How to convert a .msg file to .eml

Why convert at all

.msg is Outlook's own container format and nothing outside the Microsoft ecosystem reads it. .eml is the format email actually travels in, so converting turns a file only Outlook can open into one that every mail client, archive system and e-discovery tool accepts.

Convert when you need to:

• read the message on a Mac, Linux machine or phone;
• import it into a non-Microsoft mail client or archive;
• hand it to someone who does not use Outlook;
• store correspondence in a format that will still open in ten years.

How to convert

1. Open the viewer and drop your .msg file on it.
2. Choose Export → Save as .eml.
3. Double-click the downloaded file.

You can drop up to 50 files at once and export them one at a time from the list.

What the converted file contains

The exported .eml is a proper MIME message carrying:

• sender, recipients, Cc and the original send date;
• the body as both plain text and HTML, so clients that prefer either one display it correctly;
• every attachment, re-encoded as base64 MIME parts;
• inline images with their original Content-ID, so signatures and logos still appear inside the body rather than as loose attachments.

What does not survive the conversion

This is worth knowing before you delete the original. .eml describes an internet message; .msg describes an Outlook item, and the extra things it knows have nowhere to go:

• Exchange internal addresses. The /O=…/OU=…/CN=… distinguished names of internal senders, which are sometimes the only record of who an internal mailbox belonged to.
• Item type. An appointment, contact or task converted to .eml becomes an ordinary message.
• Voting responses, flags, categories and follow-up state.
• Draft routing data — an unsent message never had internet headers to begin with.

Keep the original .msg when the item is evidence, when it is not ordinary mail, or when Exchange-internal details matter. The full format comparison goes into more detail.

Nothing is uploaded

Conversion happens entirely in your browser. There is no server involved, which matters because the files people convert are almost always business correspondence. You can verify it in your browser's Network tab, or simply disconnect from the internet after the page has loaded — the export still works.

Converting the other way

Going from .eml back to .msg is not offered here, and you rarely want it: Outlook opens .eml files natively, so there is nothing to fix. Double-click the .eml and Outlook will display it.