Hi!
Someone I know has a number of msg files for their Outlook contacts, but
they no longer use Outlook.
Now they would like to import those mgs contacts, but it seems tricky to
convert them.
There are online options (like zamzar.com), but those have privacy concerns.

Is there a convenient way to get those contacts into Thunderbird
(perhaps with a plug-in)?

It seems there is a bit of a cottage industry of apps that convert msg
files, but after trying some of them, it seems that one complication is
that many of them interpret the msg files as emails instead of contacts.

Thanks in advance for any suggestions, Niek

On 4/9/24 08:20 AM, sobriquet wrote:
>
> Hi!
> Someone I know has a number of msg files for their Outlook contacts, but they no longer use Outlook.
> Now they would like to import those mgs contacts, but it seems tricky to
> convert them.
> There are online options (like zamzar.com), but those have privacy concerns.
>
> Is there a convenient way to get those contacts into Thunderbird (perhaps with a plug-in)?
>
> It seems there is a bit of a cottage industry of apps that convert msg
> files, but after trying some of them, it seems that one complication is
> that many of them interpret the msg files as emails instead of contacts.
>
> Thanks in advance for any suggestions, Niek
When you say msg, yes I think of a message file. Is MSG the extension? Can you read the file with
a text editor or hex editor?
--
Linux Mint 21.3 Cinnamon 6.0.4 Kernel 5.15.0-102-generic
Al

Op 09/04/2024 om 15:00 schreef Big Al:
> On 4/9/24 08:20 AM, sobriquet wrote:
>>
>> Hi!
>> Someone I know has a number of msg files for their Outlook contacts,
>> but they no longer use Outlook.
>> Now they would like to import those mgs contacts, but it seems tricky to
>> convert them.
>> There are online options (like zamzar.com), but those have privacy
>> concerns.
>>
>> Is there a convenient way to get those contacts into Thunderbird
>> (perhaps with a plug-in)?
>>
>> It seems there is a bit of a cottage industry of apps that convert msg
>> files, but after trying some of them, it seems that one complication is
>> that many of them interpret the msg files as emails instead of contacts.
>>
>> Thanks in advance for any suggestions, Niek
> When you say msg, yes I think of a message file.   Is MSG the
> extension?  Can you read the file with a text editor or hex editor?

Yes. the files have an msg extension. If you try to read the file with a
text editor like wordpad it just displays code.

screenshot:
https://i.imgur.com/94huVzs.png

sobriquet wrote:
> Op 09/04/2024 om 15:00 schreef Big Al:
>> On 4/9/24 08:20 AM, sobriquet wrote:
>>>
>>> Hi!
>>> Someone I know has a number of msg files for their Outlook contacts,
>>> but they no longer use Outlook.
>>> Now they would like to import those mgs contacts, but it seems tricky to
>>> convert them.
>>> There are online options (like zamzar.com), but those have privacy
>>> concerns.
>>>
>>> Is there a convenient way to get those contacts into Thunderbird
>>> (perhaps with a plug-in)?
>>>
>>> It seems there is a bit of a cottage industry of apps that convert msg
>>> files, but after trying some of them, it seems that one complication is
>>> that many of them interpret the msg files as emails instead of contacts.
>>>
>>> Thanks in advance for any suggestions, Niek
>> When you say msg, yes I think of a message file.   Is MSG the
>> extension?  Can you read the file with a text editor or hex editor?
>
> Yes. the files have an msg extension. If you try to read the file with a
> text editor like wordpad it just displays code.
>
> screenshot:
> https://i.imgur.com/94huVzs.png
Try here;
https://www.shoviv.com/blog/how-to-import-outlook-to-thunderbird/
This one might be useful too;
https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1257035
Ed
P.S. Let us know how you get on.

On 4/9/2024 10:17 AM, Ed Cryer wrote:
> sobriquet wrote:
>> Op 09/04/2024 om 15:00 schreef Big Al:
>>> On 4/9/24 08:20 AM, sobriquet wrote:
>>>>
>>>> Hi!
>>>> Someone I know has a number of msg files for their Outlook contacts, but they no longer use Outlook.
>>>> Now they would like to import those mgs contacts, but it seems tricky to
>>>> convert them.
>>>> There are online options (like zamzar.com), but those have privacy concerns.
>>>>
>>>> Is there a convenient way to get those contacts into Thunderbird (perhaps with a plug-in)?
>>>>
>>>> It seems there is a bit of a cottage industry of apps that convert msg
>>>> files, but after trying some of them, it seems that one complication is
>>>> that many of them interpret the msg files as emails instead of contacts.
>>>>
>>>> Thanks in advance for any suggestions, Niek
>>> When you say msg, yes I think of a message file.   Is MSG the extension?  Can you read the file with a text editor or hex editor?
>>
>> Yes. the files have an msg extension. If you try to read the file with a text editor like wordpad it just displays code.
>>
>> screenshot:
>> https://i.imgur.com/94huVzs.png
>
> Try here;
> https://www.shoviv.com/blog/how-to-import-outlook-to-thunderbird/
>
> This one might be useful too;
> https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1257035
>
> Ed
>
> P.S. Let us know how you get on.

Using a keyword from OPs image file, it's semi-documented here.

https://www.fileformat.info/format/outlookmsg/

If you open a .msg file you will see many streams. Here's an example:

__nameid_version1.0
__substg1.0_00020102
__substg1.0_00030102
__substg1.0_00040102
__substg1.0_10100102
__substg1.0_001A001E
__substg1.0_0037001E
__substg1.0_10090102
__substg1.0_3FF8001E
__substg1.0_3FF90102
__properties_version1.0
__recip_version1.0_#00000000
...
__attach_version1.0_#00000000
...
__attach_version1.0_#00000001
...

Nameid, recip and attach are "folders" which contain substgs.
Properties contains some binary data.

Attach contains an attachment (a file, a picture, a new mail message etc.).
Recip contains information about a recipient.
The #00000000 is just the count. If you have five attachments, they are numbered 0-4.
"

Paul

On 09 Apr 2024 14:20, sobriquet wrote:
> Someone I know has a number of msg files for their Outlook contacts, but they no
> longer use Outlook.

TB can natively import from OL (the PST file) as long as OL is still installed.

--
Viele Grüße, Jörg
Sent with Betterbird. Simply better.
www.betterbird.eu - www.betterbird.eu/#featuretable
Es ist immer wieder erstaunlich: Kaum macht man's richtig, schon funktioniert's!

Op 09/04/2024 om 16:35 schreef Jörg Knobloch:
> On 09 Apr 2024 14:20, sobriquet wrote:
>> Someone I know has a number of msg files for their Outlook contacts,
>> but they no longer use Outlook.
>
> TB can natively import from OL (the PST file) as long as OL is still
> installed.
>

The problem is that OL is no longer installed and not available.

Op 09/04/2024 om 16:17 schreef Ed Cryer:
> sobriquet wrote:
>> Op 09/04/2024 om 15:00 schreef Big Al:
>>> On 4/9/24 08:20 AM, sobriquet wrote:
>>>>
>>>> Hi!
>>>> Someone I know has a number of msg files for their Outlook contacts,
>>>> but they no longer use Outlook.
>>>> Now they would like to import those mgs contacts, but it seems
>>>> tricky to
>>>> convert them.
>>>> There are online options (like zamzar.com), but those have privacy
>>>> concerns.
>>>>
>>>> Is there a convenient way to get those contacts into Thunderbird
>>>> (perhaps with a plug-in)?
>>>>
>>>> It seems there is a bit of a cottage industry of apps that convert msg
>>>> files, but after trying some of them, it seems that one complication is
>>>> that many of them interpret the msg files as emails instead of
>>>> contacts.
>>>>
>>>> Thanks in advance for any suggestions, Niek
>>> When you say msg, yes I think of a message file.   Is MSG the
>>> extension?  Can you read the file with a text editor or hex editor?
>>
>> Yes. the files have an msg extension. If you try to read the file with
>> a text editor like wordpad it just displays code.
>>
>> screenshot:
>> https://i.imgur.com/94huVzs.png
>
> Try here;
> https://www.shoviv.com/blog/how-to-import-outlook-to-thunderbird/

This seems like commercial software. I was hoping for a free option.

https://www.datanumen.com/blogs/81-best-msg-to-pst-converter-tools-free-download/

There are so many tools for this, and it seems like a rather trivial
tasks, so I was hoping there is a free tool and one that people have
actually tried and tested to be sure it works for msg files containing
outlook contacts specifically.

>
> This one might be useful too;
> https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1257035

I think that is about msg files containing emails. I'd like
to emphasize that I'm talking about msg files containing outlook contact
information, not msg files containing emails.

>
> Ed
>
> P.S. Let us know how you get on.
>
>
>

sobriquet wrote:

>> https://www.shoviv.com/blog/how-to-import-outlook-to-thunderbird/
>
>This seems like commercial software. I was hoping for a free option.

There are two methods mentioned on that website, use the first, not the
second one and you will need no additional software.

-jw-
--
And now for something completely different...

Op 09/04/2024 om 18:57 schreef Joerg Walther:
> sobriquet wrote:
>
>>> https://www.shoviv.com/blog/how-to-import-outlook-to-thunderbird/
>>
>> This seems like commercial software. I was hoping for a free option.
>
> There are two methods mentioned on that website, use the first, not the
> second one and you will need no additional software.
>
> -jw-

That method assumes outlook is still available. But it's no longer
available.

I'm talking about the outlook software that was part of office.

The contacts were backed up from outlook as mgs files on a computer
that had the microsoft office suite installed. But that computer crashed
and on the new computer microsoft office is no longer installed, so
all that is available are the msg files containing contact information.

You would think that Microsoft would ensure that msg files created with
the commercial version of outlook would be compatible with the free
version of outlook, but alas...

sobriquet <dohduhdah@yahoo.com> wrote:

> Someone I know has a number of msg files for their Outlook contacts,
> but they no longer use Outlook. Now they would like to import those
> mgs contacts, but it seems tricky to convert them. There are online
> options (like zamzar.com), but those have privacy concerns.
>
> Is there a convenient way to get those contacts into Thunderbird
> (perhaps with a plug-in)?

Did your friend lose his Outlook software because its subscription
license expired, it was really someone else's software or computer,
changed employers, or what? If the e-mails are important, might be
worth paying $19/yr ($1.99/mo) for MS 365 Basic which includes Outlook.

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/outlook/outlook-email-plan#see-plans-and-pricing
(not sure which tier has just the web apps, or includes local programs)

Outlook on Mac is now free (contains ads, payware to remove ads). Does
your friend have a Mac, or a friend with one?

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/outlook/outlook-for-mac

No experience with it, so don't know if it supports everything the
Windows Outlook client has, like exporting to .msg or .csv (with CSV you
could see which field in each record holds the sender's e-mail address).

https://msoutlookworld.blogspot.com/2016/08/best-way-to-convert-microsoft-outlook-msg-file-to-thunderbird-eml.html

However, I can't see how just renaming a file from .msg to .eml is going
to magically convert a MSG file to an EML file. Before trying this,
copy the .msg files to another folder, rename them to .eml, and then see
if Thunderbird can open them simply because of a name change. Doubtful.

I can find lots of local tools to convert MSG to EML, but they're
payware. Some start at $29, so whether that is cheap or pricey depends
on just how important it is to your friend to see those .msg files, and
have Thunderbird, and lots of other e-mail clients, be able to read
them.

To view the MSG files for free using a local tool:

https://www.coolutils.com/MailViewer (free for home use)
https://youtu.be/uI1QyWLQ-xI?t=122 (shows using CoolUtils viewer)

https://www.sysinfotools.com/freeware/msg-viewer.php
(view is free, convert requires Pro payware version at $29)

https://www.mailsdaddy.com/free-msg-viewer/
(free to view, payware to convert)

Besides transliterating the data structure inside a .msg file into an
..eml file, your friend also wants something that parses through that
structure to extract contact information from the headers. That's more
work, especially since a free viewer would show those headers when
viewing a msg file one at a time, but your friend probably wants a tool
that traverses through a whole bunch of .msg files to extract contact
info.

https://www.recoverytools.com/msg/migrator/ (payware, $29)
https://www.recoverytools.com/blog/convert-msg-contacts-to-vcard/
"RecoveryTools MSG Converter provides many options including vCard to
convert MSG contacts to vCard easily."

https://www.bitrecover.com/msg/converter/buy.html ($29)
Converts MSG to EML. Can extract e-mail addresses on Save.

https://corbettsoftware.com/email-address-extractor/
That one says it extracts e-mail addresses from .msg files, but payware
again (and pricey at $99).

https://apps.microsoft.com/detail/9nzd5pjv78v8 ($19)
https://www.vsoftware.org/store/msg-email-extractor/

Op 10/04/2024 om 00:48 schreef VanguardLH:
> sobriquet <dohduhdah@yahoo.com> wrote:
>
>> Someone I know has a number of msg files for their Outlook contacts,
>> but they no longer use Outlook. Now they would like to import those
>> mgs contacts, but it seems tricky to convert them. There are online
>> options (like zamzar.com), but those have privacy concerns.
>>
>> Is there a convenient way to get those contacts into Thunderbird
>> (perhaps with a plug-in)?
>
> Did your friend lose his Outlook software because its subscription
> license expired, it was really someone else's software or computer,
> changed employers, or what? If the e-mails are important, might be
> worth paying $19/yr ($1.99/mo) for MS 365 Basic which includes Outlook.
>

The computer crashed and all data that was on the computer appears to be
lost (possibly including the serial key for office). It was not a
subscription to ms-office 365. They had microsoft office installed and
outlook was part of that.

> https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/outlook/outlook-email-plan#see-plans-and-pricing
> (not sure which tier has just the web apps, or includes local programs)
>
> Outlook on Mac is now free (contains ads, payware to remove ads). Does
> your friend have a Mac, or a friend with one?

Nope.. they use windows and I don't have a mac available to try that out.

>
> https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/outlook/outlook-for-mac
>
> No experience with it, so don't know if it supports everything the
> Windows Outlook client has, like exporting to .msg or .csv (with CSV you
> could see which field in each record holds the sender's e-mail address).

Despite msg file extension suggesting otherwise, the msg files are *not*
emails. They only contain contact information (like home address, phone,
email, etc).

>
> https://msoutlookworld.blogspot.com/2016/08/best-way-to-convert-microsoft-outlook-msg-file-to-thunderbird-eml.html
>
> However, I can't see how just renaming a file from .msg to .eml is going
> to magically convert a MSG file to an EML file. Before trying this,
> copy the .msg files to another folder, rename them to .eml, and then see
> if Thunderbird can open them simply because of a name change. Doubtful.
>
> I can find lots of local tools to convert MSG to EML, but they're
> payware. Some start at $29, so whether that is cheap or pricey depends
> on just how important it is to your friend to see those .msg files, and
> have Thunderbird, and lots of other e-mail clients, be able to read
> them.

I was looking for a free tool, but it's a hassle to try them out, so I
was hoping someone has experience with a particular free tool and being
able to confirm in advance that it works for msg files that are not
emails but only contain contact information.

>
> To view the MSG files for free using a local tool:
>
> https://www.coolutils.com/MailViewer (free for home use)
> https://youtu.be/uI1QyWLQ-xI?t=122 (shows using CoolUtils viewer)
>
> https://www.sysinfotools.com/freeware/msg-viewer.php
> (view is free, convert requires Pro payware version at $29)
>
> https://www.mailsdaddy.com/free-msg-viewer/
> (free to view, payware to convert)
>
> Besides transliterating the data structure inside a .msg file into an
> .eml file, your friend also wants something that parses through that
> structure to extract contact information from the headers. That's more
> work, especially since a free viewer would show those headers when
> viewing a msg file one at a time, but your friend probably wants a tool
> that traverses through a whole bunch of .msg files to extract contact
> info.
>
> https://www.recoverytools.com/msg/migrator/ (payware, $29)
> https://www.recoverytools.com/blog/convert-msg-contacts-to-vcard/
> "RecoveryTools MSG Converter provides many options including vCard to
> convert MSG contacts to vCard easily."
>
> https://www.bitrecover.com/msg/converter/buy.html ($29)
> Converts MSG to EML. Can extract e-mail addresses on Save.
>
> https://corbettsoftware.com/email-address-extractor/
> That one says it extracts e-mail addresses from .msg files, but payware
> again (and pricey at $99).
>
> https://apps.microsoft.com/detail/9nzd5pjv78v8 ($19)
> https://www.vsoftware.org/store/msg-email-extractor/

sobriquet <dohduhdah@yahoo.com> wrote:

> I was looking for a free tool, but it's a hassle to try them out, so I
> was hoping someone has experience with a particular free tool and being
> able to confirm in advance that it works for msg files that are not
> emails but only contain contact information.

Since free is now a requirement, look at coolutils. I remember using
them many years ago, but haven't needed such tools for a long since I
still have Outlook (the perpetual stand-alone license of MS Office, not
the MS 365 subscriptionware).

MSG files contain one, or more, of several different data types. Since
there have be 10 versions of the .msg file format, could be whatever you
used before didn't support the MSG version used to create the .msg file,
or didn't read all streams in the file. The same happens with viewers
that don't support all, the most common, or latest versions of PDF.

https://www.coolutils.com/Formats/MSG
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/openspecs/exchange_server_protocols/ms-oxmsg/b812bc47-4397-4a15-b03d-84aa20be866f
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/archive/blogs/openspecification/msg-file-format-part-1

I don't see you have to bother testing any suggestions. Just pass them
on to your friend, and let him do the work.

On 4/9/2024 7:14 PM, sobriquet wrote:

> Despite msg file extension suggesting otherwise, the msg files are *not*
> emails. They only contain contact information (like home address, phone, email, etc).

I don't have the materials to test these solutions, but
who knows, you might be fluent in this stuff.

https://superuser.com/questions/99250/opening-a-msg-file-in-ubuntu

This is what you do when you are desperate.

Paul

Paul <nospam@needed.invalid> wrote:

> sobriquet wrote:
>
>> Despite msg file extension suggesting otherwise, the msg files are
>> *not* emails. They only contain contact information (like home
>> address, phone, email, etc).
>
> I don't have the materials to test these solutions, but
> who knows, you might be fluent in this stuff.
>
> https://superuser.com/questions/99250/opening-a-msg-file-in-ubuntu
>
> This is what you do when you are desperate.

"Sign in to your Microsoft onedrive account and upload the .msg file.
After upload, you can click on it to view the file contents."

That's a handy quick workaround. Won't cull e-mail addresses of senders
from all uploaded .msg files that the OP's friend wants to do, but if
the OP's friend doesn't have many .msg files then it's a one-time
low-effort task to cull the e-mail addresses.

I only had 1 old .msg file that I saved for an e-mail of an online
purchase of software. I uploaded it to my OneDrive account, and opened
it there, and it displayed just fine. So, that scheme works (on a
one-by-one .msg file basis).

VanguardLH wrote:
> Paul <nospam@needed.invalid> wrote:
>
>> sobriquet wrote:
>>
>>> Despite msg file extension suggesting otherwise, the msg files are
>>> *not* emails. They only contain contact information (like home
>>> address, phone, email, etc).
>>
>> I don't have the materials to test these solutions, but
>> who knows, you might be fluent in this stuff.
>>
>> https://superuser.com/questions/99250/opening-a-msg-file-in-ubuntu
>>
>> This is what you do when you are desperate.
>
> "Sign in to your Microsoft onedrive account and upload the .msg file.
> After upload, you can click on it to view the file contents."
>
> That's a handy quick workaround. Won't cull e-mail addresses of senders
> from all uploaded .msg files that the OP's friend wants to do, but if
> the OP's friend doesn't have many .msg files then it's a one-time
> low-effort task to cull the e-mail addresses.
>
> I only had 1 old .msg file that I saved for an e-mail of an online
> purchase of software. I uploaded it to my OneDrive account, and opened
> it there, and it displayed just fine. So, that scheme works (on a
> one-by-one .msg file basis).

I have several .MSG files around my Win10 system; in folders belonging
to Foxit Reader, Samsung Magician, Audacity and other non-MS programs.
They're named "unins000" and "unins001", and all contain the same story;
specifically directed at Outlook.

To the point. They are readable with Notepad, Wordpad, MS Word etc.
Hence, the OP doesn't need to convert them. They can all be stored
together in a folder and read at any time with Notepad. And should the
OP wish to reply to one, he can copy and paste into Tbird.

Ed

On 4/10/2024 5:06 AM, Ed Cryer wrote:
> VanguardLH wrote:
>> Paul <nospam@needed.invalid> wrote:
>>
>>> sobriquet wrote:
>>>
>>>> Despite msg file extension suggesting otherwise, the msg files are
>>>> *not* emails. They only contain contact information (like home
>>>> address, phone, email, etc).
>>>
>>> I don't have the materials to test these solutions, but
>>> who knows, you might be fluent in this stuff.
>>>
>>> https://superuser.com/questions/99250/opening-a-msg-file-in-ubuntu
>>>
>>> This is what you do when you are desperate.
>>
>> "Sign in to your Microsoft onedrive account and upload the .msg file.
>> After upload, you can click on it to view the file contents."
>>
>> That's a handy quick workaround.  Won't cull e-mail addresses of senders
>> from all uploaded .msg files that the OP's friend wants to do, but if
>> the OP's friend doesn't have many .msg files then it's a one-time
>> low-effort task to cull the e-mail addresses.
>>
>> I only had 1 old .msg file that I saved for an e-mail of an online
>> purchase of software.  I uploaded it to my OneDrive account, and opened
>> it there, and it displayed just fine.  So, that scheme works (on a
>> one-by-one .msg file basis).
>
> I have several .MSG files around my Win10 system; in folders belonging to Foxit Reader, Samsung Magician, Audacity and other non-MS programs. They're named "unins000" and "unins001", and all contain the same story; specifically directed at Outlook.
>
> To the point. They are readable with Notepad, Wordpad, MS Word etc.
> Hence, the OP doesn't need to convert them. They can all be stored together in a folder and read at any time with Notepad. And should the OP wish to reply to one, he can copy and paste into Tbird.
>
> Ed

The OP provides an imgur picture of the Outlook .msg file opened
in a text editor.

Take a look and give your considered opinion.

https://i.imgur.com/94huVzs.png

Some of that is binary, some is double-byte text. Which
means at a minimum, it did not come from a year 2000
version of Outlook.

It needs more than a trivial treatment to convert
that into a VCARD. One web page suggested running "strings"
on the file, which sure, might work. The picture provided,
does not show the lower part of the file with the goods
we're looking for.

Paul

On 4/10/24 07:17 AM, Paul wrote:
> On 4/10/2024 5:06 AM, Ed Cryer wrote:
>> VanguardLH wrote:
>>> Paul <nospam@needed.invalid> wrote:
>>>
>>>> sobriquet wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> Despite msg file extension suggesting otherwise, the msg files are
>>>>> *not* emails. They only contain contact information (like home
>>>>> address, phone, email, etc).
>>>>
>>>> I don't have the materials to test these solutions, but
>>>> who knows, you might be fluent in this stuff.
>>>>
>>>> https://superuser.com/questions/99250/opening-a-msg-file-in-ubuntu
>>>>
>>>> This is what you do when you are desperate.
>>>
>>> "Sign in to your Microsoft onedrive account and upload the .msg file.
>>> After upload, you can click on it to view the file contents."
>>>
>>> That's a handy quick workaround.  Won't cull e-mail addresses of senders
>>> from all uploaded .msg files that the OP's friend wants to do, but if
>>> the OP's friend doesn't have many .msg files then it's a one-time
>>> low-effort task to cull the e-mail addresses.
>>>
>>> I only had 1 old .msg file that I saved for an e-mail of an online
>>> purchase of software.  I uploaded it to my OneDrive account, and opened
>>> it there, and it displayed just fine.  So, that scheme works (on a
>>> one-by-one .msg file basis).
>>
>> I have several .MSG files around my Win10 system; in folders belonging to Foxit Reader, Samsung Magician, Audacity and other non-MS programs. They're named "unins000" and "unins001", and all contain the same story; specifically directed at Outlook.
>>
>> To the point. They are readable with Notepad, Wordpad, MS Word etc.
>> Hence, the OP doesn't need to convert them. They can all be stored together in a folder and read at any time with Notepad. And should the OP wish to reply to one, he can copy and paste into Tbird.
>>
>> Ed
>
> The OP provides an imgur picture of the Outlook .msg file opened
> in a text editor.
>
> Take a look and give your considered opinion.
>
> https://i.imgur.com/94huVzs.png
>
> Some of that is binary, some is double-byte text. Which
> means at a minimum, it did not come from a year 2000
> version of Outlook.
>
> It needs more than a trivial treatment to convert
> that into a VCARD. One web page suggested running "strings"
> on the file, which sure, might work. The picture provided,
> does not show the lower part of the file with the goods
> we're looking for.
>
> Paul
As the OP is looking for contacts, not emails (text) wouldn't the image be base64 encoded?
--
Linux Mint 21.3 Cinnamon 6.0.4 Kernel 5.15.0-102-generic
Al

Paul wrote:
> On 4/10/2024 5:06 AM, Ed Cryer wrote:
>> VanguardLH wrote:
>>> Paul <nospam@needed.invalid> wrote:
>>>
>>>> sobriquet wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> Despite msg file extension suggesting otherwise, the msg files are
>>>>> *not* emails. They only contain contact information (like home
>>>>> address, phone, email, etc).
>>>>
>>>> I don't have the materials to test these solutions, but
>>>> who knows, you might be fluent in this stuff.
>>>>
>>>> https://superuser.com/questions/99250/opening-a-msg-file-in-ubuntu
>>>>
>>>> This is what you do when you are desperate.
>>>
>>> "Sign in to your Microsoft onedrive account and upload the .msg file.
>>> After upload, you can click on it to view the file contents."
>>>
>>> That's a handy quick workaround.  Won't cull e-mail addresses of senders
>>> from all uploaded .msg files that the OP's friend wants to do, but if
>>> the OP's friend doesn't have many .msg files then it's a one-time
>>> low-effort task to cull the e-mail addresses.
>>>
>>> I only had 1 old .msg file that I saved for an e-mail of an online
>>> purchase of software.  I uploaded it to my OneDrive account, and opened
>>> it there, and it displayed just fine.  So, that scheme works (on a
>>> one-by-one .msg file basis).
>>
>> I have several .MSG files around my Win10 system; in folders belonging to Foxit Reader, Samsung Magician, Audacity and other non-MS programs. They're named "unins000" and "unins001", and all contain the same story; specifically directed at Outlook.
>>
>> To the point. They are readable with Notepad, Wordpad, MS Word etc.
>> Hence, the OP doesn't need to convert them. They can all be stored together in a folder and read at any time with Notepad. And should the OP wish to reply to one, he can copy and paste into Tbird.
>>
>> Ed
>
> The OP provides an imgur picture of the Outlook .msg file opened
> in a text editor.
>
> Take a look and give your considered opinion.
>
> https://i.imgur.com/94huVzs.png
>
> Some of that is binary, some is double-byte text. Which
> means at a minimum, it did not come from a year 2000
> version of Outlook.
>
> It needs more than a trivial treatment to convert
> that into a VCARD. One web page suggested running "strings"
> on the file, which sure, might work. The picture provided,
> does not show the lower part of the file with the goods
> we're looking for.
>
> Paul
Tell the OP to use a Unicode font. I used Palatino Linotype with Notepad.
Ed

Ed Cryer <ed@somewhere.in.the.uk> wrote:

> I have several .MSG files around my Win10 system; in folders belonging
> to Foxit Reader, Samsung Magician, Audacity and other non-MS programs.
> They're named "unins000" and "unins001", and all contain the same story;
> specifically directed at Outlook.
>
> To the point. They are readable with Notepad, Wordpad, MS Word etc.
> Hence, the OP doesn't need to convert them. They can all be stored
> together in a folder and read at any time with Notepad. And should the
> OP wish to reply to one, he can copy and paste into Tbird.

..msg is a common and shared file extension. Having .msg as the
extension does not mandate it is a Microsoft file format for messaging.

To do an uninstall, a logfile is created to record the installation.
Later, when uninstalling, the logfile is used to remove the components
of the installation. There has to be some way to backtrack the changes
made by the installer. However, after installation, and when a program
is used, more changes are made in creating or modifying some files and
registry entries, and the uninstall logfile won't know about those. So,
even when the uninstaller uses the install-time logfile, some remnants
can still be left behind, because those were create by using the program
after its install.

Small programs may simply code the uninstall steps rather than create a
logfile of the installation.

The unins*.msg files you found are NOT Outlook message files. Those are
just logfiles. Often .log is used for the extension, but any extension
is usable since the uninstaller will just read the text from the file.

https://filext.com/list/m

Scroll down. You'll see several entries describing what .msg files
might be used for. For the unins*.msg files you found, those could've
also been named *.log files, or *.uninstall, or whatever extension the
installer's author decided to use. The author may even use a .log file
to record an installation, and a *.msg file to provide help text.

Do a search on *.log, and you'll find lots of those, too. I currently
have 609 of them. A search on *.msg only found 19 of which 14 were
install logs or help text of installs.

VanguardLH wrote:
> Ed Cryer <ed@somewhere.in.the.uk> wrote:
>
>> I have several .MSG files around my Win10 system; in folders belonging
>> to Foxit Reader, Samsung Magician, Audacity and other non-MS programs.
>> They're named "unins000" and "unins001", and all contain the same story;
>> specifically directed at Outlook.
>>
>> To the point. They are readable with Notepad, Wordpad, MS Word etc.
>> Hence, the OP doesn't need to convert them. They can all be stored
>> together in a folder and read at any time with Notepad. And should the
>> OP wish to reply to one, he can copy and paste into Tbird.
>
> .msg is a common and shared file extension. Having .msg as the
> extension does not mandate it is a Microsoft file format for messaging.
>
> To do an uninstall, a logfile is created to record the installation.
> Later, when uninstalling, the logfile is used to remove the components
> of the installation. There has to be some way to backtrack the changes
> made by the installer. However, after installation, and when a program
> is used, more changes are made in creating or modifying some files and
> registry entries, and the uninstall logfile won't know about those. So,
> even when the uninstaller uses the install-time logfile, some remnants
> can still be left behind, because those were create by using the program
> after its install.
>
> Small programs may simply code the uninstall steps rather than create a
> logfile of the installation.
>
> The unins*.msg files you found are NOT Outlook message files. Those are
> just logfiles. Often .log is used for the extension, but any extension
> is usable since the uninstaller will just read the text from the file.
>
> https://filext.com/list/m
>
> Scroll down. You'll see several entries describing what .msg files
> might be used for. For the unins*.msg files you found, those could've
> also been named *.log files, or *.uninstall, or whatever extension the
> installer's author decided to use. The author may even use a .log file
> to record an installation, and a *.msg file to provide help text.
>
> Do a search on *.log, and you'll find lots of those, too. I currently
> have 609 of them. A search on *.msg only found 19 of which 14 were
> install logs or help text of installs.

My mentioning those .msg files was simply to point out that there were
locally available files with that extension, and that they are viewable
with standard utilities. Not to receive a lecture on Windows'
uninstallation schematics.

Ed

Ed Cryer <ed@somewhere.in.the.uk> wrote:

> My mentioning those .msg files was simply to point out that there were
> locally available files with that extension, and that they are viewable
> with standard utilities.

Oh, was that what you intended to imply.

> Not to receive a lecture on Windows' uninstallation schematics.

Since the discussion was on .msg files used for messaging, you went
off-topic without notice.

On 4/10/2024 5:10 PM, Ed Cryer wrote:
found 19 of which 14 were
>> install logs or help text of installs.
>
> My mentioning those .msg files was simply to point out that there were locally available files with that extension, and that they are viewable with standard utilities. Not to receive a lecture on Windows' uninstallation schematics.
>
> Ed

I did better than that.

In this message, I used the contents of the picture
to positively identify the file type.

MID = <uv3j8f$94r5$1@dont-email.me>

https://www.fileformat.info/format/outlookmsg/

If you open a .msg file you will see many streams. Here's an example:

__nameid_version1.0
__substg1.0_00020102
__substg1.0_00030102
__substg1.0_00040102
__substg1.0_10100102
__substg1.0_001A001E
__substg1.0_0037001E
__substg1.0_10090102
__substg1.0_3FF8001E
__substg1.0_3FF90102
__properties_version1.0
__recip_version1.0_#00000000
...
__attach_version1.0_#00000000
...
__attach_version1.0_#00000001
...

Nameid, recip and attach are "folders" which contain substgs.
Properties contains some binary data.

Attach contains an attachment (a file, a picture, a new mail message etc.).
Recip contains information about a recipient.
The #00000000 is just the count. If you have five attachments, they are numbered 0-4.
"

That's not just any old .msg file found in the gutter.
That's an Outlook .msg file. As the OP indicated.

The OP can see the contents not shown in his picture.

Paul

VanguardLH wrote:
> Ed Cryer <ed@somewhere.in.the.uk> wrote:
>
>> My mentioning those .msg files was simply to point out that there were
>> locally available files with that extension, and that they are viewable
>> with standard utilities.
>
> Oh, was that what you intended to imply.
>
>> Not to receive a lecture on Windows' uninstallation schematics.
>
> Since the discussion was on .msg files used for messaging, you went
> off-topic without notice.

Far from it. It was relevant to show that .msg files could be opened
with MS regular utilities.

Ed

Op 10/04/2024 om 06:58 schreef VanguardLH:
> Paul <nospam@needed.invalid> wrote:
>
>> sobriquet wrote:
>>
>>> Despite msg file extension suggesting otherwise, the msg files are
>>> *not* emails. They only contain contact information (like home
>>> address, phone, email, etc).
>>
>> I don't have the materials to test these solutions, but
>> who knows, you might be fluent in this stuff.
>>
>> https://superuser.com/questions/99250/opening-a-msg-file-in-ubuntu
>>
>> This is what you do when you are desperate.
>
> "Sign in to your Microsoft onedrive account and upload the .msg file.
> After upload, you can click on it to view the file contents."
>
> That's a handy quick workaround. Won't cull e-mail addresses of senders
> from all uploaded .msg files that the OP's friend wants to do, but if
> the OP's friend doesn't have many .msg files then it's a one-time
> low-effort task to cull the e-mail addresses.
>
> I only had 1 old .msg file that I saved for an e-mail of an online
> purchase of software. I uploaded it to my OneDrive account, and opened
> it there, and it displayed just fine. So, that scheme works (on a
> one-by-one .msg file basis).

I have tested this method and it fails to work.
The msg file gets interpreted as an email, but it's not an email. It's a
file containing contact information.