Export Messages

1 PST Export Tool
- 1.1 Job
- 1.2 Source
- 1.3 Contents
- 1.4 Output
2 Export Details
3 Pausing or Resuming or Cancelling or Retrying a Job
4 Password-protected PST files

The Export Messages command, available from the Dashboard’s Tools menu, opens the PST Export tool, which allows you to extract messages from an Outlook data file (.pst) and save them as individual MSG files.

PST Export Tool

In The PST Export Tool, there are four sections the user needs to fill out: Job, Source, Contents, and Output.

Job

Setting	Description

Setting	Description
Name	The job name shown in the Dashboard.

Source

Setting	Description

Setting	Description
PST File	The path to the Outlook data file from which messages will be extracted. To browse for and open a PST file, click the folder button.

Output

Setting	Description

Setting	Description
Target Folder	The path to the folder where the extracted messages will be saved. To select a folder on a local or network drive, click the folder button.
Create Job Folder	If selected, a folder named after the job gets created in the Target Folder and all extracted messages are saved into it. Caution: When creating the folder, any characters in the job name that are not allowed by Windows are excluded.
Skip Empty Folders	If selected, do not recreate a a selected source mailbox/folder in the target folder if it or its subfolders contain no messages.
Max Subject Length	The maximum number of characters from a message’s subject that can be included in an extracted MSG file’s name.

The Start button is enabled when selecting at least one folder containing at least one message.

Export Details

After an export job has been submitted, In the PowerDesktiop Dashboard, users can click on the job row in the queue to open the export details window where the following information can be found:

Properties. Displays the Job name, ID, time elapsed, number of messages, and size as well as the date and time the job was created, started, and completed.
Options. Shows the selection for the Skip Empty Folders option and the Maximum Subject length set.
- Export details. Displays the path of the PST file to be exported and the export folder path.
PST Contents. Shows the folder names, item count, the number of items processed, status, and messages for each folder. If a folder has been fully processed it will show the status Completed. If the job is canceled before the items in a folder have been exported, it will show the status Incomplete. The folders that have not been exported yet will display the status Pending.

The names of the exported files are formed by an eight-character unique ID and a portion of the subject line according to the length selected in Max. Subject Length. Characters not supported by Microsoft will be removed. The ID is based on the internal entry ID and will remain the same for the same message.

Pausing or Resuming or Cancelling or Retrying a Job

The secondary menu of a job in the job viewer has the options to Pause, Resume, Cancel, or Retry a job. When you resume a paused job or retry a canceled or failed job Power Desktop will check the items in the folder where the job was paused to confirm its contents are completed and will continue exporting the pending items, it will not overwrite the previously exported files.

Password-protected PST files

Pause/Resume Job. If the PST file is password protected and the exporting job is paused, when resuming the job, a window will request to provide the file password.

Cancel/Retry Job. If the job is canceled or fails, when retrying the export job, a window will request to provide the file password. If the user does not provide the password and cancels the job, the job log will show the legend Unable to open PST with a failed status.