Read MS Outlook PST Files in C# .NET | Read Emails and Contacts

readme.md

Read the complete article on how to read Outlook PST files in C# .NET: https://blog.aspose.com/2022/03/25/read-ms-outlook-pst-files-in-csharp-net/

extract-contacts.cs

// Load the Outlook PST file
PersonalStorage personalStorage = PersonalStorage.FromFile("SampleContacts.pst");

// Get the Contacts folder
FolderInfo folderInfo = personalStorage.RootFolder.GetSubFolder("Contacts");

// Loop through all the contacts in this folder
MessageInfoCollection messageInfoCollection = folderInfo.GetContents();

foreach (MessageInfo messageInfo in messageInfoCollection)
{
    // Get the contact information
    MapiMessage mapi = personalStorage.ExtractMessage(messageInfo);
    
    // Cast to MapiContact
    MapiContact contact = (MapiContact)mapi.ToMapiMessageItem();

    // Display some contents on screen
    Console.WriteLine("Name: " + contact.NameInfo.DisplayName);
    
    // Save to disk in MSG format
    if (contact.NameInfo.DisplayName != null)
    {
        MapiMessage message = personalStorage.ExtractMessage(messageInfo);
        
        // Get rid of illegal characters that cannot be used as a file name
        string messageName = message.Subject.Replace(":", " ").Replace("\\", " ").Replace("?", " ").Replace("/", " ");
        message.Save(dataDir + "Contacts\\" + messageName + "_out.msg");
    }
}

read-emails.cs

// Load the Outlook PST file
PersonalStorage pst = PersonalStorage.FromFile("PersonalStorage.pst");

// Get the Display Format of the PST file
Console.WriteLine("Display Format: " + pst.Format);

// Get the folders and messages information
Aspose.Email.Storage.Pst.FolderInfo folderInfo = pst.RootFolder;

// Call the recursive method to extract msg files from each folder
ExtractMsgFiles(folderInfo, pst);

/// <summary>
/// This is a recursive method to display contents of a folder
/// </summary>
/// <param name="folderInfo"></param>
/// <param name="pst"></param>
private static void ExtractMsgFiles(Aspose.Email.Storage.Pst.FolderInfo folderInfo, PersonalStorage pst)
{
    // Display the folder name
    Console.WriteLine("Folder: " + folderInfo.DisplayName);
    Console.WriteLine("==================================");
            
    // Loop through all the messages in this folder
    Aspose.Email.Storage.Pst.MessageInfoCollection messageInfoCollection = folderInfo.GetContents();
    foreach (Aspose.Email.Storage.Pst.MessageInfo messageInfo in messageInfoCollection)
    {
        Console.WriteLine("Saving message {0} ....", messageInfo.Subject);
                
        // Get the message in MapiMessage instance
        MapiMessage message = pst.ExtractMessage(messageInfo);
                
        // Save this message to disk in msg format
        message.Save(message.Subject.Replace(":", " ") + ".msg");
                
        // Save this message to stream in msg format
        MemoryStream messageStream = new MemoryStream();
        message.Save(messageStream);
    }

    // Call this method recursively for each subfolder
    if (folderInfo.HasSubFolders == true)
    {
        foreach (Aspose.Email.Storage.Pst.FolderInfo subfolderInfo in folderInfo.GetSubFolders())
        {
            ExtractMsgFiles(subfolderInfo, pst);
        }
    }
}

read-pst.cs

// Load PST file
PersonalStorage personalStorage = PersonalStorage.FromFile("PersonalStorage.pst");

// Get the folders information
FolderInfoCollection folderInfoCollection = personalStorage.RootFolder.GetSubFolders();

// Browse through each folder to display its information
foreach (FolderInfo folderInfo in folderInfoCollection)
{
    Console.WriteLine("Folder: " + folderInfo.DisplayName);
    Console.WriteLine("Total items: " + folderInfo.ContentCount);
    Console.WriteLine("Total unread items: " + folderInfo.ContentUnreadCount);
    Console.WriteLine("-----------------------------------");
}