What To Do If OST File Does Not Access in Outlook 2016, 2019 & 2013

Do you want to know what to do if OST file cannot be accessed in Outlook? Are you having trouble to access OST file in Outlook 2016 and others version? You can easily fix the issues that are provoking these problems after reading this article.

Microsoft Outlook is one of the most popular email-client servers among business users. Outlook supports two types of file formats OST and PST. PST simply stands for Personal storage table and holds all the data items such as emails, contacts, notes, calendars, attachments, etc. Where OST stands for Offline Storage Table which get created on the user’s machine when the Outlook account get connected to exchange server. It makes the users work offline for which Outlook is famed.

So it is the offline storage file which makes it possible to work when users are going through issues like server downtime and restricted internet connectivity. These issues show some errors and warning messages during the Outlook execution and users become unable to access their mailbox data during offline mode. Therefore I’m going to explain some methods to remove error “OST file cannot be accessed”. Before going to solutions for the trouble lets explore the reasons behind this issue:

Reasons Which restricts OST File Access:

These are the common reasons which make users unable to open OST file.

• Synchronization problem between Offline data file and Exchange server.
• OST cannot be opened because of in use by other applications like anti-virus and disk cleaners.
• An unauthorized user trying to access OST.
• Incompatibility between Outlook and other third-party programs like Communicator, Lync and etc.
• Slow internet speed or no connection.
• Multiple users trying to access the same OST file simultaneously.

What To Do If OST File Does Not Access in Outlook:

To successfully repair OST file and remove error “OST file cannot be accessed” in Outlook 2016 and other versions one can follow the below-mentioned methods.

Solution 1. Synchronize Offline folders manually (for Outlook 2016, Outlook 2013, Outlook 2010):

To remove the synchronization issue between Offline folders and Exchange server, follow the below steps:

1. Right-click on the folder containing OST file and select Properties.
2. Click on “Clear Offline Items” and press OK.
3. Now, click on the “Update Folder” in the “Send/Receive” tab.

Solution 2. Quit all the Outlook related processes:

To perform this:

1. Right-click the Task-bar and choose the task manager.
2. From task manager select the Processes tab.
3. Look for all the processes named “Lync“, “Communicator“, “ucmapi” or “Outlook“. If you find any items related to these, select it, then select the “End task” button.

Solution 3. Turn-off the compatibility mode:

If the compatibility between Outlook and other apps is not working then you can turn it off by following below steps:

1. Look for Outlook.exe icon.
2. Right-click on the icon and click on the properties option.
3. Select the compatibility tab from the properties window.
4. There is a check-box “Run this program in Compatibility Mode”, uncheck it.

This will make you access OST file easily.

Solution 4. Disable the Cached Exchange Mode:

To disable the cached exchange mode follow the below steps:

1. Close the Outlook application.
2. Open “Control Panel” and select “Mail” from that.
3. Click on the “Email Account” button.
4. Choose the “Email” tab.
5. Select the email giving you a warning and hit change.
6. Uncheck “Use Cached Exchanged Mode.
7. Select Next then Finish.

Solution 5. Run scanost.exe Outlook utility tool:

To remove error in Offline Data File using scanost.exe follow the below steps:

1. Navigate to the scanost.exe utility. It will be located in the same folder where the Outlook.exe is located.
2. Run the scanost.exe utility.
3. Select the exchange profile from the appeared list and click on the “Repair Errors” and then “Begin Scan”.

This can easily remove OST file cannot be accessed error.

Solution 6. Repair OST file:

To repair the corrupt OST file, use Aryson OST recovery and fix all the errors. Recover the data from the repaired file and export it into PST file. It will resolve all the errors and data of the Offline data file will be safe.

The Final Words:

When users try to open their Offline data file in MS Outlook they face some issues and errors. One of them is OST file cannot be opened. To resolve this issue and access OST in Outlook, we have seen multiple solutions and approaches. But some of these methods have limitations also. To overcome these limitations OST Recovery is the best tool. It will recover corrupt Outlook offline folder file and remove all the errors.
So this what to do if OST file does not access in outlook.

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