How do I get Outlook Std Ed 2003 to read .mbx and .idx files?

[Guest]

I'm trying to access several old mail files with .mbx and .idx extensions by
opening the associated .pst file in Outlook Std Ed 2003. However, the .pst
file is not linking to the .idx or .mbx so nothing is being opened for
reading. What am I doing wrong?

 

[Peter Foldes]

What you are doing wrong is that you do not understand.

idx and mbx file extensions belonged to the old versions of Outlook Express which were versions prior to OE 6. As an example OE4 AND OE5 were using those file formats. For you to be able to read those files you will need to find OE4 and or OE5 and install it to a MS OS system that will be able to handle them along with the old OE. That means that you will need to install OE4 with idx and then Upgrade to OE5 mbx and then to OE6 with dbx . Then you will need to upgrade that OE 5 version to OE6 which then will convert them to dbx files. Then you will need to export\import them (dbx) to Outlook.

There you have it. Now you can read those old idx and mbx emails

 

[Gordon]

What you are doing wrong is that you do not understand.

idx and mbx file extensions belonged to the old versions of Outlook
Express which were versions prior to OE 6. As an example OE4 AND OE5 were
using
those file formats. For you to be able to read those files you will need
to find OE4 and or OE5 and install it to a MS OS system that will be able
to handle
them along with the old OE. That means that you will need to install OE4
with idx and then Upgrade to OE5 mbx and then to OE6 with dbx . Then you
will
need to upgrade that OE 5 version to OE6 which then will convert them to
dbx files. Then you will need to export\import them (dbx) to Outlook.

There you have it. Now you can read those old idx and mbx emails

Outlook will import OE4.x files natively - no need to install OE4 at
all.......

 

[Gordon]

I'm trying to access several old mail files with .mbx and .idx extensions
by
opening the associated .pst file in Outlook Std Ed 2003. However, the
.pst
file is not linking to the .idx or .mbx so nothing is being opened for
reading. What am I doing wrong?

In Outlook do File-Import and Export-Internet Mail-Outlook Express 4x......

 

[Russ Valentine [MVP-Outlook]]

No it won't. It will only import from the app.

 

[Peter Foldes]

No it will not. You need to have Outlook Express installed . Which version ? Depends on the idx or mbx files that you are trying to import.

The reason I suggested that route above is to cut out a step or two when trying to convert those old files.