Extract Email Addresses from Opera Mail

Opera Mail has no Export Addresses command. You have a mailbox full of senders, replies and bounce messages, and no button that turns them into a list. Opera Mail is also end of life, so nobody patches it for you. Below are three ways to extract email addresses from Opera Mail, from saved contacts to full message scans.

How to extract email addresses from Opera Mail contacts?

Add senders to Opera Mail contacts, then copy contacts out as text or save them as an .adr file. That covers addresses you added, not every address in your mail.

1. Open Opera Mail, go to Contacts and create a new contacts folder.
2. Select messages in your Inbox or any other folder, then add their senders to that contacts folder.
3. Open your contacts folder. Press Ctrl+A to select all contacts, copy them and paste into Notepad.
4. Or right-click your contacts folder and save selected contacts as an .adr file.

An Opera volunteer described these steps on Opera forums for a user who wanted addresses from bounce messages. Opera Mail keeps contacts in contacts.adr, a plain text hotlist file with NAME and MAIL fields. A contact with many addresses holds them in one MAIL field.

Catch: you add senders by hand, and you only get addresses from messages you select. It also skips addresses in Cc, in message bodies and in attachments.

How to extract email addresses from Opera Mail messages for free?

Opera Mail saves every message as one plain text .mbs file, so a regex scan of your mail folder prints every address in headers and text bodies. It costs nothing and Windows already has it.

1. Close Opera Mail. Copy your Opera Mail mail folder to C:\OperaCopy and scan that copy, not your original.
2. Open PowerShell. Find your store folder inside your copy. Opera Mail keeps accounts under store, grouped by account and date.
3. Run it, and change that path if your folder differs:

   Get-ChildItem "C:\OperaCopy\mail\store" -Recurse -Filter *.mbs |
   Select-String -Pattern '[\w.+-]+@[\w-]+(\.[\w-]+)+' -AllMatches |
   ForEach-Object { $_.Matches.Value } |
   Sort-Object -Unique |
   Out-File "$env:USERPROFILE\Desktop\opera-addresses.txt"

4. Open opera-addresses.txt on your desktop and remove junk lines.

Message-ID values and server host names look like addresses, so expect false entries such as 123.456@host.local. A regex also cannot read base64 encoded bodies or text inside PDF and Word attachments. If you set a custom Mail Root Directory in operaprefs.ini, your mail folder sits at that path. Opera users explain .mbs files and custom directories on Opera forums.

Catch: you clean output by hand, and you cannot filter by date, sender or subject. Test on a small copy first.

Steps to extract email addresses from Opera Mail with software

1. Close Opera Mail. In PowerShell, copy your messages as EML files. Originals stay untouched:

   $i=0; New-Item -ItemType Directory C:\OperaEML -Force | Out-Null
   Get-ChildItem "$env:APPDATA\Opera Mail\Opera Mail\mail\store" -Recurse -Filter *.mbs |
   ForEach-Object { $i++; Copy-Item $_.FullName "C:\OperaEML\$i.eml" }

2. Install Corbett Email Address Extractor and start it as administrator.
3. Add your source. Browse to C:\OperaEML and select your EML files.
4. Tick fields to search: From, To, Cc, Subject, message body, message header or attachments.
5. Add filters if you want fewer results: date, sender, recipient, subject, file type or size.
6. Click Extract, review your preview and address count, then save your TXT file.

Corbett's product page does not name Opera Mail, but EML is a listed source and Opera message files are plain text, so test a copy in demo before you buy. Change that store path if you moved your mail folder. Output is TXT only, with no CSV or Excel file. Need addresses from another client? See how to extract email addresses from EML files.

Which way to extract email addresses from Opera Mail is best?

Use contacts for a short list of saved people, PowerShell for a free one-off scan and software for filters, attachments and large mail stores.

Using Thunderbird? See how to extract email addresses from Thunderbird.

Why does Opera Mail email address extraction fail?

Contacts export misses most addresses

Contacts hold only people you saved. Add senders to a contacts folder first, or scan messages with PowerShell or software.

PowerShell finds no files

Your store path is wrong. Opera Mail lets you move its mail folder through Mail Root Directory in operaprefs.ini, while contacts.adr stays in your Opera Mail profile folder. Search your drive for *.mbs to find it.

Output has fake addresses

Message-ID lines and host names match a regex. Software searches named fields, so it gives cleaner lists when you tick From, To and Cc only.

Names with accents break contacts import

A Vivaldi forum thread on importing Opera Mail says non-ASCII characters in contact names stop contacts import. Rename those contacts in Notepad before you import contacts.adr.

Opera Mail will not connect or update

Opera Mail is end of life. Opera staff say on Opera forums that it gets no technical or security support. Extract your addresses and move your mail to a client that gets updates.

What to do after you extract email addresses from Opera Mail?

Open your TXT file, remove duplicates and delete system addresses such as no-reply senders. Keep a copy beside your mail backup. Then move your mail out of Opera Mail. Our guide on how to import Opera Mail to Thunderbird moves messages and accounts. To keep files, extract attachments from Opera Mail or convert Opera Mail to PDF. Messages saved as MSG work too. See how to extract email addresses from MSG file.

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