Using Outlook to Recover Data from Offline Storage Files

Offline Storage Table (OST) is a copy of mailbox folder present on the Exchange server. When a user has selected “Cached Exchange Mode”, MS Outlook stores a replica of items on the mail server on the local system. These files are saved with extension “.ost”, in the Outlook mail folder location. Their file size can vary from 256KB to 5GB in size.

At times, a user might need to recover data from their Offline Storage File. In situations where Exchange Database has been corrupted or mailbox server needs to be changed, Outlook OST file can be used. In this post, a method for using Outlook to recover data from Offline Storage Files has been discussed. This will help one to retrieve contents from their mailbox folder like emails, contacts, tasks, calendars etc.

At times, the old OST may be highly corrupted or the manual procedure might not work in some cases. In situations like this, a user can opt for third-party application for recovering emails from OST file. Exchange OST to PST Converter tool is the most reliable and efficient software available in the market. It can be used for easy recovery of deleted emails from an old OST file. This conversion algorithm can also be used for restoring emails from highly corrupted OST file. It is an easy alternative approach to restoring mailbox files in Outlook. Moreover, it supports all the Windows Operating system.

Method to Recover Data from Offline Storage Files

Following is a manual solution to recover deleted emails from OST file.

• At first, go to Control Panel and open Mail applet
• Now, Select the Email Accounts button
• After that, click on the Exchange Account and click on Change
• Next, window of Microsoft Exchange will pop-up. Go to the Advanced Tab
• Now, uncheck the Use Cached Exchange Mode
• After this, click on Apply to save the changes
• Click on Outlook Data File Settings button
• In the Outlook data file settings window, click on Disable Offline Use
• A message will pop-up saying that after changing these settings, Outlook may no longer work with Offline Storage Files. Click on Yes to move to the next step.
• Back in the Microsoft Exchange window, on clicking Outlook Data File Settings button again, a Browse button will appear. Now, browse to the old OST file and click on OK.
• Again, click OK to close the Microsoft Exchange window.
• Back in the Change Account window, check the Use Cached Exchange Mode and click Next. And then, click Finish
• Now, start Outlook. Immediately a message box will appear saying that Outlook is using an old copy of Outlook Storage File (OST).
• Now, click OK and let Outlook load the contents from the old OST file. At this point, make sure that Outlook is not restarted or a new OST will be created.

Through this method, a user can view all their emails, contacts, calendars, tasks, and journals, etc that had been corrupted or deleted for some reasons. From this point forward, the user can create their own personal folders or archive their files to the new PST file. One can also drag and drop emails for archiving from old OST to the new PST. Use the archiving function, to transfer all OST data to the new PST file.

Alternative Approach to Restore OST File in Outlook

In this post, methods for using Outlook to recover data from offline storage files have been discussed. While restoring data from large OST file, the user may face huge data losses. It is really difficult to recover lost data from an OST file. Hence, many professionals prefer to use alternative solutions. Export OST to PST tool that is a highly recommended software by many data recovery organizations from all around the world.