. The advantage of saving your mail in mbox format is, that it's a plain text format, which can be read by many mail-clients. Converting to eml format is a convenient way to re-import the messages into Outlook Express.

The handling of eml export is a little bit smarter than the one offered by Outlook Express itself. Outlook Express will overwrite messages with same sender and subject, while DbxConv enumerates the messages, so you can be sure none is lost due to conversion.

The easiest way to convert Outlook Express dbx-files is to copy the mailboxes to a directory with DbxConv.exe in it. Do not try to convert folders, which have the same extension (like "Folders.dbx"), it will not work. Still it will do no harm.

Then open a DOS-box and type "DbxConv *.dbx". This will convert all dbx-files into mbx-files. I'd suggest, that you keep backup copies of the original dbx-files, at least until you have verified, that other mail-clients can read the mbx-files.

Hint for Entourage users:
For Entourage to recognize the mbox-file it is necessary to change the extension to "mbox".

To convert all dbx-files into eml format, type "DbxConv -eml *.dbx". For each mailbox a folder with the name of the mailbox is created, and all messages will be extracted into the respective folder. To do both, converting and extracting, type "DbxConv -mbx -eml *.dbx".

Available Options:
-mbx[naming]
Converts the specified dbx-file into mboxo format. The mboxo format uses simple "From " quoting. Any line of a message starting with "From " is quoted by putting a ">" in front of it. The mbox-file is by default named as the dbx-file but has the extension "mbx".
For the optional file naming parameter see section 4 of this manual. Make sure you have enclosed this option in quotation marks in case the naming parameter contains spaces!

-mbxrd[naming]
Converts the specified dbx-file into mboxrd format. The mboxrd format uses a more advanced "From " quoting scheme. Any line starting with "From " or any number of ">" followed by "From " is quoted by putting a ">" in front of it.

For the optional file naming parameter see section 4 of this manual. Make sure you have enclosed this option in quotation marks in case the naming parameter contains spaces!

-eml[naming]
Converts the specified dbx-file into eml format. If no output folder is specified, all eml-files are saved into a new folder named as the dbx-file. The names of the eml-files are by default generated from the sender's name and the subject.

For the optional file naming parameter see section 4 of this manual. Make sure you have enclosed this option in quotation marks in case the naming parameter contains spaces!

The file date is normally set to the send date of the message, but this can be changed using the date stamp option -rcvdate.

-dn
Inserts a double newline after each message within a mbox file.

-ic
Turns off case sensitivity when quoting "From ". That means, "froM " will also be quoted.
Normally, "From " quoting is done only if the exact word "From " is found. Some mail clients (e.g. Pegasus Mail) are not case sensitive when parsing the mbox-file. For them it is required to quote any line starting with "from ", regardless of the case.

-senddate
This option tells DbxConv to use the "Date" field of the messages as timestamp. The timestamp is used to set the file date of eml messages and to set the "From" header of the exported mbox.

-rcvdate
With this option, DbxConv uses the "Received" date of the messages as timestamp.

-?
Shows a quick reference.