MBOX and PST both serves the same purpose of saving emails and related items like attachments, in Apple Mail and Windows Outlook, respectively. MBOX can be used with other clients as well, but PST is only for Outlook (both Windows and Mac version). Converting MBOX to PST in Mac, thus, is for moving data in MBOX to Windows Outlook. The MBOX file could be from any source, including Apple Mail, Thunderbird, or even from Google Takeout.
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MBOX and PST, Converting them in Mac
If you are trying to convert MBOX to PST in Mac OS X as well, there are few crucial things you must know before going forward.
Even though MBOX and PST serve the same purpose, if you take a look at their source code, you will find many dissimilarities. In fact, MBOX format not always refers to one single format. It is a generic term used for related file formats. Although, today, most MBOX files follow a common and standard source, but there can still be massive internal differences.
The reason for saying all that is because of the complexity and variance involved in MBOX and PST in Mac computer makes it a difficult conversion process. Any converter you are going to use must have detailed and layered algorithms that can map and trace data accurately.
MBOX and PST Converter on Mac
Sadly, you do not see any hint of accuracy in most of the MBOX to PST converters that with direct Mac compatibility.
Most of the times, they seem to work just fine. You load the MBOX files and hit “Convert,” and after a few hours, you get your output PST files ready to use. But the biggest concerning factor is that most of the missing items that the tool failed to process are not even logged as errors. If the tool completely skipped an email or file due to a big reason (such as incompatible encoding), that may show up and you might have a chance to do something about it. However, most of the details are often not mapped out from MBOX and PST. Practically, no one can go through the emails and check if the entire database matches the original in all aspects.
Other than losing information during the conversion that do not make into the output PST files, there is the issue of modification in the way information inside MBOX files were originally stored. Such errors are even harder to notice by users in the first glance and even harder for the tools to retain from the input database. Examples include like the dimension of a graphical item inside emails, change in folder hierarchy, international characters will be automatically converted into random characters, and so on. Many users do not keep the original MBOX files forever or might lose them later in the future. And if the conversion to PST was not precise without any compromises to the integrity, that would big a very trouble. Even if you have the original MBOX files, such error-prone conversion tools are not a good idea; not for a home user with personal database or for an organization with business data.
The Challenges
Here, we mostly discussed about the general tendency of ordinary MBOX to PST converters for Mac users to lose certain details from your files or at least alter the structure in an unwanted way. Emails are the kind of information where even a single KB of data could be more important for the users than a large file in gigabytes. But besides this incomplete conversion issue with the email migration, many third-party applications lack other essential features that are crucial to migrate emails safely, efficiently, and with ease. Slow conversion rate, poor interface, no PST file splitter, etc. are some of the common features that are needed in most conversion projects but are missing from traditional MBOX and PST converter tools.
Slow Conversion rate
if you only have a couple of folders in MBOX files, it probably won’t matter much to you. However, if you have many folders and emails and the overall size of the MBOX files combined is high, many of the tools for converting MBOX and PST in Mac OS will almost be impractical because of how long they take to convert data.
Poor Interface
The interface of any software is the channel of communication between you – a human – and the software itself. Without a user-friendly interface, a software is pretty much useless on its own. And MBOX to PST Converter tools fall in that category more than often. Especially for basic users and beginners, a cluttered UI without any systematic approach can impair the tool’s own ability to convert data.
PST File Splitter
PST files over a certain size limit (often depending on the specifications of your computer) is frequently the cause of many issues and errors in Outlook. Therefore, it is very important that you maintain the size of PST files either by compacting it or directly deleting emails that are not important. But what if you are converting a large MBOX and PST? In that case, you are likely to get a large PST file. It’s not only bad for the performance of Outlook and prone to data corruption, but is also tricky to import to Outlook. Windows or Mac Outlook either crash or freeze while a large PST file is in the process of importing. Therefore, missing the PST file splitter in most converter tools is a crucial factor in why they most of them do not consistently work and can make users end up in frustration.
The Best Mac tool for MBOX and PST
If you want to avoid problems like discussed above, we recommend “Mail Extractor Pro” that is designed with ultra-precise algorithms for full conversion and dedicated means to safeguard the integrity. It is also very simple to use by anyone, lightning fast conversion speed with stability preserved, and a native PST file splitter with customizable maximum size-limit (depending on users’ preferences).
Try it out.
Download Page: https://www.mailextractorpro.com/download-now/
The MBOX and PST tool is the most trusted one for converting MBOX to PST in Mac. And you will instantly see why that is.
And to convert PST to MBOX, you can try PST Extractor Pro.