What is MBOX File Format?

Introduction

MBOX is a file format that was introduced in 1975 as a part of sixth UNIX edition.It is a old and simplified form of email file format. Also termed as "concatenated",which means that the information in MBOX files are linked together in the form of long chain of series of text.The MBOX email message starts with header and family members of mbox formats:.mboxcl2 .mboxrd, .mboxcl, and .mboxo. which contains the same file structured like MBOX. It is a difficult email format to view. So, a MBOX viewer is required to view the .mbox extension files.

Let us take a look at the specifications followed by MBOX files

Specification of MBOX file
Developed by Mozilla
MBOX file format .mbox
String value 00 0D BB A0
Format type Text and Binary
File type Email
Operating System Supported Windows, Unix,Linux and MAC
Analog Type Analog Input and Analog Output
Latency Monitoring Zero- Latency
MIME type text/x-mailbox

Default location of Mbox file:

In some of the major email clients, the default location of Mbox files is given below:

Apple mail: .. /User/Library/Mail/Mailboxes/

Thunderbird: .. \[user name]\Application data\Thunderbird\Profiles\[name].default\Mail\Local folders

Eudora: ..\[Your user name]\Application Data\Qualcomm\Eudora

Note: Eudora uses .mbx extension for storing email messages. The structure of which is similar to .mbox extension

Email Clients supporting .mbox file extension in various operating systems are:

Windows Unix MAC
Mozilla Seamonkey Mozilla Thunderbird Apple Mail
Eudora Netscape Mozilla Thunderbird
Netscape Mozilla Seamonkey Mozilla SeaMonkey
Spice Bird   Netscape
Opera Mail   Microsoft Entourage
Evolution Mail    
Poco Mail    
MBOX viewer    

Converting MBOX Files to other file formats

It happens many times that the user wants to open the MBOX files in different file formats such as EML, PDF, PST, HTML, EMLX, MHT, TXT, and Zimbra files format. There could be many reasons of doing this. One such reason could be availability of different email clients in different enterprises.So, users may want to switch to other email clients. For this you need a highly specialized tool to convert MBOX files to other email file formats.

You can use the MBOX Exporter tool to do this job easily.

It is easy to download and use even by a non technical person.

To Sum Up

I have given a brief idea about the MBOX files and the .mbox file extension along with the specifications and uses. You might be using it daily at your work place.So, if you need to convert it into other file formats then, you can try the highly efficient MBOX Exporter Tool.