Manual Way to Convert OST to PST
Updated on October 21, 2022 by Savita Sharma
OST to PST is a well-known data file format for storing user data. MS Outlook uses both of these files. The creation of Outlook data files is determined by account settings. When you setup an IMAP account, MS Outlook creates an OST file to store data. Outlook creates PST files if you configure the account with POP.
The OST file is preferred by many Outlook users because it allows them to work offline. The user can use OST to access previously downloaded data such as emails, calendars, journals, and so on, as well as generate new emails and contacts while offline.
Why User Need to Convert OST to PST?
There are many factors where you want to convert OST file data to PST format, some of main reasons given below:-
Exchange Server got crashed and failure: MS Exchange Server become unusable or cause system outages, virus attacks, and other issues. You may be unable to connect to MS Exchange Server as a result of such crashes.
Accidental deletion or loss of Exchange data: If your Exchange Server mailbox are accidentally deleted, you can quickly restore them by converting OST to PST file format.
Moving from one system or OS Environment to another: You need to convert OST file to PST format when migrating from one system or OS environment to another, because you can only read your Offline storage table (OST) file in the system where it was created. As a result, if you want to access the data in your OST file from another system or OS environment, you must convert it to PST format.
Permanent and portable backup of OST data: When user needs to take permanent and portable backup of OST file data.
There are many more reasons where user and organization want to convert their OST file data to PST file format.
So what do we have next?
In this case, users can opt for third party professional software like the OST to PST converter.
In order to convert OST to PST with this tool, users need to follow some basic steps listed below: -
- 1. The installers are suggested to download the software from the official website.
- 2. Once the tool is downloaded, open the software in your system.
- 3. Now on the home screen of the software, click the Add OST files option.
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- 4. After the click, a Dialog box will appear on the screen in which the user can add OST files. Add OST files which are required to convert to PST format. Then click scan option.
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- 5. After that the software will scan the whole files data and then selected OST files will appear on the Folder list.
- 6. When OST files will appear in the Folder List, select the OST folders or files the user need to export from the Folder List.
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- 7. After that users need to provide the destination path for the OST file where they want to store in the system after the conversion.
- 8. They also need to choose the file format in which they want to save the resultant OST file data.
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- 9. Now, wait till the process is getting completed.
- 10. After a process is completed, click the Finish button and end the process.
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Manual Method to convert OST to PST file
Although there are number of OST to PST converter tools in the market, but we recommend that users opt for manual methods before using them while OST files need to be converted to PST file format.
Manual method to convert OST to PST:-
- 1. Open Microsoft Outlook 2013 on system.
- 2. Now go to the File menu
- 3. Select Open and Export option.
- 4. Visit Import/Export after clicking "Open & Export Option".
- 5. When you click the Import/Export option, a dialog box will appear where you should select "Export to a file" and click "Next" to continue.
- 6. Now click on Outlook Data File (.pst) and then on "Next" to continue with the process. As shown in the following figure.
- 7. Now select the folder to export by selecting the files needed to export and select Next.
- 8. Now click "Allow duplicates to be created" option to export the files, then click "Finish" as shown below.
- 9. When the program finishes, a dialog box will appear asking you to add an optional password. Click OK and the Outlook profile will be saved in .pst file format in your assigned location.
Users can easily use this manual method to complete the conversion task proficiently. However, the manual methods have some deficit as it does not give the guarantee of user data security and is in fact always prone to errors and it lacks a professional approach. Manual solutions are also not a successful approach to deal with OST corruption issues.
