Analyze Corrupt OST Data From Outlook Mailbox

Microsoft Outlook is designed to work with Exchange Server. When Exchange Server works collaboratively with Outlook(Cache Exchange Mode is enabled) it creates OST file. Sometimes OST file becomes inaccessible and Outlook fails to recognize it. So the query is ‘How to analyze corrupt OST data from Outlook offline mailbox’? In this write up, we will illustrate some errors in OST files, which represents that OST files have been corrupted.

If you are working with Outlook and Outlook produces various errors while working with OST files. It means your OST file is corrupted and Outlook performance gets degraded. In below section, I would like to identify some errors which indicate corruption in OST file, some common errors which has been seen in the offline data file are listed below;

The file xxxx.ost is not an offline folder

It is the common seen error and appears when OST file fails to synchronize with Exchange Server. This type of error indicates that there is corruption issue in OST file and OST cannot be accessed and you need to repair it.

Exchange is currently in recovery mode

This type of error appears when Exchange is currently in recovery mode. But make sure if you are getting this error frequently, it may lead to corruption of OST files. This Exchange Recovery mode allows you to Work Offline (Offline Mode), and access the data of your old OST file, but not to the Exchange server.

Synchronization Error 8004011D-526-80040115-0

It’s a common synchronization error appears on the screen and when OST is trying to synchronize with Exchange Server; it produces error due to corrupt file.

If you are trying to access your offline data file and your screen produces above mentioned error. In such case, it has confirmed that there exist corrupt OST data from Outlook offline Mailbox. To repair corrupt data from Outlook offline data file you need to use solution suggested by Microsoft or some other trusted brand.

Method: 1

Microsoft Outlook offers OST Integrity Check Tool(Scanost.Exe program) to scans the complete OST file and fixes the ost file error and repair the corrupted data. This utility is available in earlier versions of Outlook(2007,2003,2002) for complete recovery of corrupted data of OST files. If you are using Outlook 2010 and later versions of Outlook then this tool does not guarantee complete recovery of corrupted data of OST files.

How do you find Inbox Repair Tool in Outlook -

Go Through (C :) Drive >> Hit the "Program Files" >> "Microsoft Office" >> "Office14" >> Go to "SCANPST".

Note: SCANPST utility repairs both OST and PST file if there exist corruption issues in Outlook data file. But one drawback using this utility is that it scans the whole OST file and fixes corruption issues also but during the process of repairing it also removes corrupted parts of that file and produces a healthy ost/pst file. Hence, there might chance of data loss.

Method: 2

In case the OST corruption is too high, and you don’t want to lose your crucial details then you should not relay on Inbox Repair Tool/ OST Integrity Check Tool. Therefore, you can deploy third party tools like OST File Repair Tool. It is the perfect solution for the query ‘How to analyze corrupt OST data from Outlook offline mailbox?’ This tool will scan and repair Outlook data file if there exist major corruption issues in that file. You don’t need Outlook and Exchange Server connectivity in order to scan and repair corrupted data file.

Conclusion

It is advised to use OST Converter tool to fix different issues related to OST file. The tool repairs major corruption issues if you analyze corrupt OST Data from Outlook Offline Mailbox.