Outlook exporting emails as .csv - Encoding

Question

I'm trying to export my emails as .csv files through Outlook 365 on Windows 10:

File -> Open & export -> Import/Export -> Export to a file -> Comma Separated Values -> Select the inbox -> some next next and then Done.

The .csv file works correctly for English messages, but not for Arabic messages. The Arabic messages appear as questions marks. I already have the Arabic language pack installed.

Here's what I tried so far

1. File -> Options -> Advanced -> International

   I changed the settings for encodings for several different encodings and tried different combinations.

2. Open the .csv file in a notepad, save it as a .csv file with a UTF-8 encoding.

3. Read the file in excel by going to

   Data -> Import .csv

   and choose different encodings (including a UTF-8 and Arabic encoding).

4. Reading it using Python with UTF-8.

5. Import it into Access.
6. Used chat support, the guy is clueless.
7. Tried phone calls, says my number is wrong.

Based on the above, it is not an issue of importing/reading. It is an issue of exporting.
Any one has any idea?

Answer 1

Have you tried import CSV via Data > From Text/CSV? We can change the File Origin to Arabic related. Another reason can be that when exporting from Outlook, the Arabic language may be replaced by question mark already. Instead of CSV, you can also try exporting to a Unicode Text (*.txt) file to see if Arabic language display correctly.

Answer 2

If you have access to Linux you can export as *.pst and on Linux use the commandline tool: readpst to convert the pst to a utf-8 encoded text file.

The command:

**readpst -C utf-8 filename.pst**

will convert the filename.pst to a utf-8 encoded text file.

The command readpst has lots of other useful options.