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CantOpen

Open an MSG file online

Read an Outlook .msg file without Outlook, on Windows, Mac or a phone: sender, recipients, when it was sent and received, the message and every attachment, attached emails included. Save it as a PDF or as an .eml that any mail program opens.

Drop your .msg file here

or

Your file stays on this device: it is read here, in your browser, and never uploaded.

One message, or many at once. Email files (.eml) open here too.

How it works

  1. Choose the .msg file

    Or several at once, for example every .msg file dragged out of an Outlook folder: you get a list and open them one by one. Email files (.eml) open here too.

  2. Read the message

    The formatted (HTML) message, or its Rich Text version converted for reading, with the pictures sent inside it; pictures stored on the internet are not loaded. Attached Outlook items open as messages of their own.

  3. Save what you need

    Save the message as a PDF or as an .eml file, print it, or save the attachments one by one.

MSG files, explained

What an MSG file is

An .msg file is a single Outlook item saved as a file: usually an email, sometimes a meeting request, a contact or a task. Outlook for Windows creates one when you drag a message out of Outlook onto the desktop or choose File → Save As. Inside is Outlook’s own storage format: a small file system (a compound file) holding the item’s properties (sender, recipients, dates, the text in plain, HTML or Rich Text form) and the attachments, which can be emails themselves.

Where you get one

  • From colleagues on Windows. Dragging an email out of Outlook into a shared folder, a chat or another email makes an .msg file.
  • As an attachment. An .msg file attached to an email arrives as a file that most mail programs and phones cannot open.
  • Archives and case files. Document management systems, legal case files and IT exports often store emails as .msg.

Why it won’t open

The .msg format belongs to Outlook for Windows. Apple Mail, Thunderbird, Gmail and phone mail apps cannot read it, and without Outlook, Windows has nothing to open it with either. Opening it in a text editor shows unreadable binary data.

What this viewer does

  • Opens .msg files up to 150 MB in your browser, without Outlook and without uploading them; Windows, Mac, Linux, iPhone and Android alike.
  • Shows the sender (and “on behalf of”), the To, Cc and Bcc recipients, when it was sent and when it was received, and the original internet headers when Outlook kept them.
  • Shows the HTML version of the message in a locked-down frame (no scripts, nothing fetched from the internet), or the Rich Text version converted for reading, or the plain text.
  • Reads international text in Outlook’s Unicode and older code-page formats.
  • Saves every attachment, and opens attached emails and Outlook items as messages of their own, up to eight levels deep.
  • Saves the message as an .eml file (with all its attachments) that Apple Mail, Thunderbird and Outlook open, or as a PDF (Print keeps the original formatting); to combine .msg files into a .pst, use the conversion page.
  • Shows signed (S/MIME) messages that Outlook saved and names the signing certificate, without verifying the signature.
  • Converts many .msg files at once (a paid feature): PDFs in a ZIP or one combined PDF, a ZIP of .eml files, the attachments and a spreadsheet index.

What it does not do

  • Meeting requests, contacts and tasks are shown as items (subject, people, text), not as a calendar entry or a contact card.
  • Encrypted and rights-protected messages (S/MIME encryption, Microsoft Purview / IRM) cannot be opened: they need the recipient’s key or account. Their headers are shown. Signatures are named, not verified.
  • Embedded objects pasted from other programs (OLE) are listed but cannot be saved.
  • It never loads pictures stored on the internet, in the viewer, the PDF or the printout; the PDF shows their description (alt text) where they were.
  • The saved PDF has a simplified layout. It keeps Western and Central European letters, Vietnamese, Greek and Cyrillic; Arabic, Hebrew, Chinese, Japanese, Korean and emoji appear as “?”. Pictures in GIF or WebP format are named, not drawn. Print, then “Save as PDF”, keeps everything sent inside the message.
  • It does not change your file, and it does not turn .msg files into a .pst.

Frequently asked questions

How do I open an MSG file without Outlook?

Choose it here: the email opens in your browser with its attachments, on any computer or phone. Nothing is installed and nothing is uploaded.

How do I open an MSG file on a Mac?

Apple Mail cannot read .msg files. Open it here in Safari, Chrome or Firefox; to keep it in Apple Mail, press “Save as .eml” and open that file.

Is my file uploaded?

No. The .msg file is opened by code running in this browser tab, so it never leaves your device and no server or Outlook installation is involved. Neither the file nor its name is sent anywhere, not even to our own domain.

How do I convert MSG to PDF?

Open the file and press “Save as PDF”: you get the header (sender, recipients, sent and received dates), the text with the PNG and JPEG pictures sent inside it, and the list of attachments. “Print” and then “Save as PDF” keeps the original formatting, every alphabet and every picture type sent inside the message (pictures stored on the internet never load). One message at a time is free.

How do I convert MSG to EML?

Open it and press “Save as .eml”. The .eml keeps the text, the formatted version, the pictures and all attachments; attached Outlook items become attached .eml emails.

Can I convert many MSG files at once?

Yes. Choose them together (up to 10,000), then “Convert all”: one PDF per message in a ZIP or all in one PDF (up to 1,000 messages), a ZIP of .eml files, a ZIP of the attachments and a CSV index. This is a paid feature, with a 30-day pass or a yearly plan; during the launch it is free too.

The .msg contains another email. Can I open it?

Yes. Attached emails and Outlook items show an “Open” button: the attached message opens here with its own attachments, and “Back” returns to the one it was attached to.

I have a whole Outlook mailbox, not single messages.

Then you have a .pst or .ost file: open it in the PST/OST viewer, which can export whole folders.

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