convert an mbox file to .pdfs

BroodsSexton

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I have exported an mbox file with a bunch of emails that have attachments. I want to convert this to a series of .pdfs, each .pdf an email with its attachments. Is there a piece of software that will do this easily on a mac?
 

SoxJox

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I've not actually used it but I know our infrastructure guys here do to create short-term pdf backups (before full archive) for the handful of Macs we have in our office (we are predominantly Windows)
 

BroodsSexton

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OK, I got it working. But it's dumping the email attachments into a separate directory. Anyone know if there's a way to keep the attachments inline with the parent emails? I want one directory with files like this:

email1.pdf
attachment1a.pdf
attachment1b.pdf
email2.pdf
email3.pdf
attachment3a
email4.pdf

@Couperin47 ?
 

gtmtnbiker

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How are the attachments named in the other directory? It's probably easier to just write a shell script to fix this up.
 

BroodsSexton

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How are the attachments named in the other directory? It's probably easier to just write a shell script to fix this up.
Attachments are named with their native name and kept in native format. The software is designed to use the linked attachment reader function in Adobe Acrobat, which is annoying, because (a) only Adobe has that function and (b) I want an in-line production and I want it all to be .pdf. Another idiosyncrasy is that it copies the native attachment only once, into the attachment directory, so if the message is forwarded you don't get a true, in-tact .pdf production. All of the forwarded emails point to the same native copy.
 
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AlNipper49

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In terms of litigation would the forensics of the process hold up to legal scrutiny? For entities which may be asked to produce emails for use in a discovery, etc normally we’d be suggesting mail archives from a compliant mail archiving service (Smarsh or whatever).

For legal services with mbox, emls or psts there are also ingestion services or products who can make this not a problem for you. The nice thing is that you can add everything to these service so searching for keywords is also made much easier, particularly when you’re looking st potentially millions of messages.

With that said, each law firm I’ve worked with does things differently so I am probably talking out of my ass
 

BroodsSexton

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In terms of litigation would the forensics of the process hold up to legal scrutiny? For entities which may be asked to produce emails for use in a discovery, etc normally we’d be suggesting mail archives from a compliant mail archiving service (Smarsh or whatever).

For legal services with mbox, emls or psts there are also ingestion services or products who can make this not a problem for you. The nice thing is that you can add everything to these service so searching for keywords is also made much easier, particularly when you’re looking st potentially millions of messages.

With that said, each law firm I’ve worked with does things differently so I am probably talking out of my ass
You're not wrong, at the most sophisticated level of document production. That said, different cases and different courts have different expectations. This case has a negotiated protocol for production of .pdf files. As I said...don't expect it to be rational.

But you're right--I'm quickly concluding that this should just be outsourced, and let a vendor handle it for the couple hundred bucks in processing costs/time. It's my New England-bred self-reliance that made me want to try to do this on my own.
 

BroodsSexton

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And, for anyone following along at home--I confirmed that mbox converter won't convert the attachments. It will always leave them in native form. I guess that makes some sense, since attachments can be in whatever file format, but it's annoying. It should have a default to convert common files, and produce the others as attachments. Kind of a complicated process, I guess, when I think about it.