Show HN: Export Mail for Microsoft Outlook for Mac | Hacker News Reader

Show HN: Export Mail for Microsoft Outlook for Mac

exportoutlookmacmail.com

46 pointslancer10 comments

I put this macOS app together to help me archive 250,000+ emails from Microsoft Outlook to local storage. (In a format that would outlast an OLM file.) It started as a simple AppleScript script and multiplied by asking myself, "I wonder if I could make it do X..." a hundred times over. The project was ready to share four years ago but a spontaneous cross-country move left it to languish. A recent HN "share your half-baked project" post motivated me to open Xcode and polish it up for 2021. As a former SaaS CTO and Win32 developer in a former life, it has been quite a journey down the rabbit hole of macOS app development. Unfortunately, the "New Outlook" doesn't support AppleScript to the extent the "Classic" version does [1], so its shelf-life is unknown. It's free to run in either a limited Trial mode or you can request a beta license key to remove the export message count limit. No doubt this targets a niche market, and it would be great if there is enough interest to support continued development.

[1] https://outlook.uservoice.com/forums/924856-the-new-outlook-...

Curious if corporate Exchange admins can thwart this with domain policy, etc.

One might think so, but a quick search didn't turn up any results. Outlook for Mac has had AppleScript automation for at least a decade, so you'd think there would be some mention of it if there was.

This looks nice! I've also had great luck with Email Alchemy to export over 1 million messages from over a decade of mail.

(and I paid for it after paying two consultants to help me, so although it is a niche market, it could be bigger than you think)

Emailchemy looks like a pretty useful tool. I'll take a look!

+1. I’m a paid up user of Email Alchemy, it’s one of those sub-50USD apps that pay for themselves with one job / client, especially where Outlook is ancient and inexplicably still working.

Why not use imap ?

I imagine IMAP would provide access to most cloud-based email services, and I bet there are some IMAP-based export tools. However, in my experience, Microsoft Exchange email accounts are only accessible through the Exchange Server protocol, whatever that might be. Outlook is the perfect intermediary.

The server that provides access to Exchange through Web Access can also provide for IMAP.

However, as there now is native support for ActiveSync in most operating systems there no longer is a very compelling use case to turn it on and run the associated risks.

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