All About .ost Offline Folder Files

By Author: Submittool
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Outlook Offline files .OST is synchronized time to time with MS Exchange Server in order to make changes done in offline mode in emails visible in online mode. But sometimes you may get error messages when synchronizing your Offline Folder file .OST (Offline Folder file: The file on your hard disk that contains offline folders. The offline folder file has an .ost extension. You can create it automatically when you set up Outlook or when you first make a folder available offline.) in MS Office Outlook with your mailbox on a MS Exchange Server. Moreover, you may also notice that some items (item: An item is the basic element that holds information in Outlook (similar to a file in other programs). Items include e-mail messages, appointments, contacts, tasks, journal entries, notes, posted items, and documents.) are missing from your .ost file or from your mailbox after synchronization between .ost file and mailbox. Using OST Integrity Check tool known as Scanost.exe you can resolve this issue of improper synchronization.
This article tells you various steps involved in using OST file, running and initializing OST file.
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... You may switch between working online and offline at any time by clicking Work Offline on the File menu. Following are the various steps involved in working with OST file.
Steps to Enable Outlook to Work Offline
1.On the Tools menu, click Send/Receive Settings, and then click Define Send/Receive Groups.
2.Click All Accounts, and then click the Edit button.
3.Click to select the folders that you would like available offline including any Public folders that you have in your Favorites folder.
4.Click OK, and then click Close.
Steps for Turning on Scheduled Synchronization
1.On the Tools menu, click Define Send/Receive Groups.
2.Click All Accounts.
3.Under When Outlook is Offline, click to select Schedule and automatic send/receive every X minutes. Select whatever time that you want.
4.Click Close.
Steps for Setting Up a Primarily Offline Profile
1.On the Tools menu, click E-mail Accounts.
2.Click View or change existing e-mail accounts, and then click Next.
3.In the Outlook processes email for these accounts in the following order box, click Microsoft Exchange Server, and then click Change.
4.Click the More Settings button.
5.Click When Starting, click the Manually Control Connection State option, and then click Work Offline and use dial-up networking under Default Connection State.
6.On the Connections tab, verify that the Connect using my Local Area (LAN) option is selected.
7.If Outlook is running, click Exit on the File menu, and then restart Outlook to begin working Offline. There will be a small icon in the lower right-corner indicating the offline state.
However, it is to be noted that you cannot use an .OST file that has previously been used with a different mailbox. If you do, you may receive the following error message:
The file .ost cannot be accessed because it has been configured for use with a different mailbox.
So you need to be very careful while working with Offline folders .OST files in MS Outlook offline mode. Despite all precautions we take, there are instances when we are caught up in midst of OST file corruption; that may be due to maximum file size limitation crossing issue. At that time you need to perform OST to PST Conversion so that you can access the OST files emails once again. OST to PST conversion software is there to help you in this front.