How to relink an existing orphaned OST file with the IMAP/POP server account? (do not have a PST file, only the OST file)

Question

Good day, so here is what happened - we moved the domain/emails and website from one server to another. After moving, we realised the PST file did not export. We only have the current OST file. The original hosting + account is still active as we used DNS pointing to get it working again. However, it was setup as POP so no emails on that server. But how do I recreate the OST link between the email account and the local OST file on the computer to access the emails?

Answer 1

Hi @Meghan Clack ，

Welcome to our forum.

According to your description, I understand that your emails were stored in an original .ost file and you would like to re-access them in a new environment with imap or pop account, is it right?

If so, please first understand that OST files could only be opened/accessed via the email account used to create it in a given profile, and recreating the same email account does not "re-use" an existing OST file, which means we couldn't access the original .ost file directly with a new profile in outlook.

For your requirement, I have tried to researched some workarounds about it and found many users recommend us to convert the .ost file to .pst file via some tools, so that we could open/access .pst file in Outlook.
It's suggested to search for some convert tools for your need, and for your reference, here are some tools that I found about converting an .ost to .pst: Convert an Offline File (.ost) to a Personal File (.pst)(Please Note: Since the web site is not hosted by Microsoft, the link may change without notice. Microsoft does not guarantee the accuracy of this information.)

Hope that would be helpful to you.

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Answer 2

There is no way to relink the orphaned OST file again with the IMAP/Exchange server. OST file is a highly encrypted file bound with the secrete key with the Outlook account. To access the OST file with the Outlook account, it must match both secrete keys. In case of a mismatch, the OST file does not respond to the Outlook account.

However, there is no free or manual trick to access that OST file in Outlook again. But with help of 3rd party OST Conversion tools, You can convert the orphaned OST file in the PST format that could easily import into the Outlook account effortlessly.

I did little research to find OST to PST tools and found the following threads:
https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/msoffice/forum/all/cant-open-ost-emails-with-outlook/1b2be721-c16a-4ffd-8b6f-a8d3f70b1985
https://www.experts-exchange.com/articles/29049/Top-5-Trialware-OST-to-PST-Converter-Software.html