How to Upgrade or Replace Design on a Domino Mail File Using Load Convert -u

So why would you do this anyway?
Initially, it seems like there is no real reason to use a command line utility when you can do everything using File, Database (or application in Notes 8) Replace Design.

I used to think that the only reason I would ever want to do this would be if I have a large number of mail files to upgrade. Then I discovered a curious thing, a simple design replace on a single database can often causes issues with the design of folders. The answer to this problem is load convert.

How to use it

PART 1: Getting to the Server Console via Administrator

1. Open the Domino administrator
2. Open your server, it probably will be already open
3. Click on the tab marked server
4. Click on the tab marked status
5. Into the left-hand navigator, click server console
6. If the server console isn't already live, you might want to click the Green Triangle
7. Position your cursor in the space marked Domino command. This is where you will type the load convert command.

PART 2: Load Convert
The syntax of the load convert command is pretty complicated if you look it up in the help.
You won't need most of the syntax for a simple mail file upgrade

the syntax for a mail file upgrade is as follows;

Load Convert -u folder\mailfile.nsf * mail7.ntf

Where:

• the -u switch Enables the upgrade of folders to the same design as the $inbox design.
  
• folder\mailfile.nsf is the location and name of the mail file eg: mail\jsmith.nsf
• * means - I don't care what template it was originally using
• mail7.ntf is the name of the new template (it will be different depending on the version of Notes or your customizations).

Wildcards
You could replace mail\jsmith.nsf with mail\* to do all mail files but I'd strongly advise against doing this as you may find that you have special mail-in databases which need to be on a particular design. If you have a lot of mail files to process, consider getting a list and using the -f switch to process a text file.

A Safety Net
You can also specify a "before template" in the part where I have used an asterisk (*) in the example. For example, if you put mail6.ntf into this field;

Load Convert -u mail\*.nsf mail6.ntf mail7.ntf

It would upgrade only those mail files used in the standard R6 mail template to R7. This is often a good way to avoid problems with different types of databases in the same folder when using wildcards.

The -u Switch
One final warning: Although you can use load convert on the other databases, don't use the -u switch when doing them. It will do awful things to your folders.