MSG to PDF: Outlook emails, in bulk, with attachments
Drop your Outlook .msg files, or the folder they are in. Each email becomes a searchable PDF with its attachments inside, and you get a ZIP plus an Excel index. Free for up to 20 emails per run, and nothing is uploaded.Each Outlook .msg email becomes a searchable PDF with its attachments, plus a ZIP and an Excel index. Free for up to 20 emails per run. Nothing is uploaded.
- Never leaves your device
- No Outlook needed
- Attachments included
Converter
Drop emails or a whole folder hereChoose your email filesDrop more emails or folders hereAdd more email files
or
Outlook .msg, .eml and Apple Mail .emlx. Folders are searched, subfolders too. No emails at hand? See a sample PDF.
Choosing a folder: your browser asks whether to “upload” it. That is its standard wording for letting this page read the files; they stay in this tab. Dragging the folder here asks nothing.
Your emails never leave your device. They are read and turned into PDFs inside this browser tab, and remote images and tracking pixels are never loaded. How to check
Enter your licence key
This browser holds a licence key, but Polar hasn’t confirmed it for over 30 days (it couldn’t be reached), so the free limit applies for now.
No limit on emails per run in this browser.
Frees this browser’s activation at Polar (a key works in 3 browsers at a time) and removes the key from this browser.
Reading your emails…
PDF options
Use YYYY MM DD HHMM From FromEmail To Subject Original Index; anything else is kept as typed.
Single PDFs: use the PDF buttons in the list. Files stay in this tab until you close or reload it.
Emails
| Convert | Date | From | Subject | Attachments | Status |
|---|
What is a .msg file?
A .msg file is one Outlook email saved on its own. It is not plain text: it is a small Microsoft compound file, the same kind of container that old Word .doc files use, holding the message as a set of Outlook properties. The sender and recipients, the dates and the subject are separate entries; the body may be stored as plain text, as HTML, as rich text (RTF) or as several of these; and each attachment sits in its own stream inside the file.
That is why a .msg file opens in Outlook but not in a browser or a text editor, and why this page reads it with a dedicated MSG reader instead of guessing. Older .msg files, from early Outlook versions or saved as “Outlook Message Format” rather than the Unicode variant, store their text in a code page such as Windows-1252 or Shift-JIS. The converter reads the code page recorded in the message, so accented, Cyrillic, Chinese and Japanese text comes out right.
Where .msg files come from
Saved from Outlook
- Classic Outlook for Windows: select emails and drag them to a folder or the desktop, and each becomes a .msg file. Or open an email and use File > Save As.
- Outlook on the web: More actions > Download saves an email as a file; Microsoft says it can be .eml or .msg.
- New Outlook for Windows saves .eml when you drag emails out. That works here too: see EML to PDF.
Handed to you
- Document management and records systems that file emails as .msg next to the matter or project.
- Legal hold and e-discovery exports, and email archives that hand out one .msg per email.
- Emails inside emails: when someone attaches an Outlook email to a message, it travels as a .msg attachment.
- Colleagues and clients who drag an email out of Outlook and send it on.
Tips for converting .msg files
Rich text emails keep their formatting
Outlook often keeps the body as rich text (RTF) with the original HTML wrapped inside it. The converter unwraps that HTML, so tables, links and bold text survive. When an email has only plain rich text, the PDF shows its plain-text version and the Excel index says so.
Emails attached to emails
An Outlook item attached to a message is shown in the PDF as a message of its own, right after the email, followed by its own attachments, including emails forwarded inside it, down to five levels (numbered “Attachment 1.1”, “1.1.1” and so on). The original .msg is embedded too, so nothing is lost.
Keep the file names you already have
If your .msg files already follow a naming scheme, choose Same as the email file under PDF file names. Otherwise the default, date + time + sender + subject, makes the PDFs sort by date in any folder.
For records and legal holds
Tick Also embed the original email file in the PDF options: each PDF then carries its source .msg inside, so the native file stays with the readable copy. The Excel index lists the Message-ID of every email to help match the two.
What can't be shown
An encrypted (S/MIME) .msg can only show its header; the encrypted part is embedded as a file. A password-protected PDF attachment is embedded rather than added as pages. Mailbox files (.pst and .ost) can't be read yet: drag the emails out of classic Outlook first.
MSG to PDF questions
Do I need Outlook to convert .msg files?
No. This page reads .msg files itself, in your browser, so it works on a PC without Outlook, on a Mac, on a Chromebook and on Linux. Outlook is only needed to save the emails as .msg files in the first place.
Are the attachments inside a .msg file kept?
Yes. PDF attachments become pages after the email, pictures get their own pages, an attached Outlook email is shown as a message with its own attachments, and every other file (Word, Excel, ZIP and so on) is embedded inside the PDF exactly as it was sent and, by default, saved next to the PDF in the ZIP, because Chrome's and Edge's PDF viewers can't open embedded files.
Why does my PDF look a little different from Outlook?
The PDF is laid out from the email's content with clear, searchable text rather than as a screenshot of Outlook. Text, tables, links, quotes and pictures are kept; fonts and some newsletter styling are simplified. The header block also shows details Outlook hides, such as each address behind a name and the UTC offset of the date.
Can it read old or non-English .msg files?
Yes. Older .msg files store text in a code page such as Windows-1252, Windows-1251 or Shift-JIS instead of Unicode. The converter reads the code page recorded in the message, so accented, Cyrillic, Chinese, Japanese and Korean text comes out right.