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Repair Corrupt NSF File by Using NFIXUP and NCOMPACT Commands

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Published By Nilesh Kumar
Aswin Vijayan
Approved By Aswin Vijayan
Published On January 22nd, 2024
Reading Time 5 Minutes Reading

IBM Lotus Notes is an email client which is used widely due to its advanced and efficient features. It provides business collaborative features like emails, contact management, tasks, journals, etc. The email application is quite reliable because of its security feature. It supports NSF file format to store the data items of Lotus Notes. Sometimes, due to file corruption, a user is unable to access his database. In this article, we will discuss reasons for the file corruption and possible ways to repair corrupt NSF file.

Errors Due to Corrupted NSF File

You need to fix Lotus Notes NSF file only when you know that your database file is corrupted. So, there are few symptoms of the Lotus Notes file by which you can recognize that your file is damaged. Such issues are:

  • File is invalid
  • File is corrupted
  • Error reading file
  • File is not a database
  • Corrupted file appears error
  • Database is not authorized
  • File truncated – file may have damaged error.
  • Try opening the file using other file extensions
  • An error occurred while opening file
  • Database corrupt- cannot allocate space

When do You Need to Repair Corrupt NSF File?

There are some situations in which the database file of Lotus Notes email client gets corrupt. So, in such circumstances, you need to fix deleted data from NSF file. There are following reasons that may damage your file:

  • Server Crash: If the email application Lotus Notes or Domino Server crashes, then it can corrupt the database file.
  • Faulty Third Party Add-in: If any user adds any faulty third party add-on in his email client then it may damage the NSF file.
  • Hardware Failure: Any kind of hardware failure can cause problems to access and open NSF database.
  • Virus or Unwanted Programs: If there are unwanted programs or virus running into your system then it may infect the healthy NSF file.

Ways to Repair Corrupt NSF File

A user can lose his important data like emails, calendars, contacts, etc if the NSF database file is corrupted. So, it is necessary to save that data by repairing the damaged file. You can fix Lotus Notes NSF file by following methods:

  • Method 1: Use Inbuilt Utilities
    1. To recover corrupted Lotus Notes archive file, copy the existing NSF file to some other location for backup purpose. Change the directory of original Lotus Notes file (Suppose X drive). Then open Command Prompt.
    2. Now run the command nfixup.exe X:/<file name>.nsf and then press Enter. This command will scan the NSF file and repair the corrupted file. But if again, you are unable to open your Lotus Notes database because of some data issue then you can try another command.
    3. It is also possible that after the fixup command, you need to compact your database file because if the file contains unnecessary data or fragments then also you won’t be able to open the file. To repair corrupted .nsf file, you can use another command.
    4. So, again open Command Prompt, and type ncompact.exe X:/<file name>.nsf and press Enter.
    5. Now there are also some indexing issues that can be fixed by another command. So again in command prompt, type nupdall -r X:/<file name>.nsf and then press Enter.
    6. These commands will help you to scan and repair the NSF file. You can also compact and fix the indexing of the file.

     

  • Method 2: Import Lotus Notes to Outlook

If the NSF database file is highly corrupted, then these commands are not sufficient to repair corrupt NSF file. Then you can try to import NSF file to Outlook. Switching from one email client to other is a good option as the file will directly migrate to MS Outlook and you will be able to access Lotus Notes data in Outlook. So, to perform such migration, you can use an automated tool to transfer Lotus Notes emails to Outlook. There are many features in this software like:

  1. You can convert encrypted emails of Lotus Notes database to Outlook.
  2. You can export multiple NSF files containing emails, calendars, tasks, journals, etc in Outlook.
  3. You can split large exported PST file at the time of conversion.
  4. The software allows a user to apply date filters for selective conversion of emails and other data items.
  5. The folder structure within NSF file will be preserved and all the email attachments and links will also export to PST file format.
  6. The software supports all the versions of Lotus Notes and Outlook.
  7. The interface of the application is quite user-friendly and simple to understand.

Conclusion

You can recover corrupted NSF file by the following methods. You can go for manual approaches and use the inbuilt utilities but if you are unable to access your database file after the recovery process. Then there is nothing to worry, you can easily migrate Lotus Notes mailbox to Outlook in PST file format. So, it is important to repair corrupt NSF file and save your crucial data with the help of discussed techniques.