MS Outlook and IBM Lotus Notes are some of the most widely used and most anticipated email clients. These email clients have ruled the market for a while now. IBM Lotus Notes have been used widely since 1989, and along with being email client, it offers a lot of features like calendaring, scheduling, and programming.

On the other side, MS Outlook offers all the feature bundles to its users in an easy to use and simple UI. But IBM Lotus Notes is not that easy to use, it is still a great encryption on the edge. Various users and organizations naturally started migrating and moving from Lotus Notes to Outlook.

Why to Convert NSF to PST?

IBM Lotus Notes has been widely used as an email client for several organizations for a long time. It offers unmatched security features with encryption. Since it has stopped support for earlier versions, it is not easy to maintain this email client. To reduce cost because of high maintenance requirements and to improve productivity, a lot of organizations are moving to another email client.

Problems with IBM Lotus Notes

• As support for IBM Lotus Notes has been ended in earlier versions, a lot of organizations and users are moving to other email clients to reduce maintenance costs.
• Despite being famous for great security, IBM Lotus Notes has lost its accessibility to a great extent. It doesn’t allow any plug-in support or synchronization with third-party email clients.
• IBM Lotus Notes has a lot of learning curve. Only users with great technical knowledge can use it. So, beginners don’t have to use this client. So, IBM Lotus Notes is much useless.
• When it comes to support, IBM Lotus Notes doesn’t support any tablet or smartphone. So, you cannot access this client remotely.
• In addition, it limits its users to access only one account at a time. You have to log out of existing account to access another account with details.

Why Switch to MS Outlook?

• Main reason people switch to MS Outlook is low cost of maintenance. Outlook comes under MS Office suite. So, there is no need to buy it individually.
• It provides unmatched accessibility. You can open it from Mac, PC and even mobile devices.
• It supports a lot of plug-ins. You can use multiple accounts and connect with several apps at the same time, such as OneDrive, Skype, Twitter, and LinkedIn.
• As compared to IBM Lotus Notes, MS Outlook is very user-friendly as it comes with automatic email organization for filtering and sorting, and Search Feature.
• You can use and access various accounts on Outlook at the same time without entering credentials every time.
• MS Outlook has been designed by considering various needs of beginners and vast expert demographics.

MS Outlook is among the widely used email clients. For IBM Lotus Notes to Outlook migration, you need to perform NSF to PST file conversion. We will discuss two different methods in this article to migrate Lotus Notes to MS Outlook.

Method 1 – NSF to PST Conversion Manually

As you know, you cannot access NSF file using MS Outlook. So, we will first discuss how to do it manually. Even though it doesn’t assure complete migration of database in original format, you can still go with this option if you want to access only a handful of data.

This manual method needs you to extract data from NSF and save the data in PST format that you can also access through MS Outlook and import the same to Outlook client. In this method, this file in which data is saved would be CSV. There are two steps in manual process –

• Exporting data from Lotus Notes and saving in another file.
• Importing data from separate file in MS Outlook.

 

Exporting data from Lotus Notes and saving in another file

1.  Open IBM Lotus Notes Client

2.  Select NSF file where you have to export data

3.  Once you select and open file on Lotus Notes, click File on the menu bar and click Export on the drop down menu.

4.  Enter file name, location of file, and file type as CSV on Export Wizard.

5.  It will show up CSV Export dialog box and you can select important options.

 

Importing data from separate file in MS Outlook

1.  Open MS Outlook

2.   Click on File and click Open and Import from drop down menu

3.   Once you click Import, it will show up Import and Export Wizard and it will show up different options. Select “Import from another file or program” and “Next”.

4.   Choose file type as “Comma Separated Values” and click Next.

5.   Click Browse and find CSV file created with Export Wizard in Lotus Notes. Select from the options provided on whether you want to create duplicate entries or not and click Next.

6.   Now choose Outlook folder where you want to import data and click Finish.

7.   Data saved in CSV file will be imported in MS Outlook.

Problems in Manual Conversation

• Manual conversation allows you to import email header and not the whole body content
• It is a very tedious process and is complex enough and is surely not good for basic users.
• Since manual process takes a lot of time, it is not good to migrate the whole databases in those situations.
• Migrating with manual process is very difficult and it should be done with care as incorrect technique might cause corruption of files.
• CSV format is used as mediator by manual conversation. Due to this reason, files are imported in raw format. It might not transfer data in original formatting or to maintain folders and files hierarchy.
• Manual technique just allows NSF file for conversion at a time which can make whole process boring and stressful.
• You cannot perform selective data transfer in this process. You need to transfer whole file.

Method 2 – By Using Regain NSF to PST Converter

You need a Regain NSF to PST Converter to migrate from IBM Lotus Notes to MS Outlook. But data is stored in IBM Notes in NSF format and MS Outlook uses PST format in doing the same. So, you can use Regain NSF to PST converter to convert NSF file to Outlook PST format so you can convert database of whole NSF into PST format smoothly and easily.

The tool uses effective algorithm for NSF to PST file conversion even though NSF file is encrypted. Regain NSF to PST converter doesn’t need any specific technical skill to use and it is best for all businesses. You can download this software from here: 

Here’s the step-by step process for NSF to PST file conversion –

1.  Open Regain NSF to PST converter.

2.  Choose NSF file to perform conversion and start the process of scanning.

3.  Scanning Process start to retrieve Lotus Notes Mailboxes

4.  After Complete the Scanning, Show the preview of Lotus Notes Mailboxes before Saving to another format.

Saved Desire file format to Save NSF file.

Conversion process complete.

Conclusion

When it comes to migrate the whole databases, it is not wise to use manual method. It makes the whole process very difficult and complex. Regain NSF to PST converter is a complete tool which caters to all specifications of NSF to PST conversion. It keeps the NSF intact for conversion of NSF to PST file format. It is the best tool to perform bulk file conversion and convert data like calendar, emails, journals, contacts, etc. with precision.

OST File is created in Microsoft Outlook when Microsoft Exchange account is created. Also known as Offline Storage Table, this file enables users to work when Outlook is not connected to the server. Once the connection is available, you can synchronize all the work in MS Outlook offline with Exchange Server. Indeed, it makes Exchange mailbox in the form of OST file.

Why OST File Synchronization Error Occurs?

More often than not, you may encounter several synchronization errors when connecting OST to Exchange mailbox. There are different reasons why synchronization is stopped with Exchange in Outlook 2003, 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016 and 2019.

• Network connection – The main cause of synchronization issue
• MS Exchange Server also goes down more often due to which Outlook cannot synchronize
• Problems in local machine are another common issue when Outlook is malfunctioning
• Sudden system shutdown, large OST file size, and virus attack are some of the common reasons

How to Fix OST Synchronization Issue?

There are different steps you can take to resolve the OST synchronization problem, such as verifying user profile, cached exchange mode etc. Here are some of the important steps to get rid of this problem –

Step 1 – Verify Synchronization of OST files

Consider the following steps to check synchronization of Offline Storage files in proper way –

• Right Click on the folder you want to check and click “Properties”
• Switch to “Synchronization” tab
• Select “Statistics” of this folder and check these attributes –
  • Server folder contains – Items
  • Last synchronized on – Date
  • Offline folder contains – items

If you don’t have any OST File Sync problem, attribute value of the folder of Server as well as offline folder contents are the same. If you couldn’t find these value same, there must be a conflict in syncing both databases. In that case, you have to follow these processes to verify profile settings.

In Outlook 2007

• Click on “Tools” then “Account Settings”
• Click “Data File” and set “Mailbox account name as default”
• In Email tab, go to “Mailbox – account name” and Settings.
• Check the option “Use cached Exchange Mode” and click OK.

Step 2 – OST File Synchronization

You have to do two important things to sync offline folders – Automatic and Manual, to fix OST file synchronization issues.

For Manual Synchronization

• Go to “Folder List” pane, choose “Folder should be synchronized”
• Go to “Tools” menu, click “Send/Receive”, then Microsoft Exchange Server, if you have specific folder
• In Tools menu, go to “Send/Receive All” for all folders

For Automatic Synchronization

With this method, you can sync OST file with Exchange Server all the time when you go online.

• Choose “Tools” and “Options”
• In Mail Setup, select “Send Immediately when connected”
• In Send/Receive, select “Send/Receive groups” and check “Perform automatic send/receive when exiting”.

 

Step 3 – Create New OST File and Synchronize

If the above methods cannot fix the OST file synchronization issue and you are not getting it synced, there are chances that OST file is corrupt or damaged. In that case, you have to recreate and resynchronize the OST file.

How to Rebuild New OST?

• Type *.ost in search box to look for OST file
• Rename the old file with different extension. For example, replace .OST with .OLD extension.
• After renaming the file, a new file will be created
• In Outlook, go to “Tools” and “Send/Receive”

Summary

If the OST file is oversized and is not accessible, an OST crop tool can split the file into smaller parts. If you still cannot resolve the OST synchronization issue, you may try scanost.exe or scanpst.exe tools from Microsoft. These are the default repair tools to fix OST/PST file issues. You may try these tools to fix them. If these tools can’t work and you cannot access the OST file data, then use Regain OST to PST Converter to import and access the OST file through Outlook.

Regain OST to PST Converter tool is very reliable and professional as it can easily fix OST files that are severely corrupt or damaged and cannot be fixed by default repair tools. If the above methods are not longer helpful, use this tool to resolve data file problems and recover them with few easy steps.