How to Fix Error — “Microsoft Outlook not Able to Find the OST File”?

Summary: As an Outlook user, you may come across Outlook cannot find OST file error. In this post, we’ve provided various solutions to fix this error. We have also mentioned an advanced software that you can use to extract your important data from an inaccessible OST file.

Outlook saves a copy of your Exchange mailbox in an OST file on your system. Sometimes, due to problems with the OST file or any other issue, you face errors in Outlook, such as Outlook cannot find the OST file or the OST file missing. In this post, we’ll be discussing some effective solutions to fix the error ‘Microsoft Outlook cannot find OST file.’

How to Fix the Error “Outlook Cannot Find OST File”?
To fix Outlook data file missing error, follow the given solutions:

1. Check Network Connection
   The first thing you need to do is check that your Internet connection is stable and working properly. If you are facing connectivity issues, switch to a better network connection and see if that resolves the OST file missing error.
2. Reduce OST File Size
   When OST file becomes large-sized, Outlook may face difficulties in accessing the file and throw errors such as “Outlook cannot find OST file”. You can reduce the OST file size to fix the error.

To reduce the OST file size, do the following:

1. Delete the unwanted items from your mailbox.
   2. Empty the Deleted Items folder.
   3. Compact the OST file to remove white space. To do so, follow these steps:
   · Go to File > Account Settings > Account Settings.
   · Open the Data Files tab and click Settings.
   · In the new window, open the Advanced tab and click Outlook Data File Settings.
   · Click the Compact Now button.
   4. Use the Mailbox Cleanup utility by going to File > Tools > Mailbox Cleanup.

3. Remove Faulty Add-In
If an add-in is interfering with Outlook’s operations, it can also result in the “Outlook cannot file OST file” error. To identify and disable the faulty add-in, follow these steps:

1. Press Windows + R keys. In the Run utility that opens, enter outlook.exe/safe and click OK. This will launch Outlook in safe mode.
   2. Go to File > Options > Add-ins.
   3. In the Outlook Options window, in the right pane, scroll down to the Manage section.
   4. Select COM Add-ins and click the Go button.
   5. In the COM Add-ins window, deselect all add-ins and click the OK button.
   6. Close Outlook and reopen it in normal mode. If Outlook works without any issues, it indicates that the Outlook data

4. Repair OST File
Sometimes, the OST file gets damaged/corrupt, leading to Outlook cannot find the OST file issue. OST files may get corrupt due to several reasons, such as sudden system shutdown, bad sectors on the hard drive, malware infection, etc.

You can use Microsoft Outlook’s built-in utility ScanPST.exe to repair the corrupt OST file and resolve the error. By default, this utility is located in Outlook’s installation directory.

5. Recreate OST
ScanPST.exe tool is effective for small OST files that have minor corruption. If the corruption level is high, you can’t repair the file with the utility. However, you can delete the file and recreate it. Doing this can fix the Outlook data file missing issue.

You can find the OST file in the following locations:

· drive:\Users\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Outlook
· drive:\Documents and Settings\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook

When you delete the OST file from your system, Outlook automatically recreates it by accessing the live mailbox when you relaunch the application.

What if recreating OST isn’t an option?

In some situations, deleting and recreating OST is not the ideal solution. For instance, if you have some offline-only items in OST, you won’t get these items by recreating OST from the live mailbox. If you don’t have access to your Live Mailbox, then also you can’t create OST. In such circumstances, you can extract the data from the corrupt OST by using an advanced OST to PST converter tool, such as Stellar Converter for OST.

Stellar Converter for OST is a powerful OST to PST converter tool that can convert mailbox data from inaccessible/orphaned OST files to PST in a few steps. To convert OST to PST by using this software, follow these

1. Launch the software and click the Browse button to locate the OST file on your system. If you don’t know the file location, click the Find button.

2. Click the Convert button to initiate the data conversion process. Once the process is completed, the software will list all the OST file contents.

3. Select the folders and items you want to save to the PST file and click the Save Converted File button under the Home tab.

4. In the Save As window, select PST file format. Click Browse to provide the location where you want to save the PST, and click OK.

The software will save the converted PST file at the desired location and display an alert box once the file is saved successfully.

Conclusion

Sometimes, you face Outlook cannot find OST file error that may also prevent you from using the application. The error may occur due to poor network connection, conflicting add-in, etc. To resolve the error, you can follow the simple fixes mentioned in this post. In case the error is caused by a corrupt OST file, you can repair the file by using ScanPST.exe or recreate the OST file. If repairing the file isn’t possible, you can use a reliable Stellar Converter for OST to extract and save your data in PST, which you can easily import into your Outlook account.