I’m having an issue trying to recover emails from Outlook .ost files. My business had to clear out a bunch of old emails from our server and to save space and previously we could recover old emails from backed up .pst files but recently the Outlook data files are .ost files. I haven’t been able to find any good advice for opening the backed up ost files online. Some stuff I’ve seen only applies to older versions of Outlook and the most recent ones. Any Clutchfans tech wizards dealt with this?
Here are a few suggestions for recovering emails from Outlook .ost files: Attach the .ost file to an Outlook profile. Open Outlook, go to File > Open & Export > Import/Export and select "Import from another program or file". Choose the .ost file and this should connect it to your Outlook so you can access the emails. Use a third party OST to PST converter tool. There are various software tools available (both free and paid) that can convert .ost files into .pst format which is easier to access. Some examples are Stellar Converter for OST or Recovery Toolbox for Outlook. Use Outlook's OST Integrity Check tool (Scanpst.exe). This is included with Outlook/Office and checks an .ost file for errors, repairing the file if possible. You need to browse to the Scanpst.exe file on your computer to run it. Import the OST into a new Outlook Profile. Create an entirely new profile in Outlook and import the .ost file there by using the File > Open & Export > Import/Export wizard. This may allow you to access emails that were missing or not showing up correctly in the original profile. There are also some paid OST recovery services that claim they can recover emails from a corrupted .ost file. This could be an option for critical lost data. Make sure you are backing up current and legacy .ost files going forward to have multiple copies. Let me know if you have any other specific issues accessing emails in the .ost file!
Thanks. We’re busy with a deadline tomorrow but I got some of the same advice from a friend who does IT for a hospital. I’ll give it a try when I have more time and let you know how it goes.
@Invisible Fan Thanks for the advice unfortunately couldn't get the fixes you recommended to work and was considering going to a third party service but figured out a work around. Got an old laptop that I had been using but replaced just before the beginning of the year. It hadn't been connected to the internet or any other network since mid December 2023 and still had my Outlook profile for work on it. Those emails were stored in an OST file but that Outlook hadn't connected to our email server. So even though we had a lot of emails that had been cleared out to save space on our server that outlook still had them. I transferred those emails to an archive PST file. Then saved that to an external hard drive. Copied the archive file to the current laptop I'm using and was able to recover those missing emails. Have since saved that PST file to our external back up.
