Extract text from Lotus Notes 4 databases (NS4)
To convert NS4 databases to another format, you need Lotus Notes or other Database software.
To convert other file formats to the "Notes Storage Facility" file type, you need software like Lotus Notes or a similar tool.
The .NS4 file is a proprietary database format created by IBM for Lotus Notes 4. Businesses used it in the late 1990s to store emails, contacts, calendar events, and custom workflow applications. You can open it using legacy versions of Lotus Notes (now HCL Notes).
This format presents severe disadvantages today. It is obsolete, strictly proprietary, and relies on a complex internal architecture known as the Notes Storage Facility. You cannot open an .NS4 file in standard text editors or modern web browsers. Businesses often struggle with these files because maintaining legacy Lotus software is expensive and requires specific IT expertise. Your historical data remains locked inside a closed ecosystem.
To make the data usable, you must convert .NS4 files to standard formats. The best target formats are CSV for tabular data, XML for structured records, or PST if you are migrating legacy emails to Microsoft Outlook. During conversion, you will likely lose custom LotusScript macros, proprietary forms, and complex rich-text formatting, as these cannot translate to standard formats.
This file format is exceptionally difficult to open or convert online. Standard online converters fail to process it because extracting data requires the original Lotus Notes API. Often only the original software can properly read or export the data. If our analysis detects a supported underlying or embedded format, viewing or conversion may still be possible.
Convert.Guru analyzes your NS4 file, detects the exact format, and lets you read the text inside.
Users also converted NS3, IIB and MEY files.
If you want to convert NS4 file to DB, SQLITE, SQLITE3, MDB, ACCDB, DBF, ODB, FDB, GDB, MYD, FRM or SQL, you can use Lotus Notes or similar software from the "Legacy Database Storage" category. In the File menu, look for Save As… or Export….
To convert NDF, SQLITE3, BAK, RDB, SQL, DB4, MDF, MDB, LDF, DB, DB3 or SQLITE files to NS4, try Lotus Notes or another comparable tool in the "Legacy Database 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 NS4 converter.