Guide · macOS
How to open a .msg file on a Mac
Someone forwards you an Outlook email saved as a .msg file, you double-click it on your Mac, and macOS shrugs — no app will open it. That is expected: .msg is a Microsoft Outlook format, Apple Mail cannot read it, and Outlook for Mac needs a paid Microsoft 365 subscription. MSGView opens .msg files right in Safari or Chrome on macOS, free, with nothing to install and nothing uploaded.
Open a .msg on your Mac in 3 steps
- Open MSGViewGo to msgview.app in Safari, Chrome, Firefox, or any modern browser on your Mac. There is no download, no sign-up, and no Microsoft account.
- Drop your .msg fileDrag the .msg from Finder onto the page, or click to browse. It is parsed inside your browser tab on your Mac and is never sent anywhere.
- Read or convert itSee the sender, recipients (including Bcc), date, full body, and attachments. Convert to PDF or EML if you want to keep it or open it in Apple Mail or Preview.
Why won't my Mac open a .msg file?
The .msg format is Microsoft's own container for a single Outlook email, storing the headers, body, and attachments together. macOS ships with no app that understands it. Apple Mail only reads .eml messages, so it ignores .msg entirely, and the built-in Quick Look preview shows nothing useful. The one official option is Outlook for Mac, which is locked behind a paid Microsoft 365 plan — a lot to pay just to read one forwarded email. MSGView removes that friction: it decodes the .msg in your browser and shows you the message immediately. It also handles Cyrillic, CJK, and other encodings, decodes winmail.dat / TNEF attachments, and opens nested emails that were forwarded inside the message.
Convert it so Apple Mail or Preview can open it
Viewing the email is often enough, but sometimes you want it to live in your usual Mac apps. From the Convert panel you can save the .msg as an .eml file, which Apple Mail imports as a normal message — a clean way to get an Outlook email into your Mac mailbox. To archive or share it, convert to PDF and it opens in Preview or any PDF app on macOS. You can also export to HTML or plain text, and pull every attachment out at once as a .zip. Files up to 100 MB are supported.
Private by design
MSGView runs entirely in your browser tab. Your .msg is read into memory and parsed on your own Mac — it is never uploaded to a server, so there is no cloud account, no watermark, and no data leaving your machine. You can confirm this yourself: open your browser's Network panel, drop a file in, and watch that no upload happens. That makes it safe for confidential or work email, even on a managed Mac.
FAQ
Can Apple Mail open .msg files?
No. Apple Mail reads .eml messages but not Outlook .msg files. With MSGView you can open the .msg in your browser and convert it to .eml, which Apple Mail imports normally.
Do I need Outlook for Mac to read a .msg file?
No. Outlook for Mac requires a paid Microsoft 365 subscription. MSGView opens .msg files for free in Safari or Chrome on macOS, with no Microsoft account and nothing to install.
Is it safe to open .msg files this way on my Mac?
Yes. MSGView reads the file into your browser's memory and parses it locally on your Mac. Nothing is uploaded to any server, which you can verify in your browser's Network panel.