Change OST location in Outlook 365

Question

I have Outlook 365. I have an IMAP Account from a commercial DNS hosting service. The old OST (IMAP) file is in C:\Users{me}\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Outlook{myOSTfolder}. I created the TWO registry keys: ForceOSTPath and ForcePSTPath with the same new folder location. When I delete and re-create the email account in Outlook 365, Outlook continues to use the OLD path, even if I delete the old OST file. It even finds a cached OST version somewhere to restore to the old folder. I have never seen anything on my system that allows me to change the path or tell Outlook to allow/disallow Offline use.

Answer 1

Hi @Dennis Foreman ,

Welcome to our forum!

According to your description, I have tested on my outlook 365 client by registry and successfully modified the path of the .ost data file. Please refer to the following steps to check whether it is different from your operation:
1.Select Start, select Run, type regedit in the Open box, and then select OK;
2.Locate and then select the registry subkey: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Outlook;
3.Right-click Outlook, select New, and then select Expandable String Value;
4.Type ForcePSTPath, and then press Enter;
5.Right-click ForcePSTPath, and then select Modify.
6.In the Value data box, type the full path of where you want to store the .ost file (such as D:\MyOST), and then select OK;
7.Exit Registry Editor;
8.Control Panel>Mail>Show Profiles…>Add…>type a name for the new profile>choose Manual setup or additional server types and configure your IMAP account;
9.Back to Mail window, choose Prompt for a profile to be used;
10.Open outlook and choose the new profile.
(It should be noted that if you modify the registry by mistake, serious problems may occur. Please back up the registry before operation.)

Hope the above help!

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