Compatibility: Outlook for Microsoft 365, Outlook 2021, Outlook 2019, Outlook 2016, Outlook 2013
For most types of accounts, such as IMAP, Microsoft 365, Exchange, and Outlook.com, an Offline Outlook Data File (.ost) is used to store a synchronized copy of your mailbox information on your local computer. In some situations, such as network outages or data corruption, you may need to recover emails from an OST file. In this article, we will discuss some methods to recover emails from an OST file.
Note: In Outlook 2013 and earlier versions, IMAP accounts used an Outlook Data File (.pst).
In earlier versions of Outlook, Microsoft previously recommended using the Scanost.exe tool for errors that occur with your offline Outlook Data File (.ost). The Scanost.exe tool is no longer available starting in Outlook 2010. Microsoft now recommends deleting your offline Outlook Data File (.ost) and letting Outlook redownload the information from the server. You might want to rebuild the .ost file in the following situations:
The reason for these errors and other problems in synchronization might be corruption in the .ost file, and in some cases, emails may not be synchronized from the server. When all you have is an ost-file and you can't access your email account via Outlook at the moment anymore either, an alternative to rebuilding the .ost file is to extract the data.
Information: After deleting the .ost file, any items that are saved locally will be lost, such as Calendar, Contacts, Tasks, and any folders marked Local only. In this situation, we recommend backing up your existing .ost file.
If you encounter Outlook connection issues or cannot rebuild your .ost file, there are several tools available that can help you recover data from an OST file. These tools can extract emails from .ost files without requiring Microsoft Outlook or a server account connection. They can help you recover important emails, contacts, tasks, and other data from your OST file and save it in various file formats for future use.
OST PST Viewer can open orphaned, corrupted, encrypted, and password-protected OST files. With this tool, you can export emails from an OST file to various file formats, including MSG, EML, and PST. Follow these steps to export emails from an OST file.
There is no limit on the number and size of the recovered OST files. You can convert unlimited folders or files as often as you like.
The program can bulk recover emails from an OST file in batch scripts using PowerShell, Task Scheduler, and other automation tools. To do this, use the command-line options of the product.
Note: Command line parameters is not available with a Home license.
Usage: pstwalker-cli [command] [options]
Command: export
Description: Export items from .pst and .ost files to various formats
Options:
-f, -file File(s) to be exported. Specify the path to the .pst or .ost file(s), supporting wildcard characters (*?)
-e, -format File format for extracted messages: msg, umsg, eml, pst, mbox (optional; default: msg)
-n, -name Naming convention for saved messages: id, entryId, subject (optional; default: subject)
-q, -query Search query for filtering messages (optional)
-p, -path Destination path for extracted messages (optional)
-fullscan Perform an extensive scan for damaged or corrupted files (optional)
-harddel Find 'hard deleted' and 'orphaned' items (optional)
-harddelonly Export only 'hard deleted' and 'orphaned' items (optional)
-mkdir Create an individual directory for each exported file (optional)
-srcfolders Preserve the source folder structure (optional)
-empty Include empty folders in the export (optional)
-storename For pst: Specify the display name of the new Outlook data file (optional)
-destfolder For pst: Destination Outlook root folder for exported folders and items (optional; default: IPM Root Folder)
-split For pst: Create dedicated PST files for each folder (optional)
-headers For mbox, eml: Save internet transport headers (optional)
-mode Overwrite mode (optional; default: rename)
For msg, umsg, eml: rename, overwrite, skip
For pst: rename, append
For mbox: rename, overwrite, append
-l, -log Create a log file in the destination folder (optional)
cd "C:\Program Files (x86)\PSTWalker Software\OST PST Viewer\"
$OSTFiles = @(Get-ChildItem "c:\outlook data files\").VersionInfo.FileName
foreach ($OST in $OSTFiles){
.\pstwalker-cli.exe export -f "$OST" -e pst --% -q 'from:(=bobbymoore@contoso.com OR "bobby moore")'-p "D:\PST-Exports\"
}
This example searches all mailboxes in "c:\outlook data files" folder for items in which the e-mail address equals bobbymoore@contoso.com OR sender name contains bobby moore. The search results are exported to "D:\OST-Exports".
When running native commands from PowerShell, the arguments are first parsed by PowerShell. Beginning in PowerShell 3.0, you can use the stop-parsing (--%) token to stop PowerShell from interpreting input as PowerShell commands or expressions.
cd C:\Program Files (x86)\PSTWalker Software\OST PST Viewer\
pstwalker-cli.exe export -f c:\users\*.ost -e eml -p "D:\PST-Queries\" -q 'subject:"Your bank statement"' -fullscan -harddel
This example searches all .ost files in "c:\users" folder for messages and hard deleted messages that contain the phrase "Your bank statement" in the subject. The search results are exported as .eml files to "D:\OST-Queries".
Updated on August 07, 2023
This guide provides step-by-step instructions on how to use PST Walker Viewer. Learn how to navigate the interface, open and search for emails, extract attachments, and more.
Convert OST to PST using three efficient methods that can convert multiple OST files to PST files. Handles corrupted, orphaned, archive, and encrypted .ost files without requiring Microsoft Outlook or a server account connection.