Post about importing Outlook mails into KMail.

2026-05-15 17:41:27 +02:00
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+---
+title: How to import emails from a .pst file into KMail
+description: >
+  Using a tool called "readst" you can transfer emails from an Outlook
+  account into any other email client, for example KMail.
+date: 2026-05-15T17:30:00+02:00
+draft: false
+# ShowLastmod: true
+scrolltotop: true
+images: []
+tags:
+  - email
+  - KDE
+  - Linux
+---
+
+Here I describe how I imported an email archive from Outlook to KDE's
+[KMail][]. This turned out to be harder than expected.
+
+My machine is a Fedora 44 KDE box, but the procedure should be the same or at
+least very similar on other Linux systems.
+
+## Prerequisites
+
+Let's assume the following:
+
+1. An Outlook archive file named `archive.pst`.
+2. Inside this archive file: An email folder structure with first-level folders
+   in the style of `MyFolder1`, `MyFolder2` etc. and subfolder
+   `MyFolder1/MyFolder1Subfolder1` and so on.
+
+I use the venerable [readpst][] tool to extract folders and emails from the
+archive file. It's included in common Linux distributions, but at least on
+Fedora you don't install it directly, but rather the `libpst` package:
+
+```fish
+sudo dnf install libpst
+```
+
+```fish
+# dnf info libpst
+Updating and loading repositories:
+Repositories loaded.
+Installed packages
+Name            : libpst
+Epoch           : 0
+Version         : 0.6.76
+Release         : 28.fc44
+Architecture    : x86_64
+Installed size  : 192.7 KiB
+Source          : libpst-0.6.76-28.fc44.src.rpm
+From repository : <unknown>
+Summary         : Utilities to convert Outlook .pst files to other formats
+URL             : http://www.five-ten-sg.com/libpst/
+License         : GPL-2.0-or-later
+Description     : The Libpst utilities include readpst which can convert email messages
+                : to both mbox and MH mailbox formats, pst2ldif which can convert the
+                : contacts to .ldif format for import into ldap databases, and pst2dii
+                : which can convert email messages to the DII load file format used by
+                : Summation.
+Vendor          : Fedora Project
+```
+
+## Working solution as of 2026
+
+Modern [KMail] does not store emails in the traditional storage formats such
+as [Maildir] or [Mbox]. It uses KDE's Akonadi database system. Therefore,
+we need to first export all folders and emails from the Outlook data file,
+then import these into KMail's database using the `File > Import Messages...`
+command.
+
+At first, I struggled a bit to find the correct output format option to make
+it work. `readpst` offers a number of different formats -- basically various
+flavors of the [MH][]/[maildir][] and the [mbox][] structures. It did _not_ work
+with the `-k` option that is meant to produce a dedicated KMail format. I ended
+up using the simple `-e` option that produces a directory structure according
+to the folders in the Outlook archive, with one separate file for each email
+message.
+
+1. Export folders and emails from the Outlook data file:
+
+    ```fish
+    readpst -e archive.pst
+    ```
+
+    There is no need to create and specifiy a dedicated directory, because
+    `readpst` will create a directory structure with a generic top-level
+    directory (in German, this directory is called "Outlook-Datendatei",
+    Outlook data file).
+
+2. Import the folder structure and emails into KMail:
+
+    a. In the `File` menu, choose `Import Messages...`.
+
+    b. In the Import dialog that appears, choose "Import KMail Maildirs and
+    Folder Structure".
+
+    {{< figure src="kmail-import-dialog.png" >}}
+
+    c. At the bottom of the dialog where it says "Please select the folder to
+    import to", click on the folder icon. Choose the existing "Local Folders".
+    There is no need to create an extra folder for the import because KMail
+    will create folder "KMail-Import" just for you.
+
+    d. Click on "Next" and choose your `.pst` file.
+
+    e. Start the import process.
+
+3. All imported messages are marked as unread at first, but this will go away
+   after a while.
+
+[KMail]: https://apps.kde.org/kmail2
+[maildir]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maildir
+[MH]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MH_Message_Handling_System
+[mbox]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mbox
+[readpst]: https://www.five-ten-sg.com/libpst/rn01re01.html