Business communication can come to a standstill if emails are not accessible. For greater flexibility and enhanced features, MS Exchange Servers are trusted for handling enterprise communication through Outlook emails. But anytime, anywhere accessibility to the server is out of the question. Nonetheless, Microsoft created OST files (Offline Storage Table) that allow the MS Outlook users to work on their emails and other vital user mailboxes components when they don’t have a connection with the Microsoft Exchange Server.
The OST files are nothing but mere replicas of the exact Exchange Server user mailbox that is stored on the user’s local machine allowing him to work hassle-free in any environment. Whenever, the connection with the Exchange Server is re-established, all the changes made to the user mailbox items are updated on the server mailbox.
Howbeit, sometimes while synchronizing the Outlook OST file with the MS Exchange Server, the following error message is encountered in the ‘Sync Issues‘ folder:
“Synchronizing Mailbox ‘USER’
Synchronizing Hierarchy
Synchronizing server changes in folder ‘Inbox’
Downloading from server ‘Server_Name
1 item(s) changed read-state in offline folder
Synchronizing server changes in folder ‘Deleted Items’
Downloading from server ‘Server_Name’
Error synchronizing folder
[8004011D-526-80040115-0]
Microsoft Exchange is not available. Either
there are network problems or the Exchange computer is down for maintenance.”
The appearance of the aforementioned error message signifies that either the MS Outlook OST has failed to synchronize with the Exchange Server due to some network problems or the OST file is corrupt.
Corrupt and orphaned OST files make all the user information saved in them completely inaccessible. If the cause of the above error message is the network unavailability, then the synchronization can be re-established once the Exchange Server comes on-line. However, if this is not the case, then Outlook OST recovery becomes imperative.
Using ‘Scanpst.exe‘, Microsoft’s inbuilt OST Integrity Check Tool the OST file can be repaired so that it can connect with the server to provide access to all the precious emails and mailbox data. But severe cases of corruption render the OST recovery using Scanpst as futile. Even if the above resolve fails, one should not worry as this is not the end of the road.
The market is flooding with multifarious OST file data Recovery Software that can recover all the data from the corrupt OST file facilely. Among the trusted solutions, a staunch third party tool is “Stellar OST to PST Converter”. A dexterous utility, this software deploys advanced algorithms to scan the corrupt Outlook OST file and recover the vital components by creating a new PST file that can be imported into Outlook.