How to Effectively Recover Data from Orphaned OST Files

If you are on a network that uses Microsoft Exchange server, one of the fastest and most efficient ways of working with the data contained in the folders of your Exchange mailbox is by using Outlook offline folders or OST files. You can configure Outlook to work in an offline mode - in this mode local copies of the folders are stored as OST files on your computer. To begin with, the OST files are merely mirror images of the data stored in the folders but when you are not connected to the network, you can work on the OST files and make changes in them. The next time you go online, Outlook will automatically synchronize the folders on your computer and the ones on the server.

Quite obviously, OST files reduce your dependence on the network connection and allow you to work without interruptions. However, there are situations when these OST files become orphaned, requiring you to perform an ost to pst conversion to be able to access data again.

Let us try and understand what causes OST files to become orphaned so that we can effectively recover data from them. Microsoft has ensured that not all OST files can access the mailbox stored on the Exchange server. Every OST file is associated with a specific Exchange server profile. When you are logged on to the server and choose to use offline folder files or OST files, the Exchange server will create a key to access the unique mailbox and stores it in the Exchange server profile. Every time you access the OST file, a check is carried out on the profile to make sure that a key exists that allows you to access the data. In the absence of this key, even a ost to pst conversion may not prove effective.

But what could cause the key to be not found or to be replaced? When you find that your mailbox from the Exchange server has been deleted for some reason, your first reaction might be to immediately create a new profile for yourself pointing to the new mailbox. When you change the profile or logon to the new mailbox with the current profile, the Exchange server will immediately generate a new key and store this in your profile. Obviously, when you try to access the OST file, the key it is looking for will not be found in your profile and you will not be able to access the data stored in the OST files. The only solution that will work is to avoid changing the profile in case your mailbox has been deleted and try copying ost to pst.

If you have not taken the above-mentioned steps but have proceeded with the creation of a new profile, the OST files would be orphaned and you will not be able to access the messages stored in them. However, there is still no reason to panic. You can use sophisticated software such as Advanced Exchange Recovery from DataNumen to restore data from orphaned OST files as well. This software will save all the recovered items in personal folder files (PST files) so that they can be directly read using Microsoft Outlook.