Businesses storing their crucial data in the OST file format face certain complications. If you worked on Outlook, you must know about its frustrating issues that damage data stored in OST files. 

One moment, everything works fine, and the next, you can't access your inbox, calendar, or contacts. The problem lies with the OST, which is the file format Outlook uses to store your emails offline. Several issues can occur after server changes, from corrupted files to inaccessible data. These OST file challenges can disrupt productivity, delay critical communication, and even result in data loss. 

It becomes very complicated to recover the data without any risks. That's where the need for an OST to PST converter arises. Still, if you only need to export contacts, then you can try simple methods to export contacts from OST to PST.

In this article, you will learn about 5 common challenges of OST files along with viable solutions through a reliable OST converter.

What are the top 5 Challenges of OST Files?

OST files can make you face severe problems even in an offline environment. It can have a direct impact on your workflow. So, you must know the common challenges that can appear with OST files:

  • Complete Data Inaccessibility: A major issue arises after the OST file's email account gets deleted or if the Exchange server fails. During these scenarios, the OST file turns into an "orphaned" file, which is unusable in Outlook.
  • Corruption: Large OST or issues like frequent power cuts, software crashes, or sudden shutdowns can corrupt your OST files. Outlook may fail to read the OST & show errors like "Cannot open your default email folders".
  • System Migration: Certain issues can occur when you want to migrate to a new computer or change your Outlook profile. It is because of the encryption that binds OST files and their original Outlook profiles.
  • Selective Access: OST files cannot extract specific emails, folders, or date ranges. Even if you need particular contacts or messages, the Outlook export option only performs a complete migration.
  • Incompatibility: OST files do not support other platforms or email clients as they are native to Outlook. So, switching to a different email client, such as Thunderbird, Apple Mail, or a web-based service like Gmail, is impossible without conversion.

How a Converter Solves These OST File Challenges

The importance of an advanced converter is evident to businesses and offers data protection, accuracy & is definitely a time-saver. It provides you with multiple benefits that simplify the migration:

  • Recover Orphaned OST Data: An OST to PST converter can easily access the orphaned OST file and extract its contents. Also, it can save recovered data into PST format so that it can be opened in any Outlook environment easily. This helps you to access important emails, attachments, contacts, and calendar items without server reconnection.
  • Recover Data from Corrupt OST: Professional converters inherit the compatibility to fix & recover data from corrupt OST files. Most of them include built-in scanning features that detect and repair structural damage in OST files. It helps to recover data while preserving the complete folder hierarchy and saves metadata as well.
  • Easy Migration: During system migrations, an advanced converter simplifies the process by detaching the OST file from its machine-specific bindings. As it preserves the data file's status, transitioning between devices is secure.
  • Selective Recovery and Migration: The primary benefit of automated OST converter tools is that they often support both selective & complete data migrations. Some may also offer you the opportunity to preview the file's contents before conversion and apply filters.

Different tools provide different filters; some of the most well-known filters are:

  • Select a specific date range.
  • Choose individual folders like Inbox, Sent Items, or Contacts.
  • Search by subject or sender.

Which is the Best Rated OST Converter?

It is wise to find a trustworthy OST to PST converter as it can cater to different businesses seeking distinctive requirements. Once you analyze your data requirements, the search for the OST Converter will become easier. Still, it is not assured that you will find all the features in one converter. 

However, after a detailed comparison according to feature integration & performance, Kernel for OST to PST Converter is the best choice. This smartly designed utility offers top features and filters for easy conversions. It can restore all types of data, including emails, contacts, calendars, attachments, etc., even from severely damaged OST.

Experience it yourself with the help of its free trial version!

Conclusion

OST file conversion can take a few minutes or hours, as it all depends on the solution you're using. The discussion explained the different issues with the OST file and the top 5 challenges that you may face during conversion. Also, you can find a detailed explanation of how a reliable OST converter can solve all your OST file problems. You can check out the best OST to PST converter mentioned above for your convenience.