Do you understand how difficult it could be to handle a large number of files? Ask a Lotus Notes user who has too many NSF files and deals with Lotus Notes management issue almost every other day. Generally, handling or managing a large number of files is always troublesome. Instead of too many small-sized files, it’s advisable to keep one main single file. In this article, I’ll show how to merge NSF files with the help of a professional NSF Merge tool.
IBM Notes
It’s a popular email client application that offers so many features just like Microsoft Outlook does. However, emailing is perhaps the most recognizable part of Lotus Notes. Just like any other email client application, Lotus Notes also needs to store the business emails and other data so that users can access them. And for that reason, it creates an NSF (Notes storage facility) database file.
It may happen that a Notes user has more than one or multiple NSF files on the local system. It’s easy to manage two or three files at a time. But sometimes Lotus Notes management becomes a challenge when there are too many NSF files.
Having too many NSF files?
Are you having too many NSF files? Do you face any Lotus Notes management issue? Let’s figure out the most common issues which you’re likely to face in such a situation:
Having too many NSF files can cause great confusion. Let’s suppose you have around 50 NSF files in a folder. You want to delete one or two files as you don’t need them anymore. You delete the files permanently by using Shift+Del+Enter. But the very next moment you realize that you’ve accidentally deleted the wrong files. This has happened just because you had too many files.
Too many NSF files store a lot of information. And if you want to access all the information, you need to open all those files. Ain’t this so irritating? It definitely requires a lot of time and manual effort to open multiple NSF files one by one.
Remember, Lotus Notes slows down when there are too many NSF files in the directory. The performance gets worse when you open many NSF files in Lotus Notes at the same time.
These are a few common issues which may occur if you have a large number of NSF files. Now you must be wondering how to deal with this situation. Well, I have the right solution. It’s always better to keep one main file instead of too many.
Do you have any idea how to merge NSF files into one? Have you ever tried to do that? Some articles on the Internet share a few manual solutions to merge NSF files, but I don’t think they’re really effective. Instead of wasting your time executing the manual tricks, you should consider using a professional NSF Merge tool. Only a few software vendors in the online marketplace provide this utility. And if you’re looking for the best solution, SysInfoTools NSF Merge Tool is definitely worth a shot. It’s a quick and easy way to combine multiple NSF files into one. And most importantly, it’s highly effective, unlike the manual solutions.
The NSF Merge tool allows you to merge NSF files in two different ways:
Merge NSF Files: By using this option, you can combine two or multiple NSF files into a single file. It combines the data folder wise. For instance, the Inbox folder of NSF file number #1 will be merged with the Inbox folder of NSF file #2. In the same, other folders will be merged and a new output NSF file will be created containing all the merged folders.
Join NSF Files: Also, there’s a separate feature to join NSF files. By using this option, the software creates a new folder and place all the selected NSF files in that folder without causing any alteration.
In order to merge contacts, you should use the “Merge Contact” option. This will create a separate NSF file into which all the contacts stored in the Names.nsf files will be merged. Also, there are a few useful features like Remove Duplicate Items, Exclude Trash Folder, and Exclude “All Document” Folder. Since no prior technical expertise is required, any technical or non-technical user can use this software with ease.
Useful Tip for Lotus Notes Users
For those users who are looking for a free solution to merge NSF files, I’m sharing a manual solution here. Although there’s no guarantee that it would work, there’s no harm in trying it. But don’t forget to take the backup of your NSF files. You must be familiar with the archive feature of IBM Notes. You need to use it here, and I’ll show you how. By using that feature, you need to create a new archive NSF database into which you can move the data from two or multiple NSF files. But before that, make sure:
The archive file you’ll create and other NSF files from which you want to move the data have the same folder structure.
If the NSF files contain different folders, you need to create a new folder in the archive file with the same name.
Follow the simple steps shown below:
Step 1: First, launch IBM Notes application on your system.
On the menu bar, click the File tab >Replication>New Replica.
Step 2: You’ll see a new small dialog box.
Click the Browse button where you need to define the file name and its path.
Step 3: Once you click OK, IBM Notes will start creating the archive replica. This process won’t take more than a minute.
Now you need to move the data from two or multiple NSF files into this new file (one by one).
Step 4: Select the NSF file in the workspace of the IBM Notes.
After that, click the File tab on the menu bar. Click Application>Properties.
Step 5: You’ll see a new small dialog box.
Click the Archive Settings button.
Step 6: You’ll see the Archive Settings dialog box.
Click the Criteria tab in the navigation pane, and then click the Create button.
Step 7: On the Create Archive Criteria dialog box, you need to name these new criteria.
After that, you need to define what criteria should be used to select documents. Click the Selection Criteria button.
Step 8: On the Archive Selection Criteria dialog box, you need to define which documents you want to archive from this application.
After that, click OK.
Step 9: You’re back to the Create Archive Criteria dialog box.
First, check the Enable this criteria box.
And then, click the Browse button to select the archive database which you’ve created earlier.
Click OK to start moving the data from the selected NSF file into the new archive database.
This process may take some time. Make sure you don’t cancel it.
Conclusion
In this article, we’ve discussed the most common Lotus Notes management issues you may face if you have a large number of NSF files. So it’s highly advisable to merge NSF files into one. There’s a professional NSF Merge tool recommended in this article that can merge NSF files with ease. Also, there’s a manual solution shared in this article that may work for you without requiring any 3rd party tool.
