The nightmare of Outlook OST files

[timeshifter]

Company uses GoDaddy email connected by IMAP along with Outlook 2013 (or Outlook 2016, not sure which one this particular user). User had two email accounts: user@olddomain.com and user@newdomain.com. Since all of her mail was arriving at user@newdomain.com she decided she didn't like seeing the user@olddomain.com account in the tree on the left.

She removed the account from Outlook settings. Of course it warned her but she ignored the warnings because she knew she didn't need the old mail.

BUT, she didn't realize that her important calendar entries were tied to that account.

When she asked me about getting them back I got the impression it wasn't going to be a big deal for her to just re-enter them. I let her know that restoring the calendars wasn't a simple process of just restoring a file from backup.

That's because on their setup, and most Outlook / IMAP setups I see these days, is using .OST for storage. And typically no .PST file is around, as is the case here.

Well I get a call from her boss: "I thought we had everything backed up with the new managed backup you just sold us". I did explain the OST / PST dilemma and told him I'd investigate. He understood.

Options at this point:

1. Add the account back in Outlook. The mail would sync back from the server. Would it bring the calendars back too? Remember this isn't Exchange or Office 365, just plain ole IMAP from GoDaddy
2. I've already restore the 2.7GB .OST file to a new location on her desktop. Should I use an OST tool to extract the calendars from that file? I've never bought and used one, Googled it many times but never followed through in the past, I know there's a lot of tools out there. None are free that I'm aware of.
3. I can restore her entire machine to a test PC. I could boot it up and retrieve the calendars that way too.

What would you recommend I do in this situation?

 

[nerd2u]

I'd start by figuring out how many calendar items we are talking and how important they are?

Are these mission critical meetings or her nail appointment? Is there 5 of 50?

The answer would determine my amount of work.

Sent from my SM-G870W using Tapatalk

 

[kwest]

IMAP doesn’t sync calendar. Do a search for psts on the system and sort by last modified. See if the cal is on one of those.

If not use a ost to pst program to recover the stuff from ost. Warning it takes hours to recover that so it might be best to do back at your shop.

 

[timeshifter]

Anyone have a recommendation for OST converters?

 

[Diggs]

I've tried more than a few of them and I thought they all were pretty bad. Stellar I guess was about the best.

 

[thecomputerguy]

I've tried more than a few of them and I thought they all were pretty bad. Stellar I guess was about the best.

Any chance you might be able to setup the account as a new account and then drop in the old OST in place of the new OST to see if it will open?

I've done that with exchange accounts to quickly grab data that was stuck in the drafts folder or something.

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

Anyone have a recommendation for OST converters?

http://www.4team.biz/
...specifically...this product of theirs.
https://www.ost2.com/

We've used it for years...works well. And they don't pay overseas spammers to spam tech forums for the past decade like unstellar does.

 

[timeshifter]

http://www.4team.biz/
...specifically...this product of theirs.
https://www.ost2.com/

We've used it for years...works well. And they don't pay overseas spammers to spam tech forums for the past decade like unstellar does.

Their page says “Convert OST to PST for free”. Is it really free? Or is it one of those deals where you can run it and see your data, but if you want the data then you have to pay.

If I do have to pay then the choice is customer buys a single license for $79 for that user / PC or I buy a Technical License for me for $129?

 

[Diggs]

An OST converter should be in the toolbox for most techs. Remember you have to have an Outlook install to go with it.

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

If I do have to pay then the choice is customer buys a single license for $79 for that user / PC or I buy a Technical License for me for $129?

Most of them will say "free"....the free version is crippled so you can see like 10 or 20 emails to recover. Guess that lets you see if it can actually read the OST...or if the OST is so corrupted it won't read it thus saving you money.

We purchased a tech license quite a few years ago...all 4 of us have used it several times each over the years. We don't deal with residential email accounts much (POP/IMAP)..but we do use it for odd Exchange issues or when some workstation was retired and that uses mailbox was killed on the server and suddenly needs to be revived, or some prior email migration that went wrong, tons of odd reasons.

 

[Mercenary Roadie]

Try looking under the following directory for the OST and PST files for that user.

C:/User/?????/AppData/Local/Microsoft/Outlook

????? = User account name

 

[jflitney]

https://www.msoutlook.info/question...contacts-and-calendar-when-using-imap#recover

https://github.com/HoffmannTom/outlookbackupaddin/releases

http://www.safepstbackup.com/

 

[jflitney]

Ignore the github link, doesn't do what I thought.

 

[bdoggman]

I don't mess with outlook anymore. Ill install it but thats it. it there problem after that.

 

[johnrobert]

Without reading all the replies you mention you can restore to a test machine do that and export Cal to a PST , hardly any work.

Message for Bdoggman when your a tech you have to know Outlook it's the ABC

 

[timeshifter]

Without reading all the replies you mention you can restore to a test machine do that and export Cal to a PST , hardly any work.

Yep, that's exactly what I ended up doing.

Luckily I had set them up with Solarwinds Workstation Backup. I was able to do a bare metal restore to a test machine. Got to pick April 12 as the restore data. Entire system from that date came back to life. From there it was easy to open Outlook 2013 (except they wanted me to activate it, but I just cancelled) and poke around in the system. Exported calendar as PST and imported on her system. Everyone happy!

 

[seedubya]

I've tried more than a few of them and I thought they all were pretty bad. Stellar I guess was about the best.

IMAP doesn’t sync calendar.

It doesn't sync them but it does store local entries.

 

[Diggs]

Message for Bdoggman when your a tech you have to know Outlook it's the ABC

Residentially Outlook is almost non-existent. It's rare I run into it these days as it seems to be in the mindset of an older crowd and businesses only. Microsoft thinks Outlook is the only game in town so it doesn't like to play well with others. Millennials and their young companies don't even seem to know it exists.