OST Cannot be Accessed? Fix it and Make it Accessible!

It is often a misconception that offline storage table files are successful provision for business continuity within organization. In fact, working offline become the reason of business halting midway. Sometimes synchronization issues or due to file level corruption makes the OST file inaccessible. I recently ran into a problem when Microsoft Outlook crashed on me today. When I tried to launch it again, I received an error that shown below;

What To Do when OST Cannot be Accessed ?

Manual solution may not be available in every circumstances, but externally it is possible to recover and access OST file. The common fixtures that can be applied as a workaround in order to know how to fix OST is in use and cannot be accessed.

Technique 1: End Outlook Processes

1. Firstly, open the Task Manager:

a. Right click on the task bar

b. Or, press CTRL + ALT + DELETE

2. Watch all the background processes by clicking on the processes tab and look for ;

1. Communicator

2. Ucmapi

3. Outlook

4. Or, Lync

3. Choose the item which you want to end and click on End Task button

Technique 2: Disable Cache Mode for Exchange

1. Close all background processes and Microsoft Outlook

2. Go through Control Panel and select the Mail option

3. Hit the Email Accounts

4. Choose the Email tab

5. Choose the email address that gives out the warning and click on Change

6. Make sure that Cached Exchange Mode option is not selected

7. Hit the Finish tab then click Next

Other Technique:

If above apply technique is unable to fix inaccessibility issues of OST file, then there might corruption in integrity of OST file. You should prefer OST Integrity Checker tool(scanost.exe) to repair corruption issues of OST file and resolve ost is in use and cannot be accessed error (Inbox Repair Tool (Scanpst.exe) in Outlook 2007 and above versions).

Note: OST Integrity Check Tool is programmed to fix minor level of integrity issues with the OST file structure, but not dealing with major corruption issues. Troubles beyond its potential of repairing may not be fixed, leaving your OST file in an inaccessible state and OST cannot be accessed.

Don't worry, another OST Recovery solution is designed to fix major corruption issues of OST file that it will make OST file accessible. With the help of this tool, you will resolve OST cannot be accessed error.