Extract text from Mail files (MAI)
To convert MAI files to another format, you need MailEnable or other Data software.
To convert other file formats to the "Server Data & Index Files" file type, you need software like MailEnable or a similar tool.
The .MAI file extension is primarily used by the MailEnable server as an email message queue or log file. Alternatively, it functions as an Aria storage engine data file (specifically an Archive Index) for MariaDB and MySQL. Historically, it was also deployed by legacy systems like Microsoft Mail or Exchange to save single email messages, and even served as a proprietary movie format for Sony CLIE PDAs.
Opening these files locally is highly problematic depending on their origin. MailEnable .MAI files are raw text dumps containing SMTP headers and message payloads, but they lack the standard file extensions required for automatic parsing by modern desktop email clients. MariaDB .MAI index files are back-end binary components - meaning they cannot be opened directly by a user and require the active database engine to interpret them alongside their corresponding data files. The legacy Sony CLIE video files are completely obsolete and lack codec support in standard media players like VLC.
To make this data usable outside of its native environment, conversion is strictly required. For MailEnable or Microsoft Mail .MAI files, converting to EML or MSG allows you to seamlessly open the messages in Microsoft Outlook or Mozilla Thunderbird. For web archiving, convert these emails to PDF. If you uncover rare Sony CLIE videos, converting them to MP4 is mandatory for playback on modern screens.
Convert.Guru analyzes your MAI file, detects the exact format, and lets you read the text inside.
Users also converted MAD, CLOG, VBO and HWL files.
If you want to convert MAI file to CSV, JSON, XML, YAML, YML, TOML, INI, CFG, CONF, DAT, DB or SQL, you can use MailEnable or similar software from the "Email Server Queue Storage" category. In the File menu, look for Save As… or Export….
To convert DBF, XML, SQLITE, XLSX, SQL, TSV, ACCDB, YAML, MDB, CSV, ODS or JSON files to MAI, try MailEnable or another comparable tool in the "Email Server Queue Storage" category.
The history of Convert.Guru began over 25 years ago in California with Tom Simondi’s file-format database. A former contributor to Space Shuttle development and a software pioneer of the 1980s, Simondi established a trusted resource for file type analysis that was even referenced by Microsoft Windows XP. Today, we use modern technology to process and convert thousands of file formats while continually improving our MAI converter.