Can I Delete OST file without Losing Emails Data?

If you are struggling to find the solution to lots of queries that come to your mind while working with Outlook. Like “Is it safe to delete Outlook OST file”. If, yes then how to delete the Outlook OST file without losing emails data? Then, no need to worry anymore! In this write-up, we will resolve all your queries by sharing the step-by-step procedure to delete the OST file.

Offline storage table or OST is the replica of Exchange server mailboxes that resides on the user system.

Many times Outlook users face several issues due to large-sized OST files. When the size of the OST file reached its maximum limit, then there are high chances of corruption in the Outlook data file. In fact, the users may lose their valuable data, if you don’t delete the irrelevant OST files.

But, sometimes while deleting the OST file users encounter this error message:

“Careful, if you remove this account, its offline cached content will be deleted, learn how to make a backup of the offline .ost file”

Important Note: Before deleting any OST files, make sure to take a backup of the offline Outlook data files.

If you don’t have enough space to store the back data of the OST file or you don’t have enough time for archiving the offline file. No problem! We have another way out that is to convert your data into a .pst file format by using OST to PST converter. With the help of this tool, you can export all mailbox data items like email, contacts, calendar, journals, notes, etc into PST file format.

After having the backup of the OST file, let’s get started with the procedure to delete OST files.

How to Delete Outlook OST File Without Losing Data?

Follow the instructions to delete the OST File from Outlook 2019, 2016, 2013, 2010, 2007, 2003.

Step 1: Exit from the MS Outlook application if it is running.

Step 2: Go to windows file explorer and type the following command:
C:Users\User-Name\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Outlook to search for the OST file.

Step 3: Click OK and the location where the OST file is located will be opened up.

Step 4: Select the OST file and click on the Delete button.

Once completing all the above steps, your ost files get deleted. But sometimes users get the need to recreate the .ost file to work effectively with Outlook.

Procedure for Creating A New OST File

You can create a new OST file with a different pathname and synchronize it with Microsoft Exchange. Follow the below-mentioned steps to recreate and synchronize new OST:

Step1: Close the Microsoft Outlook application.

Step2: Rename the existing OST file. Make sure that the file name is different for each file.

Step3: Restart MS Outlook in Online Mode.

Step4: This error message will pop up on the screen “The file “C:\Exchange directory\file name.ost could not be found”. hit OK.

Step5: Go to Offline Folder File Settings dialog box, click the OK button
Note: In this dialog box, you can also change the path and the file name of the OST file.

Step 6: You will receive an error message- “The file c:\Exchange directory\file name.ost’ could not be found. Would you like to create it?” Click Yes.
Note: MS Outlook will start in online mode.

Step 7: On the Tools menu, click Synchronize All folders.

This is how the newly generated OST file gets synchronized with the Exchange Server. Now, you can access the Outlook mailbox data even in offline mode.

Conclusion

In this article, we tried to resolve one of the user queries on how to delete the Outlook OST file without losing data. We have mentioned the manual techniques to delete the OST file and recreate the new OST file.