How to Restore Exchange Data from an OST File if the Mailbox has been Deleted

If you are an Outlook user who uses Offline Folder files (OST files) to work with Exchange data, then you should be aware that they are just replicas of the data contained in the original online folders stored on the Exchange server. If you intentionally or accidentally delete the master profile then the slave folders or the Offline Folder files (OST files) will be orphaned. It is very difficult to access an orphaned OST file and be able to restore the Exchange data stored in the files. Fortunately for you, if the original Microsoft Exchange profile has not been modified, then it should still be possible for you to use the old OST file offline in Outlook and then convert the OST to PST by simply moving the message to a PST file. However, if the original Microsoft Exchange profile has been modified then you are going to find it nearly impossible to access the OST file and all the data stored in the OST file will be lost.

 

If you have accidentally deleted a mailbox that was associated with your Microsoft Exchange profile, then you should still be able to recover all the data that was stored in the Offline Storage Folders (OST files). However, most users, without knowing it, modify the profile by pointing it to a new mailbox once they come to know that their previous mailbox has been deleted. This kind of modification makes it difficult to carry out any OST to PST conversion or to recover any data from the old OST files.

 

The main reason for an OST to fail once the profile has been modified is for security purposes. If you are working offline and would like to connect to the Exchange server, you need to prove that you are allowed to access the mailbox on the server. For this purpose, the Exchange server creates a special token that is used to authenticate that you are allowed to access the OST files. If this profile is modified by pointing to a new mailbox, then a new token is created and the old OST is no longer accessible. This essentially means that you can no longer access the Exchange data that is stored in the OST file created by the original mailbox. This also makes it impossible for you to carry out a OST to PST conversion by moving all old messages into a PST file.

 

If you find that your mailbox has been deleted and have still not modified your profile, you can go to the main Tools menu, click on Services and add a Personal Folders (PST) service. You can now copy all the messages that you want to from the OST file into the new PST file that you have created. Modify your profile so that it now points to a new OST file. You can again copy all the messages from the PST file to the new server-based mailbox.

 

Another easy alternative to restore data from orphaned OST files is to use powerful recovery tools such as Advanced Exchange Recovery from DataNumen to recover all the items and save them in PST files.
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