Open DBX files in your browser
A mail folder from Outlook Express, the mail app of Windows 98, 2000 and XP. Read its emails right here, decades on. Nothing leaves your device.
Or drop it anywhere on this page
What you'll see
Your folder opens in the file list, its emails by date, and each email you pick opens as mail apps show it.
- Each email • As it came, with its attachments
- Several folders • Drop their DBX files together
- Search • Find any email by its subject
- Export • Save as ZIP or Extract all
About DBX
Outlook Express 5 and 6 kept each mail folder in a .dbx file of its own, Inbox.dbx, Sent Items.dbx and the rest, beside Folders.dbx, which lists them. Each holds its emails just as they came, with their attachments, and an index of their subjects, senders and dates.
Windows Vista replaced Outlook Express with Windows Mail, and no mail app since opens a DBX, so the folders turn up in old backups and on the drives of old computers with nothing left to open them.
Filepeek lists the folder's emails in the file list by date and subject, and each email you pick opens in the mail reader with its attachments. Save as ZIP or Extract all writes them out as EML files any mail app opens.
Outlook Express mail folder
.dbx
Format
- MIME type
- application/octet-stream
- Made by
- Microsoft
- Released
- 1999
Inside the file
- Holds
- One mail folder's emails
- Emails
- As they came, with their attachments
- Index
- Subject, sender and date
- Written by
- Outlook Express 5 and 6
Opens in every browser
Filepeek opens DBX files in Chrome, Edge, Firefox and Safari. On their own, browsers download them, and no app on Windows 10 or 11 opens them.
- YouChromeOpens through Filepeek
- YouEdgeOpens through Filepeek
- YouFirefoxOpens through Filepeek
- YouSafariOpens through Filepeek
Apps that open DBX
- WindowsNo app opens it • Outlook Express ended with Windows XP
- MacNo app opens it
- iPhone and iPadNo app opens it
- AndroidNo app opens it
Questions
How do I open a DBX file?
Drop it on this page or choose Peek a DBX. Its emails open in the file list, and each opens when you pick it. Drop several folders' DBX files together to see them all.
Why doesn't Folders.dbx open?
Folders.dbx only lists the folders and holds no emails. Each folder's own DBX, like Inbox.dbx, opens as its emails.
Can I get the emails out?
Yes. Choose Export, then Save as ZIP or Extract all. Every email is written as an EML file, which Outlook, Thunderbird and Apple Mail open.