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How to Open a .msg File Without Outlook

A .msg is one Outlook message saved as a file. It is not a standard email format: inside it is a compound file, the same container Microsoft used for .doc and .xls, which is why nothing else opens it by default.

.msg
Open it on this site

Why it will not open

  • It is not text. A standard email file (.eml) is readable in any editor; a .msg is a binary container with the message split across dozens of internal streams.
  • The container is shared with Office documents, so your operating system often cannot even guess what it is — .doc, .xls, .ppt and .msg all begin with the same eight bytes.
  • Mail clients other than Outlook generally do not implement it, because it exposes Outlook-specific properties that have no equivalent elsewhere.

How to open it

In your browser

  1. 1 Open the MSG viewer on this site.
  2. 2 Drop the .msg in. It is parsed in your browser and never uploaded.
  3. 3 You get the subject, sender, recipients, date and body, with a switch between the plain text and HTML versions when both exist.
  4. 4 Attachments are listed by their real names and can be saved individually or as a ZIP.

If you have Outlook

  1. 1 Double-clicking the file opens it as a message window.
  2. 2 To keep a portable copy, use File > Save As and choose "Outlook Message Format" only if the recipient also has Outlook — otherwise choose Text Only, or forward the message so it arrives as a normal email.

.msg versus .eml

They hold the same thing but not the same way. .eml is a standard MIME message — portable, readable, opens in Thunderbird, Apple Mail and most clients. .msg is Outlook's own binary format. If you are choosing how to archive mail, .eml travels better.

A body that appears empty

Some messages store their body only as compressed RTF. If a viewer shows nothing while Outlook shows text, that is usually why — the plain-text and HTML properties are simply absent from the file. The MSG viewer here expands the RTF and shows the body.

Formats that turn up in the same situation

Not sure what your file is? Identify it

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I convert .msg to .eml?
Yes, but be aware that Outlook-specific properties such as voting buttons and custom form data have no MIME equivalent and are lost. For reading the message and recovering its attachments, converting is unnecessary.
Why does Windows show no icon for it?
Because .msg is only registered when Outlook is installed. Without it the system has no handler and falls back to a blank icon.
Are the attachments really inside the file?
Yes. Each one is stored as a binary property in its own internal storage, together with its filename and MIME type, so nothing is missing when you open the file on another machine.

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