MSG to PDF Converter: Convert Outlook Emails to PDF Online

Convert MSG to PDF Online — Free, with Attachments and Headers

Outlook saves messages as .msg files — Microsoft's proprietary binary format built on the Compound File Binary Format (CFBF, sometimes called MAPI format). Anyone outside the Outlook ecosystem can't read .msg natively. Macs, mobile devices, web mail clients, court systems, eDiscovery platforms, and most archive viewers expect PDF. This converter rebuilds each message as a portable PDF with full headers, formatted body, inline images, and attachments — ready for legal discovery, compliance archives, contract files, and email-to-CRM workflows.

Quick guide: drag from Outlook, get a PDF

1. Open Outlook (any version 2010 through Microsoft 365). Find the message in the Inbox or any folder.
2. Drag the message from Outlook directly onto your desktop — Outlook writes a .msg file there with the subject as the filename.
3. Drag the .msg file into the upload box at the top of this page (or click Choose file and pick it).
4. Select PDF as the output format and click Download converted file.
5. The PDF downloads automatically — with headers on the first page, formatted body, inline images in their original positions, and attachments either embedded as PDF file attachments or saved alongside.

Why convert MSG to PDF instead of forwarding?

Forwarding the message replaces the original headers with the forwarder's address, breaks the timestamps, can drop attachments due to mailbox size limits, and creates a forensically useless record. Saving the .msg from Outlook keeps everything intact, but anyone receiving the .msg needs Outlook to open it — not great for clients, judges, opposing counsel, auditors, or non-Microsoft team members. Converting to PDF gives a forensically intact, universally readable copy that everyone can open in any browser, on any device, forever.

What survives the conversion

Real use cases for MSG-to-PDF conversion

Legal discovery (eDiscovery) and litigation hold

Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 26 and 34 require email production in a "reasonably usable form." PDF with full headers and embedded attachments is the de-facto standard for eDiscovery production sets, second only to native + load-file production. Bates numbering and redaction are added later in Relativity, Logikcull, or Everlaw — PDF makes this straightforward.

SEC / FINRA / SOX / HIPAA / GDPR retention

SEC Rule 17a-4 requires broker-dealers to keep email for 3-7 years in a non-rewritable, non-erasable format. PDF/A is the archival standard. FINRA Rule 4511, SOX Section 802, HIPAA 45 CFR 164.316, and GDPR Article 30 all impose similar retention requirements. Bulk MSG-to-PDF/A is the standard ingestion pipeline.

CRM / case management archival

Salesforce, HubSpot, Zendesk, ServiceNow, Clio, MyCase, and PracticePanther all accept PDF attachments on records but choke on .msg files (Salesforce and HubSpot block .msg uploads outright). Converting client correspondence to PDF before attaching keeps the CRM record forensically complete.

Sharing with non-Outlook recipients

Mac users with Apple Mail, mobile users on iOS or Android, journalists, judges, opposing counsel, freelance contractors, and clients on Linux can't open .msg files without third-party software. Converting to PDF removes that friction.

Phishing forensics and incident response

Security teams investigating phishing keep the original headers (Received chain, sender IP, SPF/DKIM/DMARC results) for forensic analysis. PDF preserves these byte-for-byte and can be safely shared with law enforcement, MSSPs, and IT leadership without exposing live malicious links.

Court exhibit preparation

Court filing systems (PACER, Florida e-Filing, NY NYSCEF) accept PDF only. Bates numbers, redactions, and OCR layers are easier to add to PDF than to .msg.

MSG vs EML: when to use each conversion page

Both formats store email messages, but they're not interchangeable:

• MSG — Microsoft's proprietary binary format used by Outlook for Windows. Stores rich Outlook-specific properties (categories, flags, follow-up dates, voting buttons, meeting requests, conversation thread IDs). Read by Outlook, Outlook for Mac (limited), and a handful of third-party tools. Use this page for .msg.
• EML — the open RFC 5322 plain-text format used by Outlook Express, Thunderbird, Apple Mail, Gmail's "Show original > Download original," Postbox, the Windows Mail app, and most Linux mail clients. Use the EML to PDF page for .eml files.

If you're not sure which format you have, look at the file extension. Outlook 2007+ exports either format depending on how the message was saved — File > Save As > Outlook Message Format - Unicode writes .msg, File > Save As > Text Only writes .txt, and dragging to the desktop writes .msg by default. To export bulk .eml from Outlook, use a third-party export tool or Power Automate.

Online converter vs Total Mail Converter desktop

Common MSG-to-PDF issues and how to solve them

"The message can't be opened" / corrupt MSG. Outlook sometimes writes truncated .msg files when the message is dragged out before the body finishes downloading from the Exchange server. Open the message in Outlook, wait until it's fully loaded (the status bar reads "All folders are up to date"), then drag again. Alternatively, save via File > Save As > Outlook Message Format - Unicode.

Encrypted (S/MIME) message body shows as garbage. The .msg contains the encrypted ciphertext only — without the recipient's certificate the converter can't decrypt it. Open the message in Outlook on a machine with the recipient's certificate installed (the message must show as readable), then save it as a new .msg via File > Save As. The new file contains the decrypted body and converts cleanly.

Embedded objects (Excel sheets pasted via OLE) appear as icons. Outlook stores OLE objects inside .msg as embedded packages with a generic icon for non-Outlook viewers. The converter extracts these as separate attachments alongside the PDF rather than embedding the live spreadsheet view.

Non-Latin characters (Cyrillic, Chinese, Arabic, Hebrew) render as boxes or question marks. The MSG character encoding is read from its CodePage MAPI property and the body's Content-Type charset. If both are missing or wrong (a common bug in older bulk-mail systems), open the message in Outlook, click Other Actions > View in Browser to confirm the encoding, then re-save the .msg.