Both IBM lotus notes and MS Outlook are the most used email clients. NSF i.e, Notes Storage Facility is the file extension used by Lotus Notes and PST i.e, Personal Storage table is a file format of MS Outlook. As the business requirement and market trends are changing, you meet a situation where you need to migrate from lotus notes to Outlook clients.

Converting NSF to PST is an exhausting and tiresome task if it is not done with good planning. But before we convert NSF to PST we need to understand the reason for converting NSF to PST.

1. The outlook is more affordable economically than NSF. Its cost may be the main reason behind conversion.


2. High technical expertise support is required for the NSF.


3. Lotus Notes are not multitasking while the Outlook can perform various tasks at a time.


4. MS Outlook has better security services and provides a better data management facility.

Hence, it is clear why the NSF user is migrating from Lotus notes TO MS Outlook.

Manual Methods to migrate NSF to PST

Follow these simple steps to perform the manual method:
Before you convert NSF to PST, first you should take the backup of all NSF files. There are two ways to perform under the manual method.

1. First, migrate NSF files from Lotus notes to an intermediate CSV file.


2. Import CSV file into MS Outlook.

#1 Follow these steps to export NSF files from lotus notes to an intermediate CSV file :



1. Open the IBM Notes application and click on the main screen to upload the NSF file that has to be converted into PST.


2. Go to the menu bar, click on the file and then select Export from a list of options.


3. The Export wizard will be open; choose a folder on the hard drive and save the new file.


4. Select Comma Separated values or Structured Text from Save as type: drop-down list.


5. Give an appropriate name to the file and press on the Export button there. Now, various windows will be open according to your selection of format.
6. Depending on your file format you will receive the CSV Export window or Structured Text Export window.


7. Now, choose the option and click on OK.



After completing all the above steps, the first part to convert NSF to PST is completed successfully. Now you have to import the exported files.

#2 Follow these following steps to successfully import the CSV file into MS Outlook:




1. Go to MS Outlook and click on the File menu.


2. Choose on Open and select Import from the right slab.


3. Now, the Import and Export wizard will open, then select Import from another program or file from the displayed option list under choose an action to perform and click on Next.


4. Then, import a file window will appear, choose comma-separated values and go to next.


5. Go to the browse button and choose the exported file from lotus notes in the previous section.

The wizard will leave you with three different options to import or to ignore importing duplicate options:





1. Replace duplicates with items imported.


2. Allow duplicate to get created.


3. Don’t import duplicate items.


4. After getting the appropriate option go to next.


5. Choose a destination folder to store data after importing and click on Next.


6. The process may take some time. After completion of the process click on Finish.


7. Now, You can open NSF data into MS Outlook.



Manual method is good but it has various consequences as:





1. Time-consuming.


2. Require Technical expertise.


3. Lengthy process.


4. Has various complications.


5. Data loss is a major issue.





Conclusions




Manual methods are free and good to use but there are a lot of drawbacks that lead users in trouble. Hence, to save yourself from the consequences of manual methods you can use the available professional utility such as NSF to PST converter. This software utility will help you to migrate from lotus notes to Outlook smoothly and in a very short span of time.