La principale considération lors de la sélection d'un outil pour effectuer la conversion

La présence de plusieurs services de messagerie et de clients de messagerie de bureau suggère qu'il existe un nombre encore plus grand de possibilités de migration entre une paire de services / applications donnée. Évidemment, l'information (e-mails, pièces jointes, Contacts, calendrier) est stocké dans un format donné dans chacune de ces applications / services. Alors que certains formats sont hautement standardisés entre les applications, d'autres sont plus flexibles et varient considérablement d'une implémentation de développeur à l'autre.

Par conséquent, il est très important de s'assurer que l'outil logiciel à choisir est capable de traiter le format donné. La solution idéale est de choisir une application spécialement conçue ou testée pour fonctionner avec une paire donnée de clients / services de messagerie.. Par exemple, si l'intention est de exporter Thunderbird vers Outlook, il faut s'assurer que l'outil peut lire correctement les fichiers MBOX et convertir toutes les informations, dans son intégralité, au format PST.

Autres aspects à considérer

Some of the key aspects and features of email conversion software worth taking into account are as follows:

• full automation of the conversion procedure – for maximum convenience, the conversion tool should automatically locate the data storage files from the installation of the desktop email client. Although this can be done manually, in some cases, the names and structure of the folders are not intuitive at all, with different locations being used for storing contacts, corps des messages, pièces jointes, etc.;
• the tool should provide an intuitive, step by step conversion process, with a decluttered interface;

• the ability to repair damaged files – some files will likely contain minor flaws, so it is a great bonus if the conversion tool can help fix these, enabling retrieval and conversion of such emails;
• the ability to correct the email encoding when transitioning between different operating systems (par exemple,, MAC OS and Linux encoding to Windows encoding when transitioning to Outlook);
• the possibility to extract the messages to one of the golden standards (.eml files) that can be imported by many other clients. You never know what email client you will be using in the more distant future. Donc, while you are migrating to Outlook, par exemple,, you might want to store the emails also in a standardized format, especially if the license for the conversion tool is valid for a limited period and you want to maximize its use;
• if security is a big concern (email data can often contain sensitive information), one key aspect is to make sure you are using a standalone application rather than uploading your data to an online platform (it can be hacked during the transmission or on the respective servers).

Considering all or most of these requirements will likely help to identify a well-rounded product that would ensure a smooth transition. Please note that with some online services, one would first need to export emails (for instance as .eml files) from the respective online mailing service, before being able to proceed with the next steps of conversion.