Outlook .ost file h...
 

  You don't need to be an 'investor' to invest in Singletrack: 6 days left: 95% of target - Find out more

[Closed] Outlook .ost file help

5 Posts
5 Users
0 Reactions
85 Views
Posts: 2471
Free Member
Topic starter
 

I have somehow managed to lose all the sent items in my Outlook.

Is there a way to retrieve or extract the emails from an old copy of an .ost file?

I'm a little rusty


 
Posted : 12/02/2022 11:18 am
Posts: 77347
Free Member
 

Look in neighbouring folders in the tree, see if you've accidentally misclicked and moved them. An entire folder doesn't generally just mysteriously disappear.

An OST is an Exchange cache which allows you to still access emails when the server is unavailable. Is that how your email is configured, it's pointing to an Exchange server? Who's your email provider?

There are tools available which claim to extract data from OST files but I've never used them because there's almost always a better way of attacking this.


 
Posted : 12/02/2022 11:51 am
Posts: 10315
Full Member
 

Cougar is right (I have a button to click to say that, it saves time)

I find the easiest way is often to do a search for what is lost to find where is has moved to.  If you have access to webmail (eg if this is Office365) then it's often faster to search in webmail.  Do it soon though as if you have accidentally deleted the folder it won't stay in the bin forever


 
Posted : 12/02/2022 12:18 pm
Posts: 4643
Full Member
 

If it’s gone, gone from your exchange mailbox you should be able to play the “recover deleted items” game with your outlook client. Afaicr though you need to recover the folder and then the contents individually.


 
Posted : 12/02/2022 3:30 pm
Posts: 2324
Full Member
 

Are you using outlook as part of a O365 subscription? If yes, you should be able to log-in to your email onkine, and see if the messages are still there online. If yes it is likely an issue with your .ost corrupt. One solution (IANAITHD) would be to check if all your email is present online, make a copy (mailboxold.ost) of your ost file on your pc, then create a new profile in outlook on your PC and resynch your email which will create a new ost file with everything.

If your sent email is missing online you should be able to use hot-fiat's recover deleted items. I think you can do that for up to 30 days.

good luck


 
Posted : 13/02/2022 11:31 am
Posts: 77347
Free Member
 

One solution (IANAITHD) would be to check if all your email is present online, make a copy (mailboxold.ost) of your ost file on your pc, then create a new profile in outlook on your PC and resynch your email which will create a new ost file with everything.

IF it's all present on the server and IF it's connecting to Exchange / O365 and IF it's an hitherto unmentioned current OST which is corrupt then yes, the simplest fix here is to close Outlook and delete / rename the OST file.

But that's a lot of IF's and the OP hasn't been back since the original question to provide any replies so we're operating on guesswork. The solution here could be "call IT" for all we know.


 
Posted : 13/02/2022 12:30 pm

6 DAYS LEFT
We are currently at 95% of our target!