How to Open PST File on Raspberry Pi (with Evolution)

Last Updated on 20th June 2026 by peppe8o

If you recently migrated from Windows to Linux and you are wondering how to open PST file on Raspberry PI, you are in the right place. In this guide, I’ll show you how to install Evolution and readpst on a Raspberry Pi computer board to import and read PST or OST files in a few terminal commands.

Quick Answer to Open PST File on Raspberry Pi

1. Install evolution and pst-utils.
2. Convert the PST/OST to mbox with readpst.
3. Import the mbox files into Evolution.

Keep reading for the full step-by-step.

What We Need

As usual, I suggest adding from now to your favourite e-commerce shopping cart all the needed hardware, so that at the end you will be able to evaluate overall costs and decide if to continue with the project or remove them from the shopping cart. So, hardware will be only:

• Raspberry PI Computer Board (including a proper power supply or using a smartphone micro USB charger with at least 3A)
• high-speed microSD card (at least 16 GB, at least class 10)

Step 1. Prepare the Operating System

The first step is to install the Raspberry PI OS Desktop, where you can use the following commands in its terminal app.

Before we learn how to open a PST file on Raspberry Pi, please make sure that your Operating System is up to date. From your terminal, use the following command:

sudo apt update -y && sudo apt full-upgrade -y

Step 2. Install Evolution and readpst

On Raspberry Pi OS (Debian-based), both tools are in the official repository. You can easily install them with the following terminal command:

sudo apt install evolution pst-utils -y

This installs:

• Evolution — lightweight open-source email client for Linux.
• pst-utils — provides the readpst command for converting Outlook archives.

If you want to verify the install, you can check their versions:

readpst --version

evolution --version

Step 3. Prepare the Working Folder

With the aim to keep things clean, we’ll create a dedicated folder for our pst/ost files:

mkdir -p ~/Desktop/mail-import/output

We’ll copy all the files to import into this folder. You can do this task with a copy/paste action in the File Manager app, or with the terminal cp command. For example:

cp /path/to/email_file.pst ~/Desktop/mail-import/

Then, please enter the created folder:

cd ~/Desktop/mail-import

Note: If your file name contains spaces, always wrap it in double quotes.

Step 4. (Optional) Measure Resource Usage on Your Raspberry Pi

Knowing how the process impacts your Raspberry Pi helps you plan large migrations. If you want to measure performance on your own board, you can use the tool provided in this step. Otherwise, you can skip it.

Unfortunately, in the Aptitude repository there isn’t a tool able – alone – to monitor and give you complete stats about all the time and resources required during a process. The time package makes this work only for the execution time. For this reason, I’ve prepared a script to collect all the required info, which enabled me to show you useful stats.

Prepare the Monitoring Function

If you want to compare the same stats with yours, you must install the time package:

sudo apt install time -y

Now, you can define a temporary bash function that you can use in your terminal until you close it. So, this function will reside in your Raspberry PI’s memory only for the terminal session and will be deleted (without any residual part) at the close of it.

Please copy all the following lines and paste them into your terminal:

rtime() {
  local logfile="$1"
  shift
  if [ -z "$logfile" ] || [ $# -eq 0 ]; then
    echo "Usage: rtime2 logfile command [args...]"
    return 1
  fi

  local cmd=("$@")
  local start end elapsed status pid temp_before temp_after
  local max_rss=0
  local max_cpu=0

  : > "$logfile"
  echo "timestamp,cpu_percent,mem_percent,rss_kb,temp_c" >> "$logfile"

  temp_before=$(vcgencmd measure_temp 2>/dev/null | sed -E 's/.*=([0-9.]+).*/\1/')
  start=$(date +%s)

  "${cmd[@]}" > /tmp/rtime2.out 2>&1 &
  pid=$!

  while kill -0 "$pid" 2>/dev/null; do
    read cpu mem rss <<< $(ps -p "$pid" -o %cpu=,%mem=,rss= --no-headers 2>/dev/null | awk '{print $1,$2,$3}')
    [ -z "$cpu" ] && cpu=0
    [ -z "$mem" ] && mem=0
    [ -z "$rss" ] && rss=0
    temp=$(vcgencmd measure_temp 2>/dev/null | sed -E 's/.*=([0-9.]+).*/\1/')
    [ -z "$temp" ] && temp=""
    echo "$(date -Is),$cpu,$mem,$rss,$temp" >> "$logfile"
    cpu_int=${cpu%.*}
    [ "$rss" -gt "$max_rss" ] && max_rss=$rss
    [ "$cpu_int" -gt "$max_cpu" ] && max_cpu=$cpu_int
    sleep 1
  done

  wait "$pid"
  status=$?
  end=$(date +%s)
  temp_after=$(vcgencmd measure_temp 2>/dev/null | sed -E 's/.*=([0-9.]+).*/\1/')
  elapsed=$((end-start))

  {
    echo "command,${cmd[*]}"
    echo "exit_status,$status"
    echo "elapsed_seconds,$elapsed"
    echo "peak_rss_kb,$max_rss"
    echo "peak_cpu_percent,$max_cpu"
    echo "temp_before_c,$temp_before"
    echo "temp_after_c,$temp_after"
    echo "stdout_stderr_file,/tmp/rtime2.out"
  } >> "$logfile"

  cat "$logfile" | tail -n 10
  return "$status"
}

With this function, you can use rtime followed by the log file path, then the command you want to measure:

rtime logfile.log command [arguments...]

In short: rtime + log file + command to run.

Step 5. Convert PST or OST to mbox

Run readpst with the following options>

• -o output: sets the “output” folder as the storage position where to place the converted files
• -r: recursive flag to preserve the original folder structure
• email_file.pst or email_file.ost: is the filename of the email box to convert.

So, the command becomes:

readpst -o output -r email_file.pst # or email_file.ost

Please repeat this command for every file you want to import.

Of course, if you want to monitor the used resource, please use the following command instead:

rtime readpst.log readpst -o output -r email_file.pst # or email_file.ost

Now, you can check the output folder with the following command, which will list all the converted files:

find ~/Desktop/mail-import/output -type f

The expected result will appear similar to the following:

output/email_file/Inbox/mbox
output/email_file/Sent/mbox
output/email_file/Deleted Items/mbox
output/email_file/Project Archive/mbox

You will find multiple mbox files as well as other Outlook objects (like, for example, contacts). The mbox files are the ones we want to import into Evolution.

Step 6. Import and Open the PST Emails on Raspberry PI

Open Evolution from the terminal:

evolution

If you want to monitor this process too, the command becomes:

rtime evolution.log evolution

If this is the first time you open Evolution, it may show you a welcome page, which you can follow for the first settings, or you can just click the “Cancel” button:

Then:

1. Click the ≡ menu (top-right):

2. In this menu, select File, then Import.

This will open the Evolution Import Assistant, a wizard which will guide you through the import process.

3. In the first window, please click Next:

4. Choose Import a single file → Next

5. Click the field at the right of the Filename and browse to ~/Desktop/mail-import/output/, then navigating until you select the first of your mbox files to import. Also, this will automatically set the “file type” to Berkeley Mailbox. → Next

6. Choose the destination folder in Evolution → Next.

7. Finally, click the Apply button.

After this, Evolution will import all the email files in your selected folder, and you will see all the messages (with their attachments):

Repeat for each folder you want to recover. You will be able to see all your emails in Evolution.

Now you have successfully managed to open PST file on Raspberry Pi.

My results (Raspberry Pi 4 – 4GB – SSD Storage)

Here is my configuration:

Metric	Value
Raspberry Pi model	Raspberry Pi 4 Model B 4GB
OS	Raspberry Pi OS 13 (Trixie)
Archive size	6.9 GB PST

In the following CPU temperature values, please consider that my Raspberry PI uses an active cooling fan, so your temperatures could be higher without it.

For the readpst phase:

Metric	Value
Conversion time	~60 seconds
Peak RAM	~50 MB
Peak CPU	~20%
Start temperature	54.9°C
End Temperature	58.2°C

The Evolution import phase:

Metric	Value
Conversion time	~130 seconds
Peak RAM	~365 MB
Peak CPU	~85%
Start temperature	54.3°C
End Temperature	60.9°C

Troubleshooting

Evolution does not show imported mail

Do not copy raw folders into the Evolution data directory and expect them to appear. Always use the Import command with a real mbox file.

OST conversion is incomplete

Some OST files are partially synchronised Exchange archives and may not convert fully. In that case, convert the OST to PST on a Windows machine first, then re-run readpst on the PST file.

Resources

• https://wiki.gnome.org/Apps/Evolution
• https://manpages.ubuntu.com/manpages/trusty/man1/readpst.1.html
• https://peppe8o.com/install-raspberry-pi-os-desktop-with-optional-remote-desktop/
• https://peppe8o.com/active-cooling-raspberry-pi/

What’s Next

If you want to discover many other projects for your Raspberry PI, you can take a look at peppe8o’s Raspberry PI tutorials.

Enjoy!

FAQ