How To Repair Ms Outlook .ost Files When Its Synchronization With Exchange Server Fails?

The offline working mode feature of Microsoft Outlook makes it the most widely preferred email client. It stores its data in the OST and PST file, which comprises of emails, address book, calendar, appointments, meeting requests, etc. An Outlook OST file is a replica of the Microsoft Exchange server, which is stored on the local machine of an end user. Whenever a connection is established between Outlook and the Exchange server, the changes made in the user’s mailbox automatically gets reflected on the server.

Since the OST files are stored on local machine therefore, there are high changes of its OST corruption. The reasons for the same can be any like virus attack, synchronization problem, mailbox corruption, network issue, etc. When Outlook is unable to synchronize OST file with the Exchange server, users will definitely face an error statement. This leads to a failure situation where Outlook mailbox data is at high disaster risk. Therefore, in this blog, we are going to discuss all possible measures to restore Outlook OST to PST file when its synchronization with Exchange server fails. Lets begin!

Measures to Repair Orphaned OST File

#1 : Using scanost.exe inbuilt utility

This is a free OST file integrity checker tool, provided by Microsoft team to Outlook users. This free utility requires a proper connection between Outlook email account and the Exchange server for its working. There should not be any changes in the running Exchange mailboxes when one is utilizing scanost.exe tool. The software thoroughly scans the OST file as well as the live Exchange server, which compares all the folders and items for reconciling synchronization.

Note : The scanost.exe tool was available only up to 2007 version. All the Outlook editions from 2010 to 2016 (latest one) provides Scanpst.exe utility in place of this scanost.exe utility. But, these approaches are applicable only for minor corruption of Outlook data file. 

Following steps will be helping users to learn the way of using OST integrity checker tool : 

1. Close all the applications and processes that are related to MS Outlook 

2. Locate towards the path where this scanost.exe tool is stored 

3. Now open your Exchange account and then, double-click on scanost.exe 

4. Click on the Browse for choosing the OST file that is to be repaired 

5. Open the Options dialog box for specifying the scan log and then, click on Start for initialization of the scanning process 

6. Rescan the OST file with help of scanpst.exe utility for achieving the fully repaired OST file. This will remove errors, which were left for fixing by scanost.exe utility 

When the repairing process gets completed following screen displays. If in case, you are working with Exchange account and few email items are missing from OST file or is not getting synchronized with Exchange mailbox then, you can recreate OST file. 

#2 : Using scanpst.exe Free Tool

For Outlook 2010 and above editions, Microsoft provides an inbuilt tool i.e., scanpst.exe. This is utilized to fix less corruption from OST as well as PST files. With help of the following instructions, one will be able to deal with minor corrupted OST file :

a. Open Windows Explorer on the PC where Outlook is installed and go to C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\root\Office16



b. In the search box, type scanpst.exe and press Enter key



c. Right-click on this Outlook inbuilt utility and click on Run as administrator option



d. A permission dialog box will appear in which you have to choose Yes.



e. Click on the Browse button and choose the targeted OST file. Here, the corrupted OST file is to be added, select it, and hit on Open.



f. Once you have successfully loaded OST in the utility wizard, hit on Start to initiate scanning procedure.



g. Windows appears through which you will come to know that browsed OST file is corrupted or not. If no then, there is no need of repairing OST; else move to Step (h).

h. Check the checkbox of Make backup of…. and click on the Repair button. This will be fixing corruption, which is caused in header part of the OST file.

Now, take a pause for a certain time duration because this inbuilt utility will be carrying repairing procedure in 8 phases. A process completion dialog box will appear in which you have to click on OK. Now check whether your problem is resolved or not. If no then, procedure will remaining upcoming workarounds.

Learn here; Recover Outlook data files via ScanPST.exe

#3 : Recreate Outlook Offline Folder

If the above two manual methods does not works then, the only free method left is to recreate OST file. This will remove all your previous Outlook data and create a new OST file on Outlook. The following instructions will help you in recreating OST file in MS Outlook :

a. Open Control Panel on your system and click on Mail from the listed menu.



b. Click on the Show Profiles button for the further procedure.



c. Select the OST profile that is corrupted and click on Remove button.



d. Once the profile gets successfully deleted, hit on the Add button of Mail wizard. This will begin procedure of recreating OST file.

e. Continue with the steps of new Outlook profile creation and hit OK.

Conclusion

Bulk amount of third-party Export OST to PST utilities are present in the digital marketing to recover mailboxes from damaged, corrupted, or orphaned OST files. One such application is OST repair tool, which guarantees that it will be fixing all errors related to corrupted OST files. All data items like emails, tasks, contacts, calendar will be recovered by this application. The software is workable with OST file of all Outlook versions, including the latest one. Neither the Exchange server nor Outlook is required for working of this product. If the manual and free approaches fails in resolving the Outlook OST file problem then, users can go for this effective and efficient tool.