The web is full of free solutions for exporting mail but the pitfalls are rarely mentioned. This page lists the advantages and disadvantages of various methods and explains why using Aid4Mail software is better in most cases.
There are three types of methods you can use to export mail:
The main problems encountered with free mail export solutions are that they can be extremely technical, time-consuming, and not very accurate. They may work fine for simple text-based email messages, but can demonstrate severe problems if messages contain any of the following:
To make matters worse, these problems may not be immediately evident because they only appear in certain email messages, and may be discovered once it is already too late and the originals have been deleted.
The screenshot on the left, below, shows some of these problems after a conversion from Outlook using the Thunderbird 3 import tool. Note the problems with accented characters, the misplaced image, and the altered Chinese attachment name. On the right is the email message as it should be displayed, after conversion with Aid4Mail.
Read on to see which mail conversion solution best suit your needs...
This is often the obvious choice for users of mail programs that support the files to import. However, few realize that these integrated conversion tools are less than perfect and can sometimes result in the loss of valuable email information.
Benefits:
Disadvantages may include:
See some examples of poor email conversion.
This solution is often suggested on blogs and forums, and suits technical people who know what they are doing and do not mind spending a lot of time over their conversion. It is typically a manual process that involves using several free programs or services; each do a small part of the conversion process to create files that can be imported by your email program.
Benefits:
Disadvantages may include:
See some examples of poor email conversion.
Using a free solution will save you money, but is it worth all the disadvantages? You may lose important mail data and only discover the problem weeks or years later when it's too late.
Aid4Mail is based on years of experience in the field of email processing. It is suitable for both small and large scale mail conversion projects, from home use to large corporate migrations.
Benefits:
See the Aid4Mail feature list for more details.
Disadvantages:
If you need an easy and reliable way to:
then you can trust Aid4Mail to do the job for you.
Don't take our word for it. Try Aid4Mail yourself! There is no sign-up form to download Aid4Mail and you can test it for free in trial mode for as long as you want.
Aid4Mail installs cleanly – no hidden files or messy changes to your Windows registry. If you decide to uninstall Aid4Mail, all files and folders that were installed by the Setup program are properly removed from your system.
Once you're convinced that Aid4Mail is the right solution for you, simply purchase the license that fits your needs. As soon as your order is completed, you will receive an activation code that, when entered in Aid4Mail, removes the trial limitations.
Our clients range from home users and students to Fortune 500 corporations, government and law enforcement agencies, intelligence and military organizations, leading law and e-discovery firms, educational and scientific institutions, and international organizations throughout the world.