Cannot open OST File in Outlook? No problem. Even though OST cannot be used to import or export data, here’s an excellent solution that will work perfectly for you!
Cannot Open OST File in Outlook 2016, Outlook 2013, Outlook 2010, Outlook 2007..?
No Problem: Here’s What You Need to Do!
OST file is created automatically by Windows Outlook whenever you add an Exchange based or IMAP based email account. It’s used to store all the data from your email servers locally into your computer and lets you interact with the data even offline. Whenever any changes are made offline, the client itself syncs the changes to the servers when the internet connection is back up.
But most users often mix it up with PST file. PST stands for Personal Storage Table file and it also stores data like OST. But, unlike OST, it can be used for data backup, import/export, migration, etc. You can manually put all your emails and other items (including contacts and calendar reminders) into PST as a backup. You can’t do that with OST files.
And the most important difference between both is that you cannot import OST into Windows Outlook or any other client.
That’s the main reason why you cannot open OST file in Outlook, not that there is some glitch or your client is broken. It’s just technically impossible.
So what can you do? You have got all your data inside OST file that you can’t import back into Outlook.
Here’s the solution:
You can convert OST to PST format using a third-party converter. And if you think you don’t have enough time and knowledge about email conversion tasks to look for such a converter, the good news is that you don’t have to. The tool recommended below is the best of all to let you convert OST to PST in the quickest and most accurate way possible.
It’s called “OST Extractor Pro”. And it’s biggest selling point is that is easy to use, even for non-experienced users. You literally just launch it, load the OST files up, and convert them to PST. For advanced users, there are other features too that add flexibility and control. But all of that is done without making the interface too cluttered or sophisticated for rather beginners and for smaller scale OST to PST conversion projects.
And lastly, the best of its features can be considered the accuracy of the output files that the tool generates. All the email files contain complex data components like headers and metadata, and it can get trickier to convert all of that from one format to the other. But “OST Extractor Pro” has an advanced logic that can scan and extract the entire information elements without losing any detail.
Here is a list of components that are usually lost during the data conversion, but not by “OST Extractor Pro”: Images, Email attachments, headers, metadata, non-English text characters, time and date stamps, folder hierarchy, and nested emails.
Download it and Open OST file in Outlook
So, get the trial version downloaded now. You can get the setup by clicking the link here. Just install it like any regular tool through the installation instructions and you can check out all the features and UI without too much efforts.
How it Works:
- Launch OST Extractor Pro and click on ‘OPEN OST FILE’.
- Select an OST file and click on ‘OPEN’
- Choose folders for conversion
- Select output format and click on ‘EXPORT’.
- Choose a folder for PST file and click on ‘OK’.
- Conversion will start. At the end you will get the PST file and log report.
If you cannot open ost file in Outlook, then try it to convert into PST file format and PST file easily acceptable by both Mac Outlook and Windows Outlook.