How to Repair a Corrupted OST File ? — Complete Guide

If you are unable to recover a corrupted OST file data and are facing many problems…Don’t worry, not a big issue. This article answers the best ways that “How to repair a corrupted OST file ? ”. As you know, When we talk about OST files Outlook uses them as an offline cache of your mailbox data.

OST Files allow you to access your emails, contacts, calendars, and other information even when you’re not connected to the internet or the Exchange server. This helps ensure that you can still work with your Outlook data seamlessly, regardless of your network status. When an internet connection is restored, Offline changes are synchronized with the server .

“ Can I repair a corrupted OST file ” , “ Not able to repair a corrupted OST file ” , “ How to repair the OST file ” and many more — Today you’ll get answers to these querries.

Reasons: Why does the OST File get corrupted ?

• Sudden power failure or system crashes while Outlook is running can interrupt the process of writing to the OST file, leading to corruption.
• Problems with the storage device such as bad sectors or disk errors, where the OST file is stored can lead to corruption of the OST file.
• Malware and virus can infect and corrupt OST files, causing data loss or rendering them inaccessible.
• If you have a large mailbox or receive a lot of email attachments, OST files become too large over time. Large file sizes can increase the likelihood of corruption.
• Conflicts with other software installed on your computer, particularly third-party Outlook add-ins or antivirus software, can corrupt OST files.
• Unexpected errors or crashes within the Outlook application itself can sometimes lead to OST file corruption.
• Problems with network connectivity or interruptions during synchronization between the OST file and the Exchange server can result in corruption.
• Issues with the computer’s hardware, such as a failing hard drive or RAM, can corrupt OST files during read or write operations
• Closing Outlook improperly, such as force-quitting the application or shutting down the computer without properly exiting Outlook, can increase the risk of OST file corruption.
• Using outdated versions of Outlook or the Windows operating system may not be compatible with OST files and will lead to OST file corruption.

Methods: How to Repair a Corrupted OST File ?

To repair a corrupted OST file in Outlook, you can try the following methods:

Method 1: In-Built Inbox Repair Tool

Microsoft provides a built-in tool named “ScanOST.exe” that can be used to repair the corrupted Outlook OST files, including PST files.

Steps to use ScanOST Tool:

1. Close “Microsoft Outlook”.
2. Navigate to the ScanOST.exe file location (typically found in “C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\OfficeXX”).
3. Double click on “ScanOST.exe to open” the tool.
4. Select the “Outlook profile” associated with the “corrupted OST file”.
5. Choose the “corrupted OST file”.
6. Click on “Begin Scan” or “Start” to initiate the scanning process.
7. Review the “scan results” for any errors or inconsistencies.
8. Follow the “tool’s prompts” to repair detected issues.
9. Verify if the repair was “successful” .
10. “Backup” the repaired OST file to “prevent data loss” .

Limitation of ScanOST Tool:

• ScanOST tool is only available in older versions of Outlook and has been deprecated in newer versions.
• Not able to repair all types of corruption in OST files.
• Can’t repair OST files having size more than 2GB.
• Can only repair OST files when Outlook is closed.

Method 2: Use Professionals OST Repair Tools

To overcome limitations of Outlook’s In-Built ScanOST Tool ,There are specialized third-party tools designed specifically for repairing corrupted OST files. These tools offer comprehensive repair capabilities, user-friendly interfaces, and advanced algorithms to detect and repair minor and severe corruption issues in OST files.

There are many tools available online that can help you to recover your corrupted OST file. Choose a reliable and reputable tool, download and install it on your system to repair corrupted OST files. You can use SysTools OST Recovery Tool which is popular among others. It can recover permanentaly deleted emails from OST files as well as ensures recovery of all data. Also rebuild & restore OST file in various file formats in fact has no file size limitations.

Steps to use SysTools OST Recovery Tool for repairing a corrupted OST file:

1. Open “SysTools OST Recovery Tools”.
2. Click on the “Add File” option from the top left corner to add an OST file to the tool.
3. Select the “Browse button” to add the OST file from the location where it is stored.
4. Confirm the selection of the OST file and then click “Open” .
5. Once the file is selected, confirm the Scan Mode type: from the “Quick or Advance” option and then select the option “Add File” to start the scanning.
6. Confirmation message of successful scanning will pop up. Click “Ok” .
7. View the repaired file and select the needed emails and Other data, right click on it, get the option “Export all selected items” .
8. In case if you want entire OST file extraction to another format then click on the “Export” option from the screen.
9. Select destination file format from options as PST, EML and MSG then Select folder to export from.
10. Decide naming convention for the OST emails that are converted to EML and MSG. ( Naming conventions are only for EML and MSG file type )
11. Browse the desired folder to save the new exported file. Click “Ok” .
12. Confirmation message will be displayed, concluding by accepting the message “Ok”.
13. Give the name for the conversion report to “Save”. It is saved in CSV format on the machine. Click “Save”.
14. Confirmation message will pop up showing successful saving of the CSV report. Click “Ok” .