We Provide Solutions to Repair Outlook Ost File Cannot Be Open

Working offline with an outlook OST file, can also sometimes comes up with an issue like the OST file cannot be opened in turn lowers the overall credibility and also keep your data at stake.

Following is an array of potential solutions that will fix the problem in outlook and you can carry on your work without any delay.

Insights about OST files:

Let’s crack the deal of information by making you familiar with the OST files. Being a product of Microsoft outlook, an OST file is referred to as the offline folder where users work freely without any hurdle created by limited or non-viable connection. Carry on working offline and you can synchronize the changes with the exchange server. But Below mentioned are some quick-fix solutions that can help you to sort out the outlook OST file that cannot be opened error in no time and let you proceed.

Depending on the type of account you have on outlook i.e. either an Exchange or IMAP account, this is going to tell, what type of information one can save on the OST file.

1- Exchange Account:

As a cache of data in your exchange account, the OST file tends to store:

2- IMAP account:

Compatible with Outlook 2013, 2016, 2019, and Office 365, the IMAP account uses the ost files to store the drafts, sent items, trash/deleted items, junk e-mail, calendar, contacts, tasks, notes, and journal.

Herein you will get to know that if you face an error like outlook OST cannot be opened, what exactly do you need to do to fix it in the first place.

Let’s see!

How it works:

While working without running Exchange Server or disconnected, the MS outlook takes the benefit of making a precise copy of the client's mailbox on MS Exchange Server which is named Offline folders with OST augmentation for files. OST files are perfect duplicates of the mailbox organizers of a client on MS Exchange. The OST files provide a wide range of features like synchronizing the mailbox while working with the connection. The client can carry on editing and making changes to existing OST files on their devices because all the changes are going to be synchronized automatically. Changes can be effectively saved to online files by prompt send/get command.

So you got everything you need to know about OST files, now it’s time to move on to the core problem i.e. outlook cannot open the OST files.

Let’s just see why this outlook cannot open OST file error occurs.

What Causes Outlook OST Cannot be Opened:

When dealing with outlook OST cannot be opened, there must be some reasons behind this error. The following mentioned are some of the reasons that cause this error to pop up on the screen.

Have a look at each of the mentioned reasons, and see which one is causing an issue for you.

Once getting all the reasons, now move to the part of the solution for these reasons.

Method 1. Set Outlook Profile via Auto Account Setup in Outlook

For using the OST files in Outlook and keeping working even in the offline mode, you first need to create an outlook profile. The auto account setup in outlook is the easiest and preferred way to create the profile. Following is the stepwise process to create the profile with an auto account set up in outlook.

Step 1: Start with navigating to the Windows Control Panel and select Mail in options. It will lead to a drop-down where you will select Show Profiles and in the next dialogue box, click on Add. Next, select New Profile and select the account type. Be it exchange account and click OK to proceed.

Step 2: On the Auto Account setup page, you need to enter your name, email id, and password linked to your mailbox. Click Next to continue.

Step 3: Outlook will start to configure your account and a dialogue box will appear in which you have to check the option of ‘Don’t ask me about this website again’. And at last, click Allow.

Step 4: A windows security dialogue box will appear where you have to enter your username along with the password and click Ok.

Step 5: Once done, outlook will discover your email account and end the configuration process. Click Finish to end up configuration.

Method 2. Recover Navigation Pane configuration file

Out of several ways to fix the outlook cannot open errors, one is to recover the navigation pane configuration file. When it is about recovering the navigation pane configuring file, it’s about a few seconds task. Here is a flow to show how it works.

Step 1: On your device, click on the Start menu.

Step 2: Select the Run command from the menu

Step 3: Type the command i.e. outlook.exe /resetnavpane in the dialogue box.

Step 4: Click OK and restart your device.

In just a minute, you are going to recover the navigation pane configuration file.

Method 3. Fix Outlook hanging on Loading Profile

If your outlook is causing an issue like hanging on the loading profile, it may be due to two reasons i.e. processes working in task manager and outlook presence features.

Here mentioned are the steps for ruling out issues associated with both reasons.

1- Ending all the processes working in task manager:

Step 1: Start with a right-click on the taskbar and click on task manager

Step 2: In the tab of Processes, select all the office processes working

Step 3: Now for each process, click on End Task and repeat it for every process enlisted.

2- Disabling all the outlook presence features:

Step 1: Open outlook and in the main menu, select the option of Files, nextly click on Options and then click on People

Step 2: Here you have to uncheck all the checkboxes i.e. display online status next to the name and show user photographs when available

Step 3: Once done with unchecking all boxes, click OK and restart your outlook.

The problem is solved!

Method 4. Use Microsoft Inbox Repair Tool

Using the Microsoft inbox repair tool is always helpful when the size of your OST file is larger. Hence, this is an efficient solution for Outlook cannot open OST file. Follow these steps:

Step 1: Always start when the outlook is closed

Step 2: Enable the Show Hidden Files and Folders option to proceed. Navigate to Start and select the Control panel. Next, click the option of File explorer options, it will head to the View tab. Check the box to show hidden files and folders in advanced options.

Step 3: Now browse the location where Microsoft Office is installed on your device. Nextly, locate the scanpxt.exe.

Step 4: Once searched, click on Scanpxt.exe to open the program

Step 5: Select the corrupted OST file

Step 6: Once selected, click Start to initiate the scan. If there exists any error or corruption, click Repair and then OK to continue.

Method 5. Repair OST File Cannot Be Opened in Outlook

Talking about the errors associated with the office products and in solutions not discussing the OST Repair tool, is not it? Wondershare Repairit for Email is always a realiable repairing software for office products.

Providing a wide range of features, Repairit for Email is amazing in its functionality. Below is the list of facilities, it provides to its users:

Wondershare Repairit for Email

Try It Free Try It Free

1,010,994 people have downloaded it.

• Repair damaged PST & OST Files in Outlook in all Email corruption scenarios, such as hard disk crashes & bad sectors, virus attacks & tojan horse, outlook corruption & malfunctions, improper shutdown procedure, etc.

• Restore Outlook emails deleted for a long time and extract the email messages, folders, calendars, etc. within seconds.

• Restore Outlook Emails deleted for a long time with a very high success rate.

• Repair emails in bathes without size limits and support to preview all of them before saving.

• Compatible with Windows 7/8/8.1/10/11, Windows Server 2012/2016/2019, and MacOS X 10.11 ~ MacOS 12 (Monterey).

Proving to be the best option as outlook repairing software, here is the demo of steps with which it repairs the corrupted file, be it PST or OST.

Here are the steps for repairing PST/OST files.

Step 1: Start with downloading and installing Repairit for Email on PC/Mac.

Step 2: Select the option of "Find" in the main menu to add the corrupted OST file and click "Repair".

Step 3: The software will start the process of scanning.

Step 4: Once scanning and repairing are complete, you can preview the data of the fixed file and save the repaired file on the desired location by clicking the "Save" button.

Method 6. Turn off Compatibility Mode

You can also rule out the outlook cannot open errors by using the method of turning off the compatibility mode. Follow the step mentioned below and you can turn off the compatibility mode in no time.

Step 1: Navigate to the Start menu and type outlook.exe in the search bar. Once opened, Right-click on the outlook.exe and select Properties.

Step 2: Click on the compatibility tab and clear the command i.e. ‘Run this program in compatibility mode for’ in the dialogue box.

Step 3: Click Ok and restart your computer.

Just follow these steps and let the process work with its flow.

Method 7. Start Outlook in Safe Mode

If other reasons are not the cause of outlook cannot open errors, then it is possible that your outlook needs a more secure mode to open. Hence, starting an outlook in safe mode is also an option to skip these errors.

Step 1: Navigate to the Start button and click Run

Step 2: In the Run dialogue box, type Outlook.exe/safe

Step 3: Click OK to continue and your outlook will open in safe mode.