Naming email file in Windows Explorer with the date sent

February 18, 2016 3:59 PM

I need to rename some email files with the sent date of the email. Help!

Hi all,

I have a co-worker that has to sift through thousands of saved email files over the next few days and name the saved email files such that the date sent is a prefix in the file. This date is available if the file is open in Outlook, but the date sent field is not populated in Windows Explorer. I'm hoping we can automate it. Does anyone know a quick way to grab the date sent and re-name the file with a date sent prefix? I think just populating the 'date sent' metadata would be enough for me to figure out the rest with a file naming utility.

Thanks.

posted by jimmythefish to Computers & Internet (3 answers total)

Best answer: PST Viewer Pro will do this for .eml, .pst, pretty much any stanard email file format. It will also auto-convert the messages to PDF with custom file names as well. It's not free, but if you've got a few thousand messages, and depending on how much you value your time, you may find it is worth it.
posted by tiamat at 4:14 PM on February 18, 2016 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: It's cheaper than even 1 hour spent. So thanks! I'll give it a whirl. There's a trial, so I'll make sure it works before buying. Cheers.
posted by jimmythefish at 4:18 PM on February 18, 2016

Response by poster: Tried it, works like a champ. Thanks again.
posted by jimmythefish at 4:30 PM on February 18, 2016