Supported file types for processing

Relativity supports many file types for processing. There are also some file types that are incompatible with the processing engine. Before processing your data, note what types are supported and unsupported, as well as any caveats involved with processing those file types.

Note: Data pulled from supported versus unsupported file types: Relativity only pulls limited metadata from unsupported file types. Data pulled from supported file types includes metadata, text, and embedded items.

Supported file types

The following file types and extensions are supported by Relativity for processing.

Note: Renaming a file extension has little effect on how Relativity identifies the file type. When processing a file type, Relativity looks at the actual file properties, such as digital signature, regardless of the named extension. Relativity only uses the named extension as a tie-breaker if the actual file properties indicate multiple extensions.

Note: Relativity currently does not support the extraction of embedded images or objects from Visio, Project, or OpenOffice files. In addition, Relativity never extracts any embedded objects or images that were added to any files as links. For a detailed list of the Office file extensions from which Relativity does and does not extract embedded objects and images, see Microsoft Office child extraction support.

Note: If you use the Native text extraction method on the profile, Processing does not handle pre-2008 Microsoft Office files that have the Protected view enabled. You must use the Relativity text extraction method to process these files.

Excel file considerations

Due to Excel specifications and limits, when processing a database file with the native text extraction method, the database file may miss data in extracted text. For example, if a database file contains more than 1,048,576 rows and 16,384 columns, the extracted text of these files will not contain text on row 1,048,577 and onward and on column 16,385 and onward. For more information, see Excel specifications and limits on the Microsoft website.

Relativity Short Message Format mapping considerations

Generally, Relativity maps all metadata based on electronic email (.eml) files, but the following RSMF-specific mappings are considered non-standard.

Note: All electronic email (.eml) header strings are case insensitive, which is not unique to RSMF files.

If an RSMF file does not include a Sent Date, and the X-RSMF-BeginDate header exists, that header is mapped to the Sent Date field.

For more technical details on how Processing handles Relativity Short Message Format files, see Processing an RSMF file.

Multi-part forensic file considerations

When processing a multi-part forensic image, make sure the source location points to the root folder that contains all of the files that make up the image. If you select only the first file of the image, such as .e01, .l01, .ex01, .lx01, inventory and discovery will fail with an unrecoverable error.

This is because inventory looks at files where they reside in the processing source folder and does not copy them to the repository. If only the first file is selected, during discovery, that file only is copied to the repository, and the workers will attempt to extract from it and fail since the rest of the archive is not available.

When processing .e01 files, the following NTFS file system files are skipped:

• Unallocated space files
• Index $I30 files
• $TXF_DATE files

Native text extraction and OCR

Processing distinguishes between text and line art in the documents you process. For these documents, processing will only OCR the line art. This means that Relativity does not skip OCR if a page has electronic text.

Accordingly, Relativity performs both native text extraction and OCR on the following file formats:

• All vector formats—.svg, CAD files, Metafiles [.wmf, .emf], Postscript, Encapsulated postscript
• .pdf, Visio, Publisher, MS Project, Hancom and JungUm files

All image formats, such as .tiff, .jpeg, .gif, .bmp, and .png, do not have native text, so only OCR is performed. If the file has electronic text and images, native text extraction and OCR is performed.

Support for password-protected Roshal Archive files

Processing does not decrypt a file that gets its encryption directly from the .rar file that contains it. This means that if you attempt to process a password-protected .rar file where the Encrypt file names property is checked, Processing is unable to extract the files inside that archive.

In addition, Processing can extract a single password-protected file from a .rar file, but not multiple password-protected files in the same archive.

The following table breaks down Processing's support of password-protected .rar files.

• √—Processing will decrypt the file.
• Empty—Processing will not decrypt the file.

Archive type	Single password-protected file	Multiple password-protected files	Encrypt file names property
.rar	√
Multi-part .rar	√

Outlook message item (.msg) to MIME encapsulation (.mht) conversion considerations

The following table provides details on the differences between how Relativity handles .msg and .mht file types. This information may be especially useful if you plan on setting the Email Output field on the processing profile to MIME encapsulation.

Category	Field/attribute	Outlook message item (.msg)	MIME encapsultation (.mht)
Metadata fields	Show Time As	This field sometimes appears in the extracted text from MSG files when not explicitly stated in the message file itself. The default for a calendar invite is to show time as busy; the default for a cancellation is to show time as free.	Show Time As does not appear in the extracted text if the default value is populated.
Metadata fields	On behalf of	This field is sometimes present in text from a message item. In some cases, this field is populated with the same value as the From field.	On behalf of does not appear in the extracted text.
Interline spacing	N/A	The expected number of blank lines appears in the extracted text. Line wrapping for long paragraphs will also be present.	In some cases, the text in the .mht file format has fewer blank lines than the text from a message item. In addition, there is no built-in line wrapping for long paragraphs.
Intraline spacing	N/A	White-space characters are converted to standard space characters.	White-space characters may remain as non-breaking spaces.
Email addresses	Email	When a message file is converted to .mht, the text is extracted from the .mht file using OutsideIn. This can lead to a loss of data.	If joe.smith@acme.com renders as Joe Smith in the .mht file, the email address is not captured in the extracted text.

Email image extraction support

It is helpful to understand when Relativity treats an image that is attached to an email as an inline, or embedded, image and not as an actual attachment. The following table breaks down when this occurs based on email format and image characteristics:

Email format	Attachments that are inline, embedded, images
Plain text	None
Rich text	IPicture-based OLE embedded images
HTML	Images with content ID referenced in the HTML body Local, non-internet image references in the HTML that Relativity can match to an attachment .pst/.ost/.msg files containing metadata hints as to whether or not the image is marked hidden or is referenced in the HTML body

You can arrange for the discovery of inline images when creating Processing profiles, specifically through the field called When extracting children, do not extract.

Microsoft Office child extraction support

Notable unsupported file types

Processing does not support files created with the following programs and versions:

Product category	Product name and version
DOS Word Processors	DEC WPS Plus (.dx) Through 4.0 DEC WPS Plus (.wpl) Through 4.1 DisplayWrite 2 and 3 (.txt) All versions DisplayWrite 4 and 5 Through Release 2.0 Enable 3.0, 4.0, and 4.5 First Choice Through 3.0 Framework 3.0 IBM Writing Assistant 1.01 Lotus Manuscript Version 2.0 MASS11 Versions through 8.0 MultiMate Versions through 4.0 Navy DIF All versions Nota Bene Version 3.0 Office Writer Versions 4.0 through 6.0 PC-File Letter Versions through 5.0 PC-File+ Letter Versions through 3.0 PFS:Write Versions A, B, and C Professional Write Versions through 2.1 Q&A Version 2.0 Samna Word IV+ Versions through Samna Word SmartWare II Version 1.02 Sprint Versions through 1.0 Total Word Version 1.2 Volkswriter 3 and 4 Versions through 1.0 Wang PC (.iwp) Versions through 2.6 WordMARC Plus Versions through Composer WordStar Versions through 7.0 WordStar 2000 Versions through 3.0 XyWrite Versions through III Plus
Windows Word Processors	Adobe FrameMaker (.mif) Version 6.0 JustSystems Ichitaro Versions 5.0, 6.0, 8.0, 13.0, 2004 JustWrite Versions through 3.0 Legacy Versions through 1.1 Lotus AMI/AMI Professional Versions through 3.1 Lotus Word Pro Millenium Versions 96 through Edition 9.6, text only Novell Perfect Works Version 2.0 Professional Write Plus Version 1.0 Q&A Write Version 3.0 WordStar Version 1.0
Mac Word Processors	MacWrite II Version 1.1
Disk Images	Symantec Ghost
Encryption	Pretty Good Privacy (PGP)
HEIC	High Efficiency Image Container
Spreadsheets	Enable Versions 3.0, 4.0, and 4.5 First Choice Versions through 3.0 Framework Version 3.0 Lotus 1-2-3 (DOS and Windows) Versions through 5.0 Lotus 1-2-3 (OS/2) Versions through 2.0 Lotus 1-2-3 Charts (DOS and Windows) Versions through 5.0 Lotus 1-2-3 for SmartSuite Versions 97 and Millennium 9.6 Lotus Symphony Versions 1.0, 1.1, and 2.0 Microsoft MultiPlan Version 4.0 Mosaic Twin Version 2.5 Novell Perfect Works Version 2.0 PFS: Professional Plan Version 1.0 Quattro Pro (DOS) Versions through 5.0 Quattro Pro (Windows) Versions through 12.0, X3 SmartWare II Version 1.02 SuperCalc 5 Version 4.0 VP Planner 3D Version 1.0

In addition, Processing does not support the following files:

• Self-extracting .rar files
• Private mail certificate (.pem) files
• Apple i-Works suite (Pages, Numbers, Keynote)
• Apple Mail:
  • .emlxpart
  • .partial.emlx

  Note: The .emlxpart and .partial.emlx are distinct from the .emlx file extension, which is supported by processing.

• Audio/Video files
  • .wav
• iCloud backup files
• Microsoft Access
• Microsoft Works
• Raw partition files:
  • ISO
  • NTFS
  • HFS

Note: For information on the limitations and exceptions to our supported file types, see Supported file types.

Supported container file types

The following file types can act as containers:

File type	Extensions
Bloomberg	.xml Relativity does not support Instant Bloomberg .xml files.
Cabinet	.cab Relativity does not support multi-part .cab files. Relativity does not support Password Protected .cab files.
Compressed files	.7z, .zip, .tar, .gz, .bz2, .rar, .z, .cab, .alzip When working with archives, there is no limit to the number of layers deep Processing goes to extract data. It extracts until there is no more data to be extracted. Inventory, however, only extracts data from first-level documents. For example, you have a .zip file within a .zip file that contains an email with an attached Word document, inventory only extracts up to the email. Note: Relativity does not support multi-part .zip, .tar, or .7z files.
EnCase	.e01, .l01, .lx01, .ex01
AccessData Logical Image	.ad1 Relativity supports processing both single and multi-part non-encrypted .ad1 files. For encrypted .ad1 files, only single part files are supported. For multi-part .ad1 files, you must decrypt the files prior to processing. See Multi-part container considerations for more information.
iCalendar	.ics For Outlook meeting invites, the email that is sent with the meeting invite (the .msg file) will have a sent date that reflects when the sender sent out the meeting request. The resulting calendar file that is then added to the user's Outlook calendar (the .ics file) will not include a sent date, as the date doe not apply to the calendar file itself.
Lotus Notes Database	.nsf See Lotus Notes considerations for more information.
MBOX Email Store	.mbox .mbox is a standard format, in which case it does not matter whether you're using a Mac folder format or a Unix file format.
Outlook Offline Storage	.ost
Outlook Mail Folder	.pst Relativity assigns duplicate hash values to calendar invites, as it does with email messages and other documents.
Outlook Express Mail Folder	.dbx
PDF Portfolio	.pdf
RAR	.rar You do not need to combine multi-part .rar files before processing them.
TAR (Tape Archive)	.tar Relativity does not handle multi-part .tar files.
ZIP	See Compressed files.

Note: Container files do not store encoding information. Because of this, you may see garbled characters in the file names of children files processed from a container file (such as a .zip file) if the originating locale differs from the processed locale. For example, if the originating container file's locale is set to Russian, then processed on an instance set to US, the container's children files may have garbled characters.

Lotus Notes considerations

Note the following about how Processing handles note storage facility files:

• Processing does not perform intermediate conversion on .nsf files, meaning that they are not converted to .pst or .dxl files before discovering them. This ensures that document metadata is not missed during processing.
• Processing preserves the original formatting and attachments of the .nsf file. In addition, forms are not applied, since they are designed to hide information.
• Processing extracts the contents of .nsf files and puts them into individual message files using the Lotus Notes C/C++ API directly. This is because .nsf files do not have their own individual document entry file format. All of the original Lotus Notes metadata is embedded in the message, meaning if you look at the document metadata in an .nsf file within Lotus, all of the metadata listed is embedded in the message. In addition, the original Rich Text Format/HTML/Plaintext document body is written to the message. Relativity handles the conversion from .nsf to .msg files itself, and any errors regarding metadata or the inability to translate content are logged to the processing Errors tab. Relativity can process the following .nsf items as messages:
  • Contacts
  • Distribution lists
  • Calendar items
  • Emails and non-emails

This is an example of an original .nsf file before being submitted to the processing engine:

This is an example of an .nsf file that has been converted to a message:

Lotus Notes supported versions

Lotus Notes are supported through Version 10.

Multi-part container considerations

When processing a multi-part container, the first part of the container must be included. If the first part of the container is not included, the Processing engine ignores the file.

Calendar file, vCard file considerations

Calendar files (.ics) and vCard files (.vcf) are de-duplicated not as emails but as loose files based on the SHA256 hash. Since the system now considers these loose files, Relativity is no longer capturing the email-specific metadata that it used to get as a result of .ics or .vcf files going through the system's email handler.

The following table breaks down which metadata values the system populates for .ics files:

Processing engine property name	Relativity property name
Author	Author
DocTitle	Title
Email/AllDayEvent	[other metadata]
Email/AllowNewTimeProposal	[other metadata]
Email/BusyStatus	[other metadata]
Email/CommonEnd	[other metadata]
Email/CommonStart	[other metadata]
Email/ConversationTopic	[other metadata]
Email/CreatedOn	Email Created Date/Time
Email/DisplayTo	[other metadata]
Email/DomainParsedBCC	Recipient Domains (BCC)
Email/DomainParsedCC	Recipient Domains (CC)
Email/DomainParsedFrom	Sender Domain
Email/DomainParsedTo	Recipient Domains (To)
Email/Duration	[other metadata]
Email/EndDate	Meeting End Date/Time
Email/IntendedBusyStatus	[other metadata]
Email/IsRecurring	[other metadata]
Email/LastModified	Email Last Modified Date/Time
Email/Location	[other metadata]
Email/MessageClass	Message Class
Email/MessageType	Message Type
Email/NetMeetingAutoStart	[other metadata]
Email/ReminderMinutesBeforeStart	[other metadata]
Email/SentRepresentingEmail	[other metadata]
Email/SentRepresentingName	[other metadata]
Email/StartDate	Meeting Start Date/Time
EmailBCC	[other metadata]
EmailBCCName	[other metadata]
EmailBCCSmtp	BCC (SMTP Address)
EmailCC	[other metadata]
EmailCCName	[other metadata]
EmailCCSmtp	CC (SMTP Address)
EmailConversation	Conversation
EmailFrom	[other metadata]
EmailImportance	Importance
EmailSenderName	Sender Name
EmailSenderSmtp	From (SMTP Address)
EmailSensitivity	Email Sensitivity
EmailSubject	Subject
EmailTo	[other metadata]
EmailToName	Recipient Name (To)
EmailToSmtp	To (SMTP Address)
SortDate	Sort Date/Time
Subject	[other metadata]

The following table breaks down which metadata values the system populates for .vcf files:

Processing engine property name	Relativity property name
DocTitle	Title
Email/BusinessAddress	[other metadata]
Email/BusinessAddressCity	[other metadata]
Email/BusinessAddressCountry	[other metadata]
Email/BusinessAddressPostalCode	[other metadata]
Email/BusinessAddressState	[other metadata]
Email/BusinessAddressStreet	[other metadata]
Email/BusinessPostOfficeBox	[other metadata]
Email/BusinessTitle	[other metadata]
Email/CellNumber	[other metadata]
Email/CompanyName	[other metadata]
Email/ConversationTopic	[other metadata]
Email/Country	[other metadata]
Email/Department	[other metadata]
Email/DisplayName	[other metadata]
Email/DisplayNamePrefix	[other metadata]
Email/Email2AddrType	[other metadata]
Email/Email2EmailAddress	[other metadata]
Email/Email2OriginalDisplayName	[other metadata]
Email/Email3AddrType	[other metadata]
Email/Email3EmailAddress	[other metadata]
Email/Email3OriginalDisplayName	[other metadata]
Email/EmailAddrType	[other metadata]
Email/EmailEmailAddress	[other metadata]
Email/EmailOriginalDisplayName	[other metadata]
Email/FileUnder	[other metadata]
Email/Generation	[other metadata]
Email/GivenName	[other metadata]
Email/HomeAddress	[other metadata]
Email/HomeAddressCity	[other metadata]
Email/HomeAddressCountry	[other metadata]
Email/HomeAddressPostalCode	[other metadata]
Email/HomeAddressState	[other metadata]
Email/HomeAddressStreet	[other metadata]
Email/HomeNumber	[other metadata]
Email/HomePostOfficeBox	[other metadata]
Email/Locality	[other metadata]
Email/MessageClass	Message Class
Email/MessageType	Message Type
Email/MiddleName	[other metadata]
Email/OfficeNumber	[other metadata]
Email/OtherAddress	[other metadata]
Email/OtherAddressCity	[other metadata]
Email/OtherAddressCountry	[other metadata]
Email/OtherAddressPostalCode	[other metadata]
Email/OtherAddressState	[other metadata]
Email/OtherAddressStreet	[other metadata]
Email/OtherPostOfficeBox	[other metadata]
Email/PostOfficeBox	[other metadata]
Email/PostalAddress	[other metadata]
Email/PostalCode	[other metadata]
Email/PrimaryFaxNumber	[other metadata]
Email/PrimaryNumber	[other metadata]
Email/State	[other metadata]
Email/StreetAddress	[other metadata]
Email/Surname	[other metadata]
EmailConversation	Conversation
EmailSubject	Subject
Subject	[other metadata]

Container file types supported for the password bank

The following container file types are supported by Relativity for Password Bank in Inventory.

File type	Extensions
Compressed files	.7z, .alzip, .zip, .z, .bz2, .gz
Lotus Notes Database	.nsf
PDF Portfolio	.pdf
PST	.pst
RAR	.rar

Non-container file types supported for Password Bank in Inventory

The Password Bank also supports the following non-container formats:

• .pdf
• Excel*
• Word*
• PowerPoint*
• S/MIME
• .p7m

* Except .drm files or custom encryption