Click the "Select File" button above, and choose your MBOX file.
You’ll see a preview, if available.
Click the "Convert file to..." button to extract text information.
Convert MBOX to another file type
To convert MBOX mailboxes to another format, you need Mozilla Thunderbird or other Data software.
Convert a file to MBOX
To convert other file formats to the "Email Archive" file type, you need software like Mozilla Thunderbird or a similar tool.
About MBOX files
The .MBOX file format is a standardized way to store collections of email messages. Originally developed for Unix systems, it concatenates multiple emails, including their headers, body text, and MIME-encoded attachments, into one continuous plain-text file. Users typically encounter these files when downloading their email history via Google Takeout or when backing up data from clients like Apple Mail and Mozilla Thunderbird. You can learn more about its technical specification on the Wikipedia page. The primary disadvantage of .MBOX files is their sheer size and inflexibility. Because a single file contains thousands of emails and uncompressed Base64-encoded attachments, file sizes frequently exceed 10GB. Standard text editors will crash when trying to open them. Crucially, Microsoft Outlook - the corporate standard - does not natively support .MBOX imports. Searching for a specific invoice or message inside a raw .MBOX archive is virtually impossible without specialized desktop software. To make this data usable, conversion is highly recommended. For migrating to Microsoft Office environments, convert to PST. To save individual emails, extract them to EML or MSG. For archiving, legal compliance, or easy reading without an email client, convert to .PDF/A. Drop your file here to view and convert it securely right in your browser.
Convert.Guru analyzes your MBOX file, detects the exact format, and lets you read the text inside.
If you want to convert MBOX file to PST, PDF, CSV, EML, TXT, OLM, HTML, RTF, DOC, DOCX, ODT or PAGES, you can use Mozilla Thunderbird or similar software from the "Email Archive Storage" category. In the File menu, look for Save As… or Export….
To convert PDF, DOC, ASC, TODO, NFO, MEMO, README, DOCX, JPG, TXT, NOTE or RTF files to MBOX, try Mozilla Thunderbird or another comparable tool in the "Email Archive Storage" category.
The MBOX Converter Story
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 MBOX converter.