I tried various things to convert Outlook Express dbx files to mbox or eml files. I wanted to import my mail into Zoe, but converting to text files is also a good way of ensuring that you've got a readable backup of your email.

PC Programs for conversion:

• Outlook Express-To - http://www.tietew.net/download/OE2-1.0.1.exe - Tried this for mbox format conversion - works well, but all the From_ lines have today's date. This is the program I used to convert mailbox files for Zoe. Zoe seems to pick out the dates from the "date" field anyway, so it worked fine.
• mbx2mbox - http://mbx2mbox.sourceforge.net/ - Perl Script, didn't run due to library problems on my Perl install. Didn't try sort this out.
• DBXtract - http://www.oehelp.com/DBXtract/Default.aspx - worked well, but only extracts to .eml format (one mail per file, no "From_" headers).

One of the methods which I didn't try was to use an IMAP server and an Outlook / Outlook Express client. Basically, you connect Outlook to the IMAP server, drag the email folders across, Outlook converts them and you can read the mbox files from the server. Alternatively, you could use another email program to read the emails back from the IMAP server.

See also:

• http://mbx2mbox.sourceforge.net/outlooktechniques.htm
• http://www.slipstick.com/config/convert.htm