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I got myself into an interesting situation, where a work email account was disabled after switching to a different team. Eventually I deleted the account from Outlook, but kept the *.ost file as a backup just in case. I didn't convert it to a *.pst file however.

Now I need to import it to find an email in it and it turns out that only *.pst files can be imported directly. If I can convince Outlook to "Add Account", I can swap the empty *.ost file with my backup and see my emails. But when creating the account Outlook first wants to login to Exchange, and than account is disabled so Outlook refuses to create the account in the first place.

Is there any workaround for that issue?

I've looked into these 2 links but didn't find good solutions there:

sashoalm
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3 Answers3

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OST files are only cache files. If you were to proceed with your plan, the OST would be recreated with the content of the mailbox, and if the mail is gone from the server (eg. a new mailbox is created) the OST will sync and become empty and you lose all mail inside.

The only way to get this resolved is to buy an OST to PST converter.

So the question really becomes: how desperate are you in getting this mail back, and is it worth the money and time for a license to any of the OST to PST convertors that are available? If the mailbox itself is still recoverable, that will be the cheaper solution.

LPChip
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As LPChip has replied above, since the .ost file is encrypted Offline Outlook Data files, you need exchange account to import it, the better choice is convert .ost to .pst. Here's a blog on directing Method to Import OST to Exchange Server Mailbox for your reference, and it may be helpful to you.

Joy Zhang
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Offline Outlook Data .ost file just replica of Exchange mailbox data, that file neither import nor transfer to Outlook account. You even cannot export it to your outlook profile when it un-syncs with your Outlook profile. The best you can do is recreate the OST file instead of the old .ost file if the profile is still active on the AD.

To export the data from an orphaned OST file to a new Outlook profile, you have to convert it to PST format through 3rd party tools.

Gopal Agarwal
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