Redacting a PST Archive Without Turning It Into a Stack of PDFs
A PST is a mailbox in a file: folders, messages, attachments. For disclosure, a SAR, or an onward copy, you usually need the archive still usable as email — with personal data removed — not a hundred printed pages. This is how to export from Outlook and run a redaction pass on the .pst itself.
A PST is not a printout. Treat it like a mailbox
When someone asks for "a PST viewer for redactions," they are usually stuck between two bad options. One is a viewer that lets them read the archive but not actually remove text. The other is exporting everything to PDF and drawing boxes, which loses folder structure, breaks attachments, and still fails if the boxes are only overlays.
A PST is Outlook's mailbox file. For a Subject Access Request, a litigation hold subset, or a GDPR-style clean copy, the useful output is often another PST (or a PDF pack of the same messages) with third-party identifiers gone — not a flattened scan. Email Redact accepts a .pst upload, so the export from Outlook is the main client-side step.
A concrete example
What an export-and-redact pass looks like
Use this when the relevant mail is a folder or a whole mailbox, not one message you can Save As.
The situation
You have been asked for a copy of a mailbox folder covering a named person or a date range. The PST also contains colleagues' home numbers, customer addresses, and a few threads that mention people who are not part of the request. You need a redacted archive you can hand over, plus the untouched original kept internally.
Source and destination you choose
Where it comes from
Outlook Data File (.pst)
Exported from Outlook via File → Open & Export → Import/Export → Export to a file
Why this one: Working on the PST keeps folders and attachments together instead of saving hundreds of individual .msg files by hand.
Also works with
- A date-filtered export of one folder rather than the entire mailbox
- Individual .msg files if the set is small
Where the result goes
Redacted PST and/or PDF copies
The same messages with detected personal data removed, in a format you can still open or page through
Why this one: Some recipients want a mailbox they can search; some want a PDF pack. Producing from the same pass avoids doing the job twice.
Or choose
- Plain-text review before you commit to an export
- A tighter export of only the folders you actually need
Export from Outlook, then redact the file
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Export only the folder you need
In Outlook: File → Open & Export → Import/Export → Export to a file → Outlook Data File (.pst). Pick the folder, include subfolders if that is the real scope, and save the .pst somewhere you control. Do not password the working copy if your redaction tool cannot open a locked PST.
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Keep that export as the original
Copy it. Redact the copy. Disclosure files and evidence files should not be the same object.
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Upload the PST to Email Redact
At https://emailtools.hexamail.com/redact the archive is processed message by message. You get a suggested list of names, addresses and similar identifiers to confirm, add to, or cut back.
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Choose what "redacted copy" means for the recipient
A redacted PST is the right answer if they need to keep working in email form. PDF copies of the same result are the right answer if they need a static pack. Both beat printing the mailbox.
Keyword-based deletion ("remove every mail that contains this phrase in GDPR-safe mode") is a different job from redaction. Redaction blacks out identifiers inside messages you are keeping. Deleting messages that match a phrase shrinks the set. Do not mix them up on a live archive — decide the scope first, then redact what remains.
Viewers show you the mail. They rarely remove it
A PST viewer is useful for checking that an export opened, that the date range is right, and that you did not grab the wrong mailbox. It is a poor redaction tool. If the viewer only hides text on screen, the underlying bytes are still in the file. Anyone who opens the PST in Outlook later will see what you thought you had removed.
If you are comparing desktop products such as Hexamail Flow with a browser pass like Email Redact, the test is the same: after you export, can you open the result in Outlook and search for a name you intended to remove? If the name is still findable, you viewed a redaction. You did not perform one.
Questions people ask once they have a .pst on disk
Can I redact only selected phrases inside the PST, not every detected name?
Yes. The first pass proposes identifiers. You decide which stay. That is the difference between a usable disclosure pack and a file full of black bars.
Will the redacted PST still open in Outlook?
That is the point of staying in PST rather than converting everything to PDF first. Open the result and search for a sample name you expected to be gone before you send it.
We also need PDF copies of the same messages
Produce those from the redacted set, not from the original PST. Otherwise you are redacting twice and the two packs can drift apart.
Related guides
Redacting a single Outlook message
When Save As .msg is enough and you do not need a PST.
Redact the email file, not a PDF overlay
Why viewer-style black boxes fail once someone searches the file.
Subject Access Requests and third-party data
The legal judgement that sits on top of a redacted PST export.
Keep the archive as email. Remove the identifiers you cannot hand over.