Get the mailboxes out of an Exchange .edb database and into a single Outlook PST, without a running Exchange server. It works on your Windows PC, offline, and nothing is uploaded anywhere.
Point the app at the .edb from your Exchange 2013, 2016 or 2019 database. It reads the file where it sits, so there is no server to mount and no Outlook profile to set up first.
The database opens as a tree, mailboxes on top and their folders underneath, each with a checkbox. Tick only the ones you need, narrow it to a date range, and skip Deleted Items or Junk if you would rather leave them out.
Choose a spot on your drive and start. Outlook does not need to be open for this, and it does not need to be installed on the machine either.
In Outlook, go to File, Open and Export, Open Outlook Data File, and pick the new .pst. The folder tree is there with the messages, their dates, read state and attachments, ready to read or re-import.
The supported route asks you to install a recovery Exchange, mount the database into it, and only then start the actual copy. Standing up a throwaway server just to pull a handful of mailboxes is seldom worth the effort, and it does not work at all when the license or the hardware are already gone. This tool skips all of that and opens the dead database directly.
SoftOrbits EDB to PST Converter writes a valid Unicode .pst, and we tested the result in Outlook 2016. It is a genuine Outlook data file, not a renamed database that Outlook opens half-broken or refuses outright.
Subject lines carry across in any language, Cyrillic, CJK, even emoji. Bodies keep their HTML or plain text. From, To and Cc stay put, and so do the sent and received dates, the read/unread mark and inline images. File attachments come across byte for byte.
An .edb is not a mail file. It is an ESE database, the same JET Blue engine that stores Active Directory in NTDS.dit. There is no plain Subject column; the subject sits inside a PropertyBlob of MAPI properties, and the bodies are compressed with LZXPRESS. That is why renaming .edb to .pst never works, and why a real reader is needed to take it apart.
You almost never need the whole database in one go. The mailbox and folder tree lets you tick a single user or the whole store, a date filter trims the range, and Deleted Items and Junk can be left behind so the PST holds the mail that matters.
The server had a dirty shutdown or a full log drive, the database will not mount, and users still want their mail. You have the .edb on a backup and need it out as PST, one file per person.
A client dropped an old Exchange database on you with no server and no logins to go with it. You just need read what is inside and get the mailboxes into Outlook without rebuilding their whole environment first.
For e-discovery or an internal case, the mail has to be examined on a controlled, offline machine so the chain of custody holds. Converting the .edb to PST locally keeps whole database out of any third-party hands.
The tool targets the modern partitioned database layout. These are the Exchange releases it opens, and the ones it honestly does not:
EDB to PST Converter
9 Mb
1.0
07/06/26