Open Your
Identify and convert 96+ file formats from software that no longer exists.
About Legacy Files
Every family has a drawer of floppy disks, a retired PC, or a backup drive full of files that nothing will open anymore: a thesis written in WordPerfect, a budget in Lotus 1-2-3, a church newsletter laid out in Publisher 98, holiday videos saved as RealMedia, clip art in PCX, or a StuffIt archive from an old Mac. The programs that created them are gone, and modern software simply shrugs.
Our legacy file tools bring those files back. Start with the identifier if you do not know what a file is: it reads the actual bytes, not just the extension, and tells you the format, the program that made it, the era it comes from, and exactly which converter will open it. Then convert documents to PDF or Word, spreadsheets to Excel, drawings to PDF or PNG, images to PNG or JPG, video to MP4, audio to MP3, and unpack archives in ARJ, LHA, ARC, ZOO, StuffIt, ACE or CAB format.
Conversion runs on our servers using mature open-source engines (LibreOffice's Document Liberation filters, ffmpeg, ImageMagick, Ghostscript and 7-Zip), so nothing needs to be installed. Where a format genuinely cannot be converted, we say so and explain what to do instead. Files are used only for your request and are deleted automatically within three hours.
Why Use Our Legacy Files?
Identify mystery files by their byte signature, even with a missing or wrong extension.
Convert 96+ obsolete formats from the 1980s to 2000s without hunting for abandoned software.
Honest results: fidelity notes for every format, and clear guidance when a file cannot be converted.
Nothing to install, works on any device, and files are deleted within three hours.
Common Use Cases
Inherited Hard Drives
Recover letters, photos and home videos from a relative's old computer without knowing what software they used.
Family & Genealogy Research
Open decades-old family trees, scanned DjVu documents and WordPerfect notes from earlier researchers.
Business Records
Convert Lotus 1-2-3 accounts, Works databases and PageMaker brochures into formats your team can actually use.
Retro Computing & Archiving
Unpack ARJ, LHA and StuffIt archives, or turn Amiga IFF and MacPaint images into PNGs for preservation.
Pro Tips
Start with Identify
If a file has no extension or came from a floppy, run it through the identifier first. It will point you to the right converter.
Convert to PDF for safety
PDF preserves the look of old documents best. Convert to DOCX or XLSX only if you need to edit the content.
Convert originals, not copies
Do not rename or re-save legacy files before uploading. The original bytes carry the signatures we use to detect the format.
Frequently Asked Questions
Which old file formats can you open?
Word processors (WordPerfect, MS Works, Lotus Word Pro, Ami Pro, ClarisWorks, MacWrite, StarOffice), spreadsheets (Lotus 1-2-3, Quattro Pro, dBASE, SYLK), presentations (Keynote, Corel Presentations), publishing (Publisher, CorelDRAW, Visio, PageMaker, QuarkXPress, FreeHand), images (PCX, TGA, XCF, PSD, PICT, Sun Raster, Amiga IFF, MacPaint, DjVu, EPS), media (RealMedia, WMV, WMA, FLV, 3GP, VOB, RealAudio, VOC, AMR) and archives (ARJ, LHA, ARC, ZOO, StuffIt, ACE, CAB, CHM, ISO). The full list is shown on each tool page.
What if the identifier cannot recognise my file?
It will still show you the container type and a low-level description from libmagic, plus any close candidates. Some formats (for example Microsoft Document Imaging .mdi) are recognised but genuinely have no open-source converter; in that case we explain the workaround.
How accurate are the conversions?
Text, layout, tables and images convert reliably. Fonts are substituted with modern equivalents, and program-specific features such as macros, Publisher wizards or Flash interactivity are dropped. Each format lists its known limitations.
Are my old files kept on your servers?
No. Files are used only for the operation you request and are deleted automatically within three hours.