Solve Outlook OST File is Not an Offline Folder Error Easily

When you are using Microsoft exchange server account and you have selected cached Exchange mode, then an implicit offline folder is created on your system. This offline folder enables you to work in offline mode when you are not connected to exchange server. This Outlook offline folder contains the copy of exchange mailbox which will be synchronized with exchange server when connected to it. But Sometimes while using MS Outlook, an error message is prompted “Cannot open your default email folders. The file outlook.ost is not an offline folder”.

This blog will discuss all possible causes and appropriate solution for the error. Lets first take a look at all different causes of the error.

Reasons for the Error:

The “Cannot open your default email folders. The file outlook.ost is not an offline folder” error can cause by the variant of possibility. Some of them are:

• The Outlook OST file will not able to synchronize itself with exchange mailbox. Then this error is encountered.
• When OST file got damaged or corrupted by the attack of virus and worms.
• If you have deleted or disabled the email account on exchange mailbox to which Outlook OST file associated.
• In case of improper map settings, the error message is faced by the user.

These are the most common reasons responsible for this issue which can lead to OST file inaccessibility. Or sometimes you might not be able to open MS Outlook. Therefore it becomes necessary to resolve the error.

Troubleshoot the Error:

The “Cannot open your default email folders. The file outlook.ost is not an offline folder” error can cause some data loss if not resolved accurately. There is a number of solutions available that are discussed below:

Solution 1: Recreate OST file:

As the current OST file are inaccessible, you can create new OST file in order to open them. You can follow the below steps to do so:

1) From Control Panel, open Mail >> Profiles.

2) Now select the associated Outlook Profile name.

3) Open Properties followed by Email Accounts.

4) Select the Email address and click on Change.

5) Then enable Use Exchange cache Mode option in Advance Settings button.

6) Finally, Save the changes made in the settings to come into effect.

Solution 2: Use Scanost.exe for Fixing OST file

The other option is to repair the corrupted OST file to gain accessibility. This is possible by using Scanost.exe inbuilt tool. This utility is can diagnose and fix the damaged OST file easily. But it preferred to use when you have some technical knowledge regarding the tool. To use the utility you need to do the following:

1) Firstly open the utility from Drive\Program Files\Microsoft Office.

2) Now browse for corrupted OST files that need to repair.

3) Click on Start button to initiate the fixing of files but first check the file scanning procedure.

4) Firstly a list of diagnosed error is generated and then click on Repair button.

Once the repairing of files is completed, restart the MS Outlook application to cross-check the OST files.

Note: The above method does not guarantee to fix highly and intensely corrupted OST files. Also, there might be a possibility that some of the OST file data would be compromised. Therefore it is more preferred to use a professional tool like Recover OST which is more fast and reliable procedure. The Software will fix highly damaged OST file without any data loss that too in no time and “Cannot open your default email folders. The file Outlook.ost is not an offline folder” error is resolved successfully.

Conclusion:

It is quite clear that the error “Cannot open your default email folders. The file Outlook.ost is not an offline folder” is easy to resolve, when used an appropriate solution. The article covers both manual and automated method to troubleshoot the problem. The use of a direct professional tool to more preferred over Manual because it is less time-consuming and more efficient to use. Secondly, no technical knowledge is required to use the automated tool.