Extract text from Swift Mailer emails (MESSAGE)
To convert MESSAGE emails to another format, you need Swift Mailer or other Developer software.
To convert other file formats to the "PHP Serialized Object" file type, you need software like Swift Mailer or a similar tool.
A .message file is a serialized PHP email message typically generated by the Swift Mailer library. It functions as a temporary spool file, storing queued emails on a web server before they are dispatched to their final destinations.
The primary disadvantage of the .message format is that it is strictly tied to the PHP programming language. It is not a standardized email format like EML or MSG. You cannot open a .message file directly in consumer email clients like Microsoft Outlook or Mozilla Thunderbird. Because the file consists of structured, serialized PHP objects, it is entirely unreadable without a functioning PHP environment and the original class definitions.
Standard online converters routinely fail to process .message files. Because this is a closed, script-specific format, only the original software or a custom PHP script using the unserialize() function can perfectly export the data. Standard tools simply do not know how to rebuild the PHP objects into standard MIME email components.
If you need to access the email content, your best conversion targets are standard formats like EML, TXT, or HTML. Just drag and drop your file to identify the format, view it, and convert it when possible. Our analyzer at convert.guru can inspect the raw file and often extract the embedded text, sender details, and HTML body, bypassing the strict PHP serialization limits to recover your data.
Convert.Guru analyzes your MESSAGE file, detects the exact format, and lets you read the text inside.
Users also converted MSG, EML, DOCX, TXT, PNG, MAIL, ATTACHMENT1, INLINE_IMAGE_CID, PDF, HTML and VOICE files.
If you want to convert MESSAGE file to PDF, HTML, VOICE, TXT, RTF, DOC, DOCX, ODT, PAGES, TEX, LATEX or MD, you can use Swift Mailer or similar software from the "Email Spool 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 MESSAGE, try Swift Mailer or another comparable tool in the "Email Spool 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 MESSAGE converter.