Extract text from GroupWise address books (NAB)
To convert NAB address books to another format, you need GroupWise or other Data software.
To convert other file formats to the "Address Book" file type, you need software like GroupWise or a similar tool.
The .nab file extension is most frequently associated with the Novell Address Book, a contact storage format used by GroupWise (now managed by Micro Focus). These files serve as local repositories for user contact information, email addresses, and organizational hierarchies within the GroupWise ecosystem.
While functional within its native environment, the .nab format presents significant friction for modern workflows. It is a proprietary legacy format that acts as a "data silo," making it incompatible with ubiquitous email clients like Microsoft Outlook, Gmail, or mobile devices (iOS/Android). Users often encounter .nab files when attempting to migrate old backups or recover contact lists from decommissioned Novell servers. Without conversion, this data is effectively locked away, requiring specific legacy software versions just to view the contents.
To make this data usable, the best approach is converting the .nab file into open standards. For importing into spreadsheets or bulk-editing, converting to CSV (Comma Separated Values) is the ideal target. For migrating contacts directly to smartphones or modern email clients, converting to VCF (vCard) preserves contact metadata most effectively.
Note on Gaming: A significant minority of .nab files are actually UnityFS Asset Bundles used by games built with the Unity engine. In this context, the file is a container for game assets like textures and 3D models. These cannot be "opened" in a text editor; instead, users typically look to convert the internal assets into standard formats like PNG for images or FBX for 3D models using extraction utilities.
Convert.Guru analyzes your NAB file, detects the exact format, and lets you read the text inside.
Users also converted PDF, GWI, UWL and PMA files.
If you want to convert NAB file to CSV, JSON, XML, YAML, YML, TOML, INI, CFG, CONF, DAT, DB or SQL, you can use GroupWise or similar software from the "Contact Data 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 NAB, try GroupWise or another comparable tool in the "Contact Data 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 NAB converter.