OST Repair Tool: Method to Repair Corrupted OST File-2023

Last updated on June 22nd, 2023

Before discussing how to repair OST file Outlook 2016, 2013, and 2010 from corruption or accidental deletion, let’s explore and understand what an OST file is and how a healthy OST file gets corrupted. Read this blog carefully to solve your issue regarding OST file corruption.

OST file is an acronym for offline storage tables. The OST file enables the users to work in an offline mode and also it works in a condition when sometime the application is not connected with the email server. OST file performs several functions, for instance, saving of draft, new mail making, reading existing mail, and many more. Users can easily save their data in OST files in an offline mode. When it connects with the internet then offline storage table (OST) files get synced with the email server automatically. Apart from this, Sometimes there may be chances of OST file corruption. The OST file gets corrupted due to various circumstances. With the help of Repair OST File software, one can easily repair a corrupted OST file. Shoviv OST file Repair is also used to convert OST files to PST files.

Download a trial version of OST Recovery (aka OST to PST Converter) Tool.

Table of Content

Reasons Why OST Files Gets Corrupt and Need Repair

File/folder deletion

Suppose any folder or file is deleted from your MS Exchange profile. In that case, it might be possible your OST file gets corrupt or become inaccessible.

Virus or Malware Intrusion

Malware and virus are among the most usual and reasonable reasons behind the OST or any file corruption. These suspicious virus or malware scripts affect the system files in various ways, like deleting the critical part of any file, overwriting files, adding junk data with it, etc.

Improper termination of Outlook client

Terminating any running program in an abnormal way causes corruption for running applications and files associated with it. For example, suppose you have Microsoft Outlook running on the system and an OST file open with it. Whenever you terminate your Outlook client in improper ways, the chance of the OST file corruption increased

Oversized Outlook. PST file

Note that MS Outlook has a pre-defined mailbox size limit for storage. When the mailboxes reach their size limit; it causes Outlook performance issues; you cannot store further emails. This situation may become worse when the size limit crosses the maximum size limit. In that situation, your OST (offline storage table) is more likely to get corrupt

OST Corrupt due to Network Connection

Internet connection plays a vital role in when email sync process. Suppose your network device fails and stops working during the OST file synchronization in the exchange server account. In that case, you might face an OST file inaccessible or corruption issue. In various circumstances, your network devices may stop working.

Top 5 Methods to Repair or Restore Corrupted OST File

OST files Issue Fixed by Deleting and Recreating
Repair OST files in Outlook 2016 by enabling Safe Mode in Outlook
Repair OST files Using Scanost.exe
Repair corrupted OST files Using Scanpst.exe
A Professional Software for Repair OST files Corruption

OST files Issue Fixed by Deleting and Recreating

If you have a fast internet connection best the approach would be to re-create the profile so that a new OST file can be created, since the Inbox repair tool would be a time-consuming method for large OST files.

Alternatively, you can also try to delete.OST file without profile recreation so that the outlook can sync the data with the server and create a new OST file to do so you can follow the given steps.

Firstly close the outlook.
Open the control panel.
Note: – To reach directly to the location of the OST file, you can use the given path %LOCALAPPDATA%\Microsoft\Outlook. It will work if you are using the profile named “OUTLOOK”.

Click on the user account and press a single click on the Mail option (mail 32 bit).
Inside the Mail option, there is a “Mail setup” where you can choose the “show profile”
After showing all profiles, select the required profile which you want to use (default name – OUTLOOK).
Select the properties option.
Further, you will find the “Mail setup’’ of the selected profile. Choose the data file tab.
Choose the account and click on the open file location button.
Close the windows of “Mail setup”, “Account setting”.
Select the account on which you are having an issue and right-click on .OST file.
Select the delete option.

Repair OST files in Outlook 2016 by enabling Safe Mode in Outlook

Suppose an incompatible or degraded add-in generates the problem. In that case, you can try restarting and enable MS Outlook in safe mode and then disabling all add-ins. Once all Outlook add-ins are disabled, export the OST file data into the PST file either save PST as a backup or import them into Outlook 2019, 2016.

Go to the Windows Explorer, Start menu, and select Run.
In the Run box, enter Outlook.exe/safe.
Click OK to continue, and Outlook will start in safe mode.

Note: The ultimate and foremost purpose of starting Outlook 2019, 2016 in safe mode is to disable any add-ins that may hold caused errors during the rebooting Outlook procedure.

However, this command will not repair corrupted OST data files but provides access to inaccessible OST files.

Repair OST files Using Scanost.exe

Scanost.exe enables the users to view the corrupted OST files. One must have to connect with Exchange account to execute the scanost.exe.Microsoft provides the tool named scanost.exe to detect the issue of OST file. Scanost.exe can be found on the location i.e.C: \Program files\Microsoft office\ office version.

This tool is known for its integrity. Sometimes it called by another name “utility check tool”. It scans all the folder and then repairs the errors.

Repair corrupted OST files Using Scanpst.exe

The tool named “scanpst.exe” help to fix issues of OST file corruption. Scanpst.exe is quite simple and easy to use. Sometimes scanpst.exe is known by another named as “outlook inbox repair tool”. It is called so because it provides a facility to repair OST files. It is a free tool which is provided by Microsoft. Working with scanpst.exe (inbox repair tool) requires some steps. The steps are mentioned below:-

Locating the OST file

Before start repairing the OST file, one must locate the OST file first.

Scanning process

After locating the OST files, open the scanpst.exe utility, to open scanpst.exe follow the given steps.

1. Firstly, open the run by pressing Win+R.
2. Type the “C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\root\Office16” and click ok.
  NOTE: – The above path is only applicable for Outlook versions upper than Outlook 2013, If you are using Outlook 2013 use “C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\Office15” instead.

1. Open the scanpst.exe.

1. Click the browse button and locate the OST file you want to repair and click ‘start’.

1. Once the scanning process complete hit the repair button to repair the OST file.
  NOTE:- prior to hit the ‘repair’ button make sure to backup up the scanned file by checking “Make a backup of scanned file before repairing”.

1. On completing the repair process a message will pop-up on the screen saying ‘Repair complete’ and you are done with repairing your OST file.

A Professional Software for Repair OST files Corruption

Shoviv Repair OST File Tool is a reliable solution for the recovery of corrupted OST files. It enables the users to extract and recover all the corrupted OST files along with its data items such as email, calendar, contacts, etc. Suppose you are using an older version of MS Outlook, in that case, Shoviv OST File Repair Tool provides the platform to work with all the latest and older version of MS Outlook. It helps you to save the recovered OST files and its attributes with different type of formats such as Unicode MSG, EML, vCARD, vCAL, HTML, etc. This Repair OST File tool offers to add multiple files at one run. OST recovery serves you the facility for automatic scanning.

Also, it presents all the OST files and its data items with a proper hierarchy. Users can easily get this recovery tool from Shoviv site, which is easy to purchase and gets instant delivery. If you came across with the error in the software, in such a situation you can easily contact the technical support team. Shoviv technical support team is always ready for customer support and will surely help them to overcome the problem and make their customer feel happy.

Salient features:-

Maintain the OST folders with its data items like email, contacts, calendars, etc. in the hierarchy.
Add multiple numbers of OST files at one run.
At the time of conversion, the users can easily split the resultant large files into smaller files.
There is no restriction on using any particular Microsoft Outlook version. The users can use the older or latest version of Outlook version.
Provides the search option. By taking the help of this, the users can easily search for the file as ‘‘To”, “from”, “cc”, “Bcc”, “subject” etc.

The above-mentioned salient features will surely help to understand the features of the Repair OST File software. It is very clear from this blog, that Shoviv Repair OST File Tool is a great working software to fix the issue of OST file corruption and helps the users to repair and recover all the critical data. Therefore I advised using the Shoviv OST Recovery Tool.

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Stuart

Stuart Clark is working as a technical content writer at Shoviv Software for the last 5 years. He specializes in crafting informative and engaging articles for diverse audiences. With a solid understanding of complex technologies, he explains complex concepts in a simpler manner that Leyman users can also understand easily. He has vast expertise in writing articles related to email migration and conversion niches. Apart from that, he likes to research newer technologies and gain knowledge to stay updated with the current trends.