Analyze OST File & Recover Corrupted Outlook Offline Mailbox [Fix]
Working on offline Outlook mode is easy when it comes to simple sending and receiving of emails. However, there are some instances when Outlook mailbox does not cooperate that well. For example, consider a moment when you are on a flight, where there is no network available. At this time you will lose access to all the data present on the server. This is the time when OST files come into existence. OST files are those files of Outlook that operate in an offline mode and are connected to the Exchange Server. OST files are, however, prone to corruption if any problem occurs in the synchronization of data. So, the big question for users is “How to Analyze OST File and Recover Corrupted Offline Mailbox Data From Outlook?” In this article, we have highlighted the errors that appear if OST files get corrupted and the methods to resolve the corruption issues to successfully View OST File.
Need to Analyze OST Files & Repair Damaged Data
While working on .ost files, sometimes users encounter various error messages. These error messages are an indication that the OST file has been corrupted. Another indication can be when Outlook takes more than the required time to open itself or the emails. All these issues point towards the corrupted OST files. The error messages are shown here for the user analysis of their OST files.
- This type of error message appears when OST file does not synchronize with Exchange Server successfully. This error message is a slight indication for the users to analyze that the Outlook OST has been corrupted.
- This error message appears when Exchange server is not exactly operational. The user must make sure that they do not get this error frequently because it leaves the OST files corrupted. If it occurs often then, resolve corruption in OST as soon as possible.
- This error arises when the Outlook OST mailbox files fail to synchronize with the Exchange Server. This means that OST is already corrupted due to which it is not getting synchronized with the server.
Methods to Recover Corrupted Offline Outlook Data File
As mentioned above, the occurrence of these errors is a clear indication that users need to recover corrupted OST files. So, some methods have been devised for the aid of users to fix the Outlook files, which are explained below in detail.
Scanost.exe Utility to Analyze OST File
This tool is an inbuilt utility devised by Microsoft that allows users to scan, resolve and analyze OST file errors. This tool scans the complete file, finds the errors, repairs them and then, frees the OST files from any kind of corruption. Steps to recover OST data using this utility are given below.
- Exit the running Microsoft Outlook application and launch the Scanost.exe tool.
- Set a profile as per the Outlook settings then, click on the Connect option.
- Select the options as per the need and then, click on the Begin Scan option.
This will start the restoring process of OST files after the files are scanned completely.
Limitation: Although the above-inbuilt utility is a good tool yet it does not guarantee complete OST recovery of files. It can also sometimes delete the corrupted data to generate healthy data. Therefore, the user needs to be cautious while performing recovery mechanism using this tool. Moreover, this Scanost.exe utility is obsolete nowadays and is not compatible with Microsoft Outlook versions 2010, 2013 and 2016, 2019 anymore.
OST Recovery Tool to Repair & Analyze OST File
As it is mentioned, the above utility is not fully reliable to restore the corrupted files due to some limitations. Therefore, we have provided a complete solution to resolve OST corruption issues by a software i.e, OST Recovery. Unlike the manual method, this recovery tool works with every version of Microsoft Outlook.
Conclusion
For an overall analysis and recovery of Outlook OST files, it is suggested to use the third party software to repair .ost files because it can recover even the corrupted and deleted OST files. This tool takes lesser time compared to manual processes and also ensures the total recovery of lost data. So, in this content, all efficient methods have been summed up on How To Analyze OST File and Recover Corrupted Offline Mailbox Data From Outlook.