Recover emails from an OST file

Outlook for Microsoft 365, Outlook 2019, Outlook 2016, Outlook 2013

You can use the OST PST Viewer (pstwalker.exe) to search for and recover emails from an Offline Outlook Data File (.ost). The OST PST Viewer can open orphaned, corrupted, encrypted, and password protected .ost files. Supported command line switches: export emails from an .ost file to .msg or .eml files; find and recover hard deleted and orphaned items.

You might want to recover emails from an OST file in the following situations:

• The connection to Microsoft Exchange is unavailable. Outlook must be online or connected to complete this action.
• Errors have been detected in the file Outlook.ost; Outlook can't open your data file; or Outlook can't open the set of folders.
• Synchronization issues between Outlook and Outlook Web App.

The reason for these errors and other problems in synchronizing might be a corrupted OST file. According to the articles above, Microsoft recommends that you delete your .ost file and that you let Outlook redownload the information from the server that is running Microsoft Exchange Server. After the mailbox is synchronized, test to see whether the issue still occurs.

There's an exception to this conclusion: when you have local data that's not present on the server. After deleting the .ost file, all your data will be lost. In that situation, we recommend that you back up your existing .ost file.

In some cases, emails may not be recovered from the Exchange Server. An alternative to rebuild the OST file is to export the data to an Outlook Data File (.pst) or MSG File Format (.msg).

How to recover data from .ost file?

1. Close Microsoft Outlook and all other mail-enabled applications that may use your Outlook mailbox.
2. Download the OST PST Viewer, and run it on your computer.
   Download Download portable
3. Browse the .ost file you want to recover and click Open.
4. Select mailbox folder in All Folders pane, and preview all your items including messages, contacts, appointments, tasks, notes, and journal entries.
   
5. Go to File > Export.
6. Choose MSG as file format and All items in this folder and subfolders.
   
7. Select destination folder and click Ok.
8. Wait for the export to finish and click Ok.

Now you can find the recovered data from OST file in the destination folder. Which you can bulk import into existing or a new pst file with MSG to PST Converter or view, search, organize and print messages without Outlook using MSG Viewer.

Are there any limits when recover data from .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. You need PST Walker Business License in order to process the .ost file type.

Command line switches

The program can bulk recover emails from OST file in batch scripts using PowerShell, Task Scheduler and other automation tools. To do this, use the command line options of the product.

pstwalker.exe [filename] [/E[:msg|umsg|eml] [/Name[:Id|EntryId|Subject]] [/PATH:folder] [/FullScan] [/HardDeleted] [/HardDeletedOnly]]

filename

Specifies the .pst files to process. A filename mask can be applied, e.g. c:\source_folder\*.pst

/E

Bulk extract messages to:

• msg - .msg file format
• umsg - unicode .msg file format
• eml - .eml(rfc 822) file format

/Name

Naming style for the saved messages:

• Id - incremental Id
• EntryId - PR_ENTRYID (unique message identifier)
• Subject - message subject

/PATH

Specifies destination folder for bulk extracted messages

/FullScan

Extensive scan (to recover data from a damaged or a corrupted .pst, .ost files)

/HardDeleted

Find 'hard deleted' and 'orphaned' items

/HardDeletedOnly

Export only 'hard deleted' and 'orphaned' items

See Also