Link to home
Start Free TrialLog in
Avatar of etmy my
etmy my

asked on

How to decrypt old archive notes mail

Yesterday, one user call me how to decrypt archive lotus notes mail. User have the old user ID and password.
Avatar of Andrew Leniart
Andrew Leniart
Flag of Australia image

The quickest and cheapest way might be to temporarily reinstall Lotus Note. If that's not possible, then is the archive in NSF format? If so, then converting NSF to PST is one way to do it, because you can then open up the resulting PST file with Microsoft Outlook. I know of no conversion tool that's free though. Two manual methods to do that is discussed here:

https://www.nucleustechnologies.com/blog/free-method-convert-nsf-to-pst-file/

Other than that, a third party tool will need to be used. Eg:

https://mailboxreader.wordpress.com/2020/09/11/remove-encryption-from-lotus-notes-database/

https://www.mailconvertertools.com/nsf-security-remover/

https://www.lotus-notes-export.com/eddieexport.asp

Hope that's helpful.

Regards, Andrew



Avatar of etmy my
etmy my

ASKER

I think the above is not good advice.
Avatar of etmy my

ASKER

We only use lotus notes.
Hi,

I think the above is not good advice.

OK. Which part of it do you disagree with exactly?

The Lotus Notes product was abandoned by IBM and the technology sold to HCL Technologies in July of 2019 at a cost of 1.8 Billion dollars. It is no longer supported as "Lotus Notes" and has been out of support since version 8.5.3. It is no longer being developed or supported, hence the only way to retrieve data from it is to install an old copy of Lotus Notes if that is available to decrypt with or use a third-party tool to extract data by converting to a format that current software can read.

What about that doesn't make sense to you that you deem to be bad advice?

We only use lotus notes.

The above doesn't make sense to me. Are you suggesting that you are still using Lotus Notes? If so, then what's the problem with decrypting a Lotus Notes archive if you have the user name and password? If that's not your meaning, can you please clarify?

Thanks.

Regards, Andrew
Avatar of Sjef Bosman
Eh, sorry Andrew, but...

It is no longer supported as "Lotus Notes" ...
Correct, it's "HCL Notes" now.

... and has been out of support since version 8.5.3.
Not correct, for HCL Notes V12 has recently been released.

It is no longer being developed or supported, ...
Correct as in R8.5.3 is no longer supported, but not correct as in newer versions were released and are still being supported by HCL, all 99.9% upwards compatible with older versions.

... hence the only way to retrieve data from it is to install an old copy of Lotus Notes...
Old copy or new, doesn't matter.

@Etmy my: I didn't understand your question. If your archive is a Notes database, you can open it in your Notes client. If you also have the ID file and the password, you can put the archive on a local disk, switch to the other ID (with ID file and password) and open the mails. If your situation is different, what is it? Can you describe where you experience problems?
Avatar of etmy my

ASKER

In other words . if the archive is encrypted . How to open it in the new user notes account?
At the moment ,user can open other user archive files via switch ID.   User want to see under her notes account.
Avatar of etmy my

ASKER

Don't need tranfer to PST format.
ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION
Avatar of Sjef Bosman
Sjef Bosman
Flag of France image

Link to home
membership
This solution is only available to members.
To access this solution, you must be a member of Experts Exchange.
Start Free Trial
@Sjef,

I'll bow out and leave this in your capable hands.

I've converted Notes archives to PST a few times in the past and the entire process took no more than a few minutes so it seems to me that converting to pst format would be considerably less troublesome, faster, and require a lot less work than the procedure you've described, but if the OP prefers to gain access to the contents using your method, then who am I to argue otherwise.

I'll leave you to it :)

Best, Andrew
Avatar of etmy my

ASKER

No need ! Please close
@etmy my: you are supposed to close this question yourself, in order to reward the experts, by selecting the best answer (if there is one), and selecting helpful answers. If you think you provided the answer yourself, you can accept your own answer. Be aware that experts may disagree and may ask the Mods to review the question and answers.

@Andrew: I can respectfully say that there is no need for bows whatsoever. You came with a perfectly plausible solution, so I waited until it became clear that Outlook was off the table, and that it was a Notes archive database to be decrypted and used in Notes itself. I can only hope that you will invest some time in studying the quality of the current version(s) of HCL Notes.
May I disagree on the "less troublesome"? In Notes it's just a database copy, all the ingredients are there, whereas if you have to convert to a PST, you need to: buy conversion software, test it, install it, use it, (in my case) install Outlook, and extract/read the mails. Shouldn't be overly complicated, I agree, but still.
PS I know really nothing about how to use Outlook, and I'm perfectly okay with it :-)
See you next time!