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Method 1: Save OST Emails to PDF Using Microsoft Print to PDF
This is the free native route. It’s for a single email or a small batch and only works if Outlook can still open your OST.
How to print OST emails to PDF format in Outlook 2021/2019:
- Open Outlook and select the email.
- Click File, then Print.
- Under Printer, select Microsoft Print to PDF.
- Click Print Options if you want to include the attachments, then click Print.
- Name the file, pick a folder and click Save.
That’s how you save your OST emails as PDFS with attachments in the simplest scenario. Just be aware that Outlook will only print the body of the email to the PDF. The attachments won’t be included in the PDF so you’ll have to save those separately.
You can also select multiple messages (using Ctrl or Shift) and print them. Outlook will still generate one PDF per print job and it will have the tendency to bundle several emails together in a way that’s very difficult to sort.
Here’s where it all falls apart. Suppose you need 3,000 emails from one client for an audit. Printing them out individually would take days. If your Exchange account is gone then Outlook won’t even open the OST in the first place. You can open the OST file without Outlook (using a dedicated tool), the manual method won’t cut it though.
Can I open and save the OST file emails as PDFS directly? Only via Outlook and only if the profile is in good health. Otherwise you have to use Method 2.
Method 2: Batch Export OST to PDF Without Outlook
If the OST is large, orphaned or otherwise inaccessible then just skip Outlook altogether. The BreviSoft OST to PST Converter tool simply reads the file directly off your drive. You don’t need an Exchange login and you don’t need an internet connection.
This is the way to extract emails from an OST to PDF without having access to an Exchange server and it’s the way to save the emails from an orphaned OST file to PDF once the account has been deleted.
Steps to convert OST file to Adobe PDF format:
- Download, install and run the tool on your Windows PC.
- Click Add File and select your OST. If you can’t find it use the search option.
- Let it scan. A 5GB file will generally take a few minutes.
- Preview folders, emails and attachments in the left hand pane.
- Choose PDF as the format for export.
- Set a date range if you want to export your Outlook OST to PDF with a date filter. You can also filter by sender or folder.
- Just pick a destination folder and click Convert.
The tool maintains your folder structure and the output will preserve the attachment details and any embedded images. It works perfectly with large mailboxes so you can export your OST emails to PDF in bulk without any concern as to how many emails you can put in at one time.
A pretty straightforward one. An HR team receive a legal request for every email from one employee in 2023. They pull the OST, filter by date, export to PDF and send the files out the same day. No Outlook, no server.
The tool does have a trial so you can test it on a small folder first. A lot of people are looking for a free way to convert their OST files to Adobe PDF free and the trial is a good way to check the output quality prior to purchase.
Would you rather keep your mail in a client rather than in PDFs? You can use the same tool to convert your OST to EML and then open those files in Thunderbird or Apple Mail.
Why Convert OST to PDF for Backup and Archiving
Why convert OST to PDF rather than PST? A PST can only be opened in Outlook. A PDF can be opened on any phone, any laptop, any browser. That’s why people go for PDF when it comes to long term storage.
Legal compliance is the other reason. Courts, auditors and regulators will often require emails in a particular format which you can’t accidentally edit. A PDF maintains the layout and you can also add in timestamps and Bates numbers.
Portability is the third. You can send a PDF to a lawyer, a client or a manager and they don’t need any special software. The email threads from 2019 are still readable in 2035.
Still a flat copy really. You can’t drag it back into a mailbox. To get a working mailbox you need to convert your Outlook OST to PST and then keep the PDFs for the records you want to share or archive.
Conclusion
For one or two emails Microsoft Print to PDF is absolutely fine. It’s free and it’s quick. Once you’ve got hundreds of emails, an orphaned file or an audit deadline though, manual printing ceases to be viable.
The BreviSoft OST to PST Converter tool covers that scenario. It reads the OST directly, can output to PDF, EML, PST, MBOX and more and will preserve your folders and attachments. Just run the trial on one folder, check the output and then go ahead and convert the rest.
FAQ: Frequently Asked Questions
Ans – Yes with both methods. Inline images appear in the PDF body. Print to PDF in Outlook can at times shift the layout so you do need to check long emails.
Ans – In Outlook you can select a number of emails and print them, but the result is very clunky. For genuine batch work you’re better off using BreviSoft which will convert an entire folder or even an entire mailbox in a single run.
Ans – Outlook’s Print to PDF only captures the body of the message so you’ll need to save the attachments separately. BreviSoft will keep the attachments with the data that’s exported.
Ans – Yes, Outlook won’t be able to open an orphaned file, but the BreviSoft tool will read it directly without needing the original account.
Ans – Outlook has no formal limit, it just gets slower and can freeze if you go too big. BreviSoft is able to cope with large mailboxes and you can of course split the work up using date filters.
Ans – Yes. Set a start and end date in the tool, and only that range goes into the PDF.
