Extract text from NVB files
To convert your NVB file to another format, you need NVivo or other Backup software.
To convert other file formats to the "QDA Project Archive" file type, you need software like NVivo or a similar tool.
The .nvb file extension represents a proprietary backup archive generated by NVivo, the qualitative data analysis (QDA) software now developed by Lumivero. Unlike standard documents, an .nvb file is essentially a compressed snapshot of an underlying SQL database containing your coding references, nodes, memos, and source materials.
The main issue for users is that .nvb files are not directly executable or readable by third-party tools; they are strictly designed to be 'restored' into a working nvP (Windows) project file using the specific version of NVivo that created them. Attempting to open these in text editors results in gibberish due to compression and binary database structures. Furthermore, version incompatibility is common - a backup from NVivo 10 may require intermediate conversion steps to open in the latest release.
For practical access without the specific host software, the goal is usually data extraction. If you have access to the software, the best conversion workflow is to restore the project and then export your coding matrices to XLSX (Excel) for analysis or DOCX (Word) for reporting. For long-term archiving where software obsolescence is a risk, converting the textual content and codebooks to PDF/A or the interoperable REFI-QDA standard is highly recommended.
Convert.Guru analyzes your NVB file, detects the exact format, and lets you read the text inside.
Users also converted DOCX, NVP, NVCX and SRR files.
If you want to convert NVB file to NVP, INI, CFG, CONF, CONFIG, JSON, XML, YAML, YML, TOML, ENV or PROPERTIES, you can use NVivo or similar software from the "Qualitative Research Backup" category. In the File menu, look for Save As… or Export….
To convert ZSHRC, CONF, RCFILE, GITCONFIG, RC, PLIST, BASHRC, CONFIG, PROFILE, INI, PREFS or CFG files to NVB, try NVivo or another comparable tool in the "Qualitative Research Backup" 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 NVB converter.