How to Open NSF file without Lotus Notes?

Jamie Kaler ~ September 19, 2024 ~ 7 Minutes Reading

Lotus Notes is a highly popular server-based email application used by large organizations to meet their daily email communication needs within an office environment. Besides this, a lot of users prefer to use Lotus Notes as an email client on their machine to open NSF file without Lotus Notes in offline mode. Such a Lotus Notes account creates a separate NSF file for each profile to save the complete data associated with it.

nsf viewer without lotus notes

NSF files can be opened with Lotus Notes, but if you have an orphaned NSF file on a machine where Lotus Notes is not installed, accessing it will be difficult. You should either have an NSF file viewer; which can directly read an NSF file or you should have any other emailing application through which you can open NSF file without Lotus Notes.

In addition to Lotus Notes, other popular desktop-based email clients such as MS Outlook, Thunderbird, Eudora, Windows Live Mail, and Outlook Express are commonly used to access emails in offline mode. You can open NSF files in any of the above-listed applications, but for that, you first need to convert NSF files into other formats that are compatible with this application. Like; to open NSF file without Lotus Notes, you have to Convert NSF Files to Outlook PST first. Similarly; Import NSF Files to Other Email Clients such as Thunderbird, Windows Mail, Outlook Express, etc. you need to convert NSF into EML file format.

Reasons to Open NSF Files Without Lotus Notes

  • Users may no longer access Lotus Notes due to switching to another email client or because the software is outdated.
  • Many organizations migrate from Lotus Notes to more modern platforms like Microsoft Outlook, requiring access to NSF files without having Lotus Notes installed.
  • Users may need to access NSF files on different platforms or devices where Lotus Notes is not supported.
  • In some cases, users want to recover and extract data from corrupted or inaccessible NSF files without reinstalling Lotus Notes.
  • Since Lotus Notes operates on a subscription-based model, some users prefer to open NSF files without it.

How to Open NSF File in MS Outlook?

This is the scenario where you have MS Outlook on your machine and you need to open an orphan NSF file without Lotus Notes. In this situation, the most important job is to first convert the NSF file into MS Outlook compatible data file format; which is a PST file. For this, you can either go for some manual tactics or you can try automated software which directly saves Lotus Notes data into MS Outlook data file format.

Open NSF file without Lotus Notes

Also Read: How to Migrate Lotus Notes to Outlook?

Steps to Manually Convert NSF Files Without Losing Data

The manual conversion process involves two processes;

  • One is to export data from Lotus Notes (Here you need Lotus Notes on your Machine).
  • Secondly, import NSF file data within MS Outlook.

Export Data from Lotus Notes

  1. Launch Lotus Notes on your machine and click on the Open button from the menu bar.
  2. Click on File and go to Export from the list that appears.
  3. An Export wizard will open and you need to choose a location to save the file after export. Select save type from the drop-down as “Comma Separated Value or Structured Text”.
  4. Next, you will be asked to name the file and then click on “Export”.
  5. After export, you will either get a “CSV file or a Structured Text Export screen”.
  6. After careful selection of the appropriate options click “OK”.

Now that you have successfully exported the Lotus Notes data file; we have to import this into MS Outlook.

Import Lotus Notes File to MS Outlook

  1. Launch MS Outlook on your machine and click the “File” menu.
  2. Select Open and then go to the Import option from the list in the right pane.
  3. Next, an Import Export Wizard will open from which; select the option “Import from another program or file” under the option to select an action to perform.
  4. Click next to proceed. An import a file window appears.
  5. Here, select comma-separated values then click next.
  6. Now browse and select the file exported from Lotus Notes.
  7. In the next wizard, you will get three different options to import or ignore importing duplicate items. The available options are: (a) Replace duplicates with imported items, (b) Allow duplicates to be created, and (c) Do not import duplicate items.
  8. Select the desired option then click Next.
  9. Now choose a folder to save the data after importing and click Next.
  10. The process takes some time to complete then click on the Finish button once the task completes.

This is how you can successfully open the Lotus Notes data within MS Outlook without Lotus Notes manually. Although the process above is practically possible it does need sheer technical skills along with ample time to carry out the entire process without fail. Above all, this conversion cannot be done without Lotus Notes being installed on your machine. Also, it is a tricky job if you have multiple NSF files from different users or profiles. Every time you need to follow the complete process to Open NSF Files in Outlook.

Convert NSF Files to Outlook PST Using Automated Software

Opting for third-party tools to perform conversions is not the first choice of users always. Everyone prefers to find out some manual or free method to migrate data from one platform to another. But, the fact of the matter is quality comes with a cost. With a paid tool you can do a lot more than what you do with the manual process.

  1. It saves an ample amount of time which you can use in other more productive tasks.
  2. You do not need any technical experts for doing this. Anyone can do it with the tool.
  3. Zero risk of data loss while you perform conversion.
  4. Multiple other options are available along with migration.
  5. Thousands of NSF files can be moved into PST format with less effort.

NSF to PST Converter is designed to simplify the user efforts in exporting NSF data into MS Outlook without Lotus Notes. You only need to install and run the tool to Convert NSF Files to Outlook PST. Other feature benefits are:

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how to open nsf file without lotus notes

  1. It can convert multiple NSF files at a time.
  2. Create a single PST for NSF files having all the profiles separately listed.
  3. Keeps the hierarchy of folders intact during the process.
  4. Any size of Lotus Notes NSF file can be converted easily.
  5. Complete data of an NSF file will be migrated: Email, calendars, contact, etc.

Try out this wizard to open the NSF file in MS Outlook in an extremely easy and simple way.

Frequently Asked Questions By Users

How do I Decrypt a NSF file in Lotus Notes?
To decrypt an NSF file in Lotus Notes, open the file, enter the correct user ID and password, and ensure you have the proper access rights to remove encryption.


How do I Convert Lotus Notes email to PDF?
To convert Lotus Notes email to PDF, open the email, select “Print,” choose a PDF printer, and save the file as a PDF.


How do I Remove Lotus Notes as my default email?
To remove Lotus Notes as your default email, go to your system’s default apps settings, find the “Email” option, and select a different email program as the default.

Let’s Wrap Up

In this tutorial, we provide reliable information on how to open an NSF file without Lotus Notes using both manual and automated approaches. The manual approach presents various challenges, so we recommend choosing an automated method to ensure the process completes without losing any data.

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